City history: From the early days of Bocholt football

A motif from the early days of football in Bocholt is the historical photo of the month June.

The first official football matches in Bocholt took place on a meadow between the Efing and Hünting estates in the summer of 1901. There, the "Bocholter Fußballclub 1900" - today's 1st FC Bocholt - hosted the "Sportclub Preußen Duisburg".

"For several years now, the game of football has become increasingly popular in Germany, and today it probably occupies first place among outdoor games of exercise. It is also quite suitable for captivating and inspiring a large crowd of spectators," one read in the local news of the Bocholter Volksblatt at the time.

The real impetus for founding a football club came from the factory worker Johann Steinhoff, who in mid-October 1899 founded the "Sturm" football club with several sports enthusiasts in the "Maiental" restaurant on Werther Straße. As a result, some pupils of the Progymnasium became aware of this sport and formed a team for their part - initially to the chagrin of their teachers.

In August 1900, the "Bocholter Fußballclub 1900" was founded, which merged with the "FC Sturm" two years later. Early on, the "BFC 1900" was considered the leading club in the surrounding area and often played against clubs from the Ruhr area, the Rhineland and the neighbouring Netherlands. However, as the sport of football became increasingly popular, other clubs were founded, such as the "Fußballclub Bocholter Preußen" on 1 August 1909, chaired by Peter Schelkes, and the "Fußballclub Olympia Bocholt" two years later. The former used a sports field on the Spieker at Holtwicker Bach.

The photo shows a team from the "Bocholter Ballspielverein", which was founded on 1 June 1909 and admitted to the West German Football Association the following year. The players wore white sports shirts with the Bocholter Buche insignia. In 1911 the eleven belonged to the B class of the Lower Rhine football district and played a total of 14 matches in the 1913/14 season, seven wins, five losses and two draws.

In the spring of 1914, the club had 90 members and a pitch at Gut Efing. Football came to a complete standstill after the outbreak of the First World War, as most of the players were drafted. Many did not return, including 21-year-old Wilhelm Jormann (6th from left), who died of typhoid fever in the Anklam military hospital on 18 February 1915. The Bocholt Ballspielverein dissolved itself after the war and was deleted from the register of associations at the local court on 10 February 1921.

A page on the "Photo of the Month" series can be found at www.bocholt.de/foto-des-monats.

Photo: Bocholt Municipal Archives, Text: Wolfgang Tembrink