They played in the Westdeutscher Spielverband between 1921 and 1933, and after the re-organization of German football under the Third Reich, joined the Gauliga Niedersachsen.

The club spent ten years there, with their best result being a fifth-place finish, before slipping to the Amateurliga Niedersachsen-Ost (III).

Göttingen played their way into the Regionalliga Nord (II) in 1964–65 for a run of thirteen seasons with good results early on including three consecutive second-place finishes.

A solid effort and first-place finish in the Oberliga Niedersachsen/Bremen (IV), followed by a clean run through the promotion round in 2001 was wasted when the club could not get a license due to its shaky financial condition.

After a fourth and a fifth place finally succeeded in the 2010/11 season the championship in the now called Landesliga Braunschweig.

On September 20, 2012, the board of RSV Göttingen 05 unanimously decided to spin off the soccer department from the club and transfer the playing rights of the first men's team to 1.

A year later, the team was relegated to the Bezirksliga, which was followed by direct promotion after a duel with local rivals Sparta Göttingen.