United German Hungarians of Philadelphia and Vicinity

History

The club traces its origins to 1906, when nine men from the Banat region of Hungary founded the Banater Arbeiter Verein. Its choral section was suspended on November 13, 1910, and three days later the suspended members formed the Banater Maennerchor. A temporary eight-man board was appointed, with Peter Schock as president and August Beuchse as musical director. The first rehearsal took place on November 23, 1910, at Fred Schnabel's saloon.

The organization acquired temporary quarters at Eighth Street and Columbia Avenue and held its Founders Day Festival on December 9, 1910. From 1910 to October 1939, the group was called the Banater Männerchor.

In 1922, the Banater Athletic Club was formed under the mother club. The club purchased the hall at Eighth and Columbia, which remained its home until 1923. A school-section was created in 1911 to teach children German, mathematics, sciences, and sewing or mechanical drawing.

Grounds

The club's property in Oakford has had two clubhouses: 'The Shack' and the main clubhouse. The land was acquired in May 1946 when the German-Hungarian Business Men's Association merged and turned over its assets. Between 1946 and 1963, the club operated two clubhouses, with the Oakford property referred to as the 'Summer Club'. After the City Club was sold in 1963, the Oakford property was improved and became the primary location.

Ground for the new clubhouse was broken on March 28, 1965, and the building opened in January 1966. A fire on February 3, 1973, destroyed most of the interior, but members rebuilt it by hand, reopening on May 5, 1973. The club owns four full-size soccer fields. The stadium field, built in 1946, received new seating and lights in 1963, and further renovations in 1989 added seating, a grandstand roof, scoreboard, fencing, lighting, and irrigation.

The 1965 National Amateur Championship game was played there. The facilities have hosted the National Youth Cups Finals in 1988, the US National Cup Finals in multiple years, and the 2011 National Danube Swabian Soccer Tournament. In 1993, the Germany women's national team and the United States women's national team trained at the club.

Notable events

The kirchweih is the club's oldest tradition and main festival, brought by German Hungarians from Germany to Banat and then to the United States. It celebrates the harvest and community, featuring girls in German costumes, boys in flowered hats, music, dancing, and food. Before 1965, multiple kirchweihs were celebrated each year based on individual Banat town traditions. After the formation of the cultural group and sport club dance group, the many kirchweihs were combined into one September event.

The first three-day Kirchweihfest was initiated in September 1974. In 2002, the Kirchweihfest was held on a single day in the picnic grove, and in 2006 it moved from September to November and from an outdoor to an indoor event. The club has hosted an Oktoberfest since 2002, jointly with the Bayerischer Volksfest Verein, which brought the tradition they originated in 1878.

Soccer

The club's first soccer team dates to 1925. In 1923, the club entered the third division of the Allied League. The first team moved to the second division of the National League in 1927, winning the first-half-title undefeated. In 1928, the team entered the first division of the National League and won the First Division Championship in 1932.

In 1933, the first team entered the Pennsylvania League. In 1945, it entered the first division of the Philadelphia Soccer League. The United Soccer League of Pennsylvania was formed in 1959 with the German Hungarians as a founding member; club member Frank Follmer became its first president. The major team lost the championship by one point in the first year but won the title for the following six years.

The German Hungarians have won the USLofPA major division title 16 times, the most of any team. In 1996, the club transferred to the Inter-County Soccer League, winning the Ultra division championship in 1996 and 1997.

The club returned to the United League in the 2000s. The German Hungarians won the National Amateur Cup in 1965 and the USASA Open Cup in 1999. As of December 2025, the club fields an adult women's team in the Tri-County Women's Soccer League.

Did You Know?

• The club's shield features a keystone representing Pennsylvania and stars representing members' accomplishments.
• The original name Banater Männerchor refers to the Banat region of Hungary, the birthplace of the founders.