FC Carl Zeiss Jena - last updated on 3 March 2008
(Courtesy of Johnny Beaufays)
Club name: Fußballclub Carl Zeiss Jena e. V.
Foundation: May 13th 1903
City: Jena
Colours: White, blue and yellow
Website: www.fc-carlzeiss-jena.de
Honours:
DDR-Oberliga - 3 (1963, 1968, 1970)
FDGB-Pokal - 4 (1960, 1972, 1974, 1980)
A bit of history:
The club was founded in May of 1903 by workers at the Carl Zeiss optics factory as the company-sponsored Fussball-Club der Firma Carl Zeiss. The club underwent name changes in 1911 to Fussball Club Carl Zeiss Jena e.V. and then again in March 1917 to 1. Sportverein Jena e.V.
In 1933, 1. SV Jena joined the Gauliga Mitte, one of sixteen top flight divisions formed in the re-organization of German football under the Third Reich. The team captured the division title in 1935, 1936, 1940, and 1941. This earned Jena entry to the national finals, but they performed poorly and were never able to advance out of preliminary round group play. After the 1943-44 season the Gauliga Mitte broke up into a collection of city-based leagues as World War II overtook the area.
In the immediate aftermath of the war, associations of all types including sports and football clubs, were banned in Germany by the occupying Allied authorities. Jena was re-constituted in June 1946 as SG Ernst Abbe Jena and like many other clubs in East Germany would undergo a number of name changes and was known variously as SG Stadion Jena (October 1948), SG Carl Zeiss Jena (March 1949), BSG Mechanik Jena (January 1951), BSG Motor Jena (May 1951), and SC Motor Jena (November 1954).
In 1950, the club became a founding member of the DDR Liga (II) and in their second season captured a divisional title to win promotion to the top flight DDR Oberliga for a single season appearance. Re-named SC Motor Jena in 1954, they played their way back to the upper league by 1957. Jena won its first honours with the capture of the East German Cup in 1960 and followed up with the East German national title in 1963. The club was "re-founded" as FC Carl Zeiss Jena in January 1966 and became one of East German football's "focus centres" for the development of talented players for the national side. Jena would go on to become a dominant side in the DDR-Oberliga between then and 1975. They took two more national titles in 1968 and 1970, but finished in second place another half dozen times to sides like Vorwärts Berlin, Dynamo Dresden, and 1. FC Magdeburg. In addition to their national titles, FCC captured East German Cups in 1972, 1974, and 1980. The club also appeared in the 1981 European Cup Winners' Cup final, losing 1:2 to Dinamo Tbilisi. This was arguably the clubs greatest ever achievement.
After German re-unification in 1990, Jena was seeded into the 2.Bundesliga. Their second place finish in 1992 deteriorated into a seventeenth place finish in 1994 and relegation to Regionalliga Nordost (III). They won immediate re-promotion and played three more years at the tier II level. Since 1999 the team has played tier III and IV football; a second place finish in the Regionalliga Nord secured Jena promotion to the 2. Bundesliga for the 2006-07 season. Jena remains in the 2nd Bundesliga after the 2006-2007 season and was saved from relegation by winning 2-1 away against FC Augsburg in their final match of the season.
Club crests: (roll on the crest to get more informations)
FC Carl Zeiss Jena
