The third most successful club in the history of the Bundesliga can be traced back to a tug-of-war competition in 1899. A group of 16 year old schoolboys were the winners and then received a football as a prize. The crucial incentive to found the 'Fußballverein Werder Bremen von 1899' in the same year. FVW was exclusively a football club to start with before the addition of athletics, chess, tennis, baseball and cricket in 1920 that saw the club officially renamed as 'Sportverein Werder Bremen von 1899'.
The name of the club is based on the location of the first training ground and pitch on Bremen's Stadtwerder. A Werder is a river island, which in this case is in the city of Bremen between the Weser and the Kleine Weser rivers.
honours to date
SV Werder Bremen shaped the start of the Bundesliga as a founding member. The team from the Hanseatic city were champions of Germany for the first time in their second season in 1964/1965. Three other titles followed in 1988, 1993 and 2004. Bremen have taken part in 57 Bundesliga campaigns and are the record holders alongside Bayern Munich. In the all-time Bundesliga table the Green and Whites are in third place behind FC Bayern and Borussia Dortmund.
The DFB Cup has been won six times. And the North German club were also successful on the European stage with a 2-0 win against AS Monaco in the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1992.
impressive Rückrunde leads to promotion
Werder ended the league campaign in second place. The club relegated from the Bundesliga were mid table for much of the season. With the exception of third place after matchday six, SVW did not come close to the promotion spots at any part of the Hinrunde. However, Werder were in sight of the top three but the competition was always in front up to the winter break in a tight race in Bundesliga 2. Werder Bremen parted company with head coach Markus Anfang on 20 November and Ole Werner took over the helm eight days later. The first half of the season ended with the club in ninth place although they were only three points behind third-placed Hamburg SV.
The Rückrunde began with an impressive run. Werder won seven of their first eight matches in the second half of the season and drew the other. On matchday 20, the Green and Whites moved into the play-off position of third after a 4-3 win away to SC Paderborn. Werder Bremen then remained in the top three until the end of the season. That included wins against direct rivals: A 3-2 win as league leaders against second-placed HSV (matchday 24) and a 4-1 victory at league leaders Schalke 04 (matchday 31). The Werner team were the most successful side in the Rückrunde and they secured promotion on the final matchday with a 2-0 win against SSV Jahn Regensburg. As in 1980/81, the Green and Whites were again promoted straight back to the top-flight in their second season in the second division.
