FC Frankfurt originally began as the football department of sports club SV VP Vorwärts Leipzig.

Their success continued after the team was again renamed as the football department of ASK Vorwärts Berlin was separated from the sports club and reformed as FC Vorwärts Berlin, one of the new centralized football clubs formed to increase the level of performance throughout the country.

[4] In 1971, the club was moved again, this time from the capital to Frankfurt an der Oder on the German-Polish border, to replace the local secret police-sponsored side SG Dynamo, which was then disbanded.

[6] German author Hans Joachim Teichler writes that all speculations end up with the head of the Ministry for State Security and the president of SV Dynamo Erich Mielke.

Teichler suggest that Mielke somehow must have convinced the Minister for National Defence Heinz Hoffmann that two clubs of the armed organs in Berlin were too many.

[7] Mielke regarded FC Vortwärts Berlin as a competitor to BFC Dynamo in the capital.

[8] Vorwärts then enjoyed another decent run in the 1980s, going to the UEFA Cup four times (where they were twice knocked out by West German clubs, (Werder Bremen and VfB Stuttgart).