[1] The club played quietly as a local side until briefly coming to notice in the war-ravaged Gauliga Westfalen, then a division of top flight German football, in the abbreviated 1944–45 season.

Despite a Regionalliga title in 1974 they did not move up due to the restructuring of the German competition, but instead continued to play second-division football in the newly formed 2.

Bundesliga Süd were combined into a single division, but the next year they escaped being sent down in the bottom four only because TSV 1860 Munich was denied a license and was instead forced down to tier III play.

After winning the regional Westfalenpokal in 1996, Wattenscheid qualified for the first round of DFB-Pokal in 1996–97 where they faced Borussia Dortmund, at that time the reigning German champions.

They won the match 4–3 (after extra time) but were eliminated by Karlsruher SC II in the following round, losing 4–2 in a penalty shootout.