In 1933, the club joined the Gauliga Niederrhein, one of sixteen top flight divisions formed in the re-organization of German football under the Third Reich.

Their moment of glory came in 1959 when a non-descript side beat Rot-Weiss Essen 1–0, Hertha BSC 6–3, and Hamburger SV 2–1 on their way to thrashing Borussia Neunkirchen 5–2 to take the DFB-Pokal.

They fell a point short of a place in the Bundesliga in 1967, finishing behind Borussia Neunkirchen in the league qualification rounds.

In the past, the local derbies versus Rot-Weiß Essen were big events, sometimes followed by more than 30,000 fans.

[1][2] Although often clouded in political terms, the "reds" were meant to be left-wing and the "blacks" right-wing, in reality there was no real distinction.