Alemannia Aachen

Aachener Turn- und Sportverein Alemannia 1900 e. V., short Alemannia Aachen (German pronunciation: [aleˈmani̯aː ˈʔaːxn̩]), is a German football club from the western city of Aachen, North Rhine-Westphalia. A long-term fixture of the country's second division, Alemannia enjoyed a three-year turn in the Bundesliga in the late 1960s and, after a successful 2005–06 campaign, returned to the first division for a single season. The club slipped to third-division play and in late 2012 entered into bankruptcy. They finished their 2012–13 3. Liga schedule before resuming play in the tier IV Regionalliga West in 2013–14.

In the 2023–24 Regionalliga, Alemannia finished 1st in the West Group, which got them immediately promoted to the 2024–25 3. Liga.

Alemannia carries the nickname "the potato beetles" (Kartoffelkäfer) because of their traditionally striped yellow-black jerseys, which make them look like the particular insects. The home of Alemannia is the Tivoli.

In the second half of the 19th century, resident English workers and businessmen brought football, in addition to the traditional equestrian sports, into the western Rhineland. The club was founded on 16 December 1900 by a group of eighteen high school students. Knowing that another team had already taken the name 1. FC Aachen, the new club was christened FC Alemannia, using the Latin word for Germany (see Alamannia). The First World War devastated the club: the pre-war membership of 200 was reduced to a mere 37 by the conflict. In early 1919 Alemannia merged with local sports club Aachener Turnverein 1847 to become TSV Alemannia Aachen 1900. Their new partner's interest was primarily in gymnastics rather than football and as a result the union was short-lived, with the clubs splitting again in 1924.

The city of Aachen is very near the Belgian and Dutch borders and as a result Alemannia has had frequent contact with clubs from those countries. Their first game was against the Belgian side R. Dolhain F.C., one of that country's earliest clubs. There are intensive and friendly contacts with the Dutch professional club Roda JC Kerkrade. Both clubs have the same club colors.

The team played in the Rhineland-Westphalia FA and won its first championship there in 1907, before joining the newly formed Westdeutsche Fussball Verband in 1909. The club grew steadily as interest in football increased. They qualified for the Rheingauliga in 1921, built their own stadium in 1928, and earned admittance to the Oberliga the following year.

The club enjoyed some success in the early 1930s by advancing to the final four of the Westdeutsche championship playoffs. In 1933, German football was re-organized under the Third Reich into sixteen top-flight Gauligen. Alemannia played several seasons in the Gauliga Mittelrhein in the late 1930s and early 1940s. They finished top in their division in 1938 and advanced to the national final rounds. This was in spite of a protest by SV Beuel 06 which ultimately saw that club awarded the division championship, but too late to allow Beuel to play in the national playoff in Aachen's stead.

Alemannia is known as one of the few sports clubs of this era to offer any challenge to the Nazi regime's purge of Jews from the country's sports organizations by demanding the release of a jailed Jewish member.