1985 Bundesliga Promotion Return

Lore & Background

The origins of the club go back to a pair of football clubs founded in 1899: Frankfurter Fußball-Club Victoria von 1899 and Frankfurter Fußball-Club Kickers von 1899. These two teams merged in May 1911 to become Frankfurter Fußball Verein (Kickers-Victoria). In turn, Frankfurter FV joined the gymnastics club Frankfurter Turngemeinde von 1861 to form TuS Eintracht Frankfurt von 1861 in 1920. The gymnasts and footballers went their separate ways again in 1927, as Turngemeinde Eintracht Frankfurt von 1861 and Sportgemeinde Eintracht Frankfurt (FFV) von 1899.

Through the late 1920s and into the 1930s, Eintracht won a handful of local and regional championships. After being eliminated from the national level playoffs after quarterfinal losses in 1930 and 1931, they won their way to the final in 1932 where they were beaten 2–0 by Bayern Munich. In 1933, German football was re-organized into sixteen Gauligen under the Third Reich, and the club played first division football in the Gauliga Südwest, winning their division in 1938.

Eintracht picked up where they left off after World War II, joining the new first division Oberliga Süd. In 1946, Eintracht won the first Hessenpokal. In 1953, they would win the Oberliga Süd title. In the 1958–59 season the club won their Oberliga again, qualifying for the 1959 German championship.

Frankfurt went on to win the final 5–3 after extra time, becoming German champions for the first and so far only time. As champions, Frankfurt would represent Germany in the 1959–60 European Cup. Having beaten BSC Young Boys and Wiener Sport-Club to make it to the semi-finals, they were drawn against Scottish champions Rangers. Eintracht won the first leg 6–1 at home, and scored six more in the second leg at Ibrox, winning 12–4 on aggregate.

Eintracht would return to Glasgow for the final at Hampden Park, although they lost 7–3 to Real Madrid. After their championship-winning year, Eintracht did not win the Oberliga again, though they were runners-up in 1961 and 1962. The side earned themselves a place as one of the original 16 teams selected to play in the Bundesliga, formed in 1963. Eintracht played Bundesliga football for 33 consecutive seasons.

In the inaugural season, Eintracht finished 3rd behind 1. FC Köln and Meidericher SV – the club has still never managed a better Bundesliga finish – and also reached the 1964 DFB-Pokal Final.

Reader's Guide

Eintracht Frankfurt have either won or drawn more than three-quarters of their games as well as having finished the majority of their seasons placed in the top half of the table, but also having the highest number of losses in the league (717). With an average attendance of 59,071 in the 2025-26 Bundesliga season, the 4th highest attendance in the league. The player with the highest number of appearances (602) in the Bundesliga, Charly Körbel, spent his entire senior career as a defender for Eintracht Frankfurt. The club's primary rival is local club Kickers Offenbach, although, due to spending most of their history in different divisions, the two have only played two league matches within the last 40 years.