HSV Barmbek-Uhlenhorst (Germany)

Hamburger Sportverein Barmbeck-Uhlenhorst, BU for short, is a football club from the Barmbek district of the German city of Hamburg who were formed on the 15th November 1923. However, the origins of the club go back a bit further.

On the 10th July 1909 three gymnastic clubs; Barmbeck-Uhlenhorst Turnverein 1876, Männer Turnverein 1888 Barmbeck-Uhlenhorst, and Barmbecker Turnverein 1902 to create Hamburger Turnerschaft Barmbeck-Uhlenhorst 1876. The new club formed a football department in 1911.

The footballers decided to go their own way in 1923, and founded their own club; playing in local competition for the following few decades.

During World War Two the club played alongside other shorthanded squads. In 1943-44 HSV joined forces with Post SG Hamburg to compete under the name of Kriegspielgemeinschaft Post/BU Hamburg.

The merged side were joined by SV St Georg and Sperber Hamburg to compete as KSG Alsterdorf for the 1944-45 campaign in Gauliga Hamburg; on of sixteen top flight divisions created under the rule of the Third Reich.

Once peace was restored the clubs went their separate ways once again; although Fußball Club Rot-Weiß Hamburg 1923 merged with Barmbek-Uhlenhorst in 1949 as the club played amateur local football.

Barmbek-Uhlenhorst won the third tier Amateurliga Hamburg title in 1962-63. Leu Braunschweig were defeated 3-1 as the club won promotion to the second tier of German football in Regionalliga Nord.

HSV were relegated soon after, but they were crowned as Amateurliga Hamburg champions once again in the 1965-66 season; winning the play-off and returning to Regionalliga Nord; where the club remained as a second tier club for eight years.

German football was restructured in 1974. Barmbek-Uhlenhorst found themselves stretched to the limit financially with a debt of more than 500,000 DM. The club were sent down to the the Amateuroberliga Nord, from where they were relegated to the Verbandsliga Hamburg in 1980 with a young Andreas Brehme starting his illustrious career with Barmbek.

The clubs’ fall from grace continued as a further relegation was accrued in 1981-82 as Barmbek-Uhlenhorst went down to the Landesliga Hamburg-Hansa, before slipping further to the sixth tier Bezirksliga Hamburg-Nord in 1983-84.

The Berzirksliga title was lifted in 1985-86 as BU played out the following few seasons in the fourth and fifth tiers, before finding themselves back at the sixth level when the Landesliga Hamburg-Hansa became that level in 1994.

In 1998-99 the club won promotion to the Verbandsliga Hamburg, and then going up a further notch to the fourth tier Oberliga Nord in 2003-04. However, BU’s spell lasted just one season before they returned to the Verbandsliga.

A further restructuring of the German football league system saw the fifth tier becoming the

Oberliga Hamburg. Barmbek-Uhlenhorst continued to play at that level. A runners-up spot in 2015-16 was followed up by eighth place in 2017-18 under manager Peter Martens.

The performance was improved upon with sixth place in 2018-19 thanks in part to the strike partnership of Abdel Aziz Hathat and Janis Korczanowski under coach Marco Stier. BU were in third place when the 2019-20 season ended early with Tim Jeske getting in on the goalscoring act.

HSV Barmbek-Uhlenhorst will play in Oberliga Hamburg in the 2020-21 season.

My visit

Monday 31^st January 2017

My wonderful week long football tour was just a few hours from over. I’d visited grounds and seen games in the north of England and all across Germany. Just before I headed to the airport in Hamburg I had time for one last stop.

After alighting at Habichtstraße station I wandered along the main road before taking the first left up Dieselstrasse, where the venue opened up on the left before the railway embankment. I negotiated the snow covered path to the entrance.

Unfortunately the ground was locked, but that was no problem as the north end was enclosed by a wire fence so I could still take photos without any trouble.

Stadion Dieselstrasse was a fine modern venue, with a neat covered Main Stand on one side flanked by open terracing. The other three sides had a small strip of open flat standing around the artificial playing surface.

Happy with my work I headed back to Barmbek station to grab some food and water at far better value than the airport would be offering. The train took me to my terminal in bags of time before my return flight back to Heathrow after a superb break.