Stories: Resurrection as a sports club

During the Second World War, the Betriebssportgemeinschaft tried to keep sport going. That became increasingly difficult over the years. Nevertheless, there were competitions and games again and again both in field handball as well as football. One competitive match at Viktoria in Cologne lasted over six hours because the players and spectators had to keep going into shelters because of air raid warnings. Again and again there were different line-ups because some players were available on home leave and others had been called up.

The players stationed nearby, for example in anti-aircraft units, were picked up for matches and later returned to the units. The sportsmen looked to bring some relief in these difficult times with these events. With the handball players and the athletes there was a brief link in April 1940 between TuS 04 Leverkusen and the Betriebssportgemeinschaft as a Kriegssportgemeinschaft so that enough men could be brought together to be able to maintain competitions.

On Tuesday, 18 August 1942, the members of the club came together for a meeting in the Wiesdorfer Hof near Lützenkirchen, as the restaurant on Kurtekottenweg was popularly known. The Betriebssportgemeinschaft again becomes the Sportvereinigung Bayer Leverkusen 04 and, with immediate effect, joins the subdivision of the NSRL (National Socialist Reichsbund for physical exercise