Early in 1919, the association was briefly known as Rasen-Sportverein Olympia before merging with Darmstädter Sport Club 1905 on 11 November that year to become Sportverein Darmstadt 98.

The footballers are today part of a sports club which also offers its over 13,500 members[1] basketball, hiking, futsal, judo, and table tennis.

In the late 20s and early 30s the club played as SV Darmstadt in the Kreisliga Odenwald and Bezirksliga Main-Hessen, Gruppe Hesse, but struggled to stay in top flight competition.

However, they were never better than a lower to mid-table side until a breakthrough happened in 1973 with a Regionalliga Süd championship and participation in the promotion rounds for the Bundesliga, where they finished a distant second to Rot-Weiss Essen.

They narrowly missed a third turn in the top league in 1988 when they lost in a lengthy relegation-promotion play-off to Waldhof Mannheim in a penalty shoot-out of the third match between the two clubs.

In 2004, the club won the Oberliga Hessen (IV) championship under manager and former player Bruno Labbadia, and were promoted to the Regionalliga Süd (III).

However, on 6 March 2008, Darmstadt entered insolvency proceedings, with debts of around €1.1 million making the future of the club uncertain.

In 2012, Dirk Schuster was appointed as head coach, and he signed Darmstadt's future captain, Aytaç Sulu.

In their final league match, against FC St. Pauli, the club won 1–0 at home through a 70th minute free-kick by Tobias Kempe.

On 8 March 2016, long-term fan Jonathan Heimes died of cancer and, posthumously, Darmstadt's stadium was renamed as "Jonathan-Heimes-Stadion am Böllenfalltor" for the 2016–17 season.

On 27 December 2016, former Bundesliga player and Werder Bremen assistant manager Torsten Frings was presented as new head coach.

The recent season-by-season performance of the club:[5][6] Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply.

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