In mid-1912, these two clubs merged to form Düsseldorfer Fußball-Club Fortuna 1911, which played its debut season in the Westdeutschen Spielverband in 1913–14.

It beat Vorwärts-Rasensport Gleiwitz (9–0), Arminia Hannover (3–0), Eintracht Frankfurt (4–0) and finally Schalke 04 (3–0) en route to becoming the first national champion from the industrial Rhine-Ruhr area.

In the following season, the club began playing in Gauliga Niederrhein, 1 of 16 top-flight divisions formed in the re-organization of German football under the Third Reich.

Düsseldorf dominated the division through the 1930s as five-time champions between 1936 and 1940, and made losing appearances in the national championship final in 1936 (1–2 to 1.

After World War II, Allied occupation authorities ordered the dissolution of all sports organizations in Germany.

It played as a lower-to-mid-table side, though it also made three appearances in the DFB-Pokal final in – 1957, 1958 and 1962 – but did not the prize, losing each of those matches to Bayern Munich, VfB Stuttgart and 1.

[3] Fortuna's performance was not good enough to earn them a place among the original 16 teams chosen for the newly founded Bundesliga in 1963, but the club played its way into the premier division three years later for a cameo appearance in 1966–67.

2011–12 began very differently: after the first half of the season, Fortuna was in first place in the table with a remarkable record of 12 wins, 5 draws and 0 losses.

The second half of the season was more challenging, as Fortuna was unable to maintain its pace: it suffered four losses and a number of draws, slipping to third place in the final standings.

Nonetheless, this was sufficient for them to qualify for the two-game relegation playoff against the third-last place team in the Bundesliga – Hertha BSC.

Fortuna started the 2012–13 Bundesliga season strongly, ranking fifth after five games[6] and concerns about relegation seemed to have been put to rest.

However, Fortuna's 1–0 home win over Greuther Fürth on 16 February would prove to be the club's final victory of the season.

This defeat, combined with an Augsburg win over Greuther Fürth and a bizarre and unlikely victory by Hoffenheim over second-place Borussia Dortmund, resulted in Fortuna dropping two places.

Fortuna's relegation was the result not only of this unlikely series of occurrences on the final day of the season, but also a poor conclusion to the year.

Fortuna spent the years between 2013 and 2017 in the middle of the table, often battling against relegation and rarely challenging for promotion back to the Bundesliga.

[13] A further setback was that Funkel's assistant Peter Hermann asked to be released from his contaract with Fortuna in order to reojoin his mentor Jupp Heynckes upon his return to Bayern.

However, the club started extremely strongly: on the fourth day of the season, Fortuna had climbed to first place in the table, with a draw and three wins.

For the remainder of the year, they would not drop below third place, benefitting from particularly strong play by Rensing's replacement in goal, Raphael Wolf, newly acquired Belgian forward Benito Raman, striker Rouwen Hennings, and midfielder Florian Neuhaus.

[19] Fortuna played remarkably well against top Bundesliga sides, taking a point from Leipzig and defeating Hoffenheim and first-place Borussia Dortmund.

[21] However, Fortuna failed to play well against clubs lower in the table, losing to Augsburg, Nürnberg and Mainz, and only managing a draw against Stuttgart.

[19] Fortuna Düsseldorf entered the mid-winter break in 14th place in the table, concoluding the first half of the season with three successive wins against Freiburg, Dortmund and Hannover.

Fortuna Düsseldorf enjoyed a better second half of the season, with away wins over Augsburg, Hertha Berlin and one of their best performances in recent times,[according to whom?]

[citation needed] For the 2017–18 season, online sports betting website Tipbet renewed its agreement as Premium Partners of Fortuna.

[23] Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply.

Leverkusen's financial support from the Bayer chemical conglomerate has led to many Düsseldorf fans criticizing the club as "plastic" and inauthentic, without any real tradition.

During the seasons when they both played in the Second Division, Fortuna's matches against MSV Duisburg and Borussia Mönchengladbach were hotly contested and were often referred to as "Lower Rhein Derbys".

Fortuna Düsseldorf and Rot-Weiss Essen have played one another 59 times, and many fans still regard this as a heated rivalry, but direct matches have been rare in recent years.

Although Düsseldorf has not mounted a serious challenge for the Bundesliga championship since the early 1970s, matches between Fortuna and FC Bayern have been fiercely contested.

The club has a particular strong affiliation with English Premier League side Ipswich Town, with their supporters making annual visits to see them at their home ground, Portman Road, since 2006.