The football team is part of a larger sports club which also offers its members gymnastics, table tennis, and cheerleading.

In 1939, Aalen was promoted to the first division Gauliga Württemberg, one of sixteen top-flight leagues established through the 1933 re-organization of German football under the Third Reich.

At the turn of the millennium, Aalen managed an advance to the third division Regionalliga Süd and played at that level as a mid-table side from 1999 onwards.

It deregistered its reserve team, VfR Aalen II, playing in the fifth tier Oberliga, to save money.

[1] In December 2016, the club filed for bankruptcy while competing in the 2016–17 season, leading to a nine point-deduction decided by the DFB on 10 March 2017,[2] a further relegation to the Regionalliga Südwest ensued in 2019