SG Volkspolizei Potsdam

The SG Volkspolizei Potsdam was founded in 1948 as a sports club for the Volkspolizei, the East German People's Police. It was part of the sports association Sportvereinigung Deutsche Volkspolizei, the SV Deutsche Volkspolizei.

The football team began to play in the Landesklasse Brandenburg in 1948, which at the time represented the top level of the East German football league system. It became one of the founding members of the second tier DDR-Liga in 1950.

SG Volkspolizei Potsdam finished the inaugural 1950-51 DDR-Liga season as tied champions, but lost the deciding match and the qualification for the DDR-Oberliga against the tied team BSG Anker Wismar by 1–2. SG Volkspolizei Potsdam player Gerhard Hänsicke became the top scorer of the 1950-51 DDR-Liga season with 18 goals.

Five players of SG Volkspolizei Potsdam was delegated to Dresden in 1950, to help form the nucleus of SG Deutsche Volkspolizei Dresden.[1][2] Among the players delegated to Dresden were Herbert Schoen, Johannes Matzen and Günter Schröter.[3][4][5][nb 1] All three would later become successful players in SG Dynamo Dresden and play internationally for the East Germany national football team. The SG Deutsche Volkspolizei Dresden had been chosen as an ideologically acceptable replacement of the dissolved SG Friedrichstadt.[1] SG Volkspolizei Potsdam was severely weakened the player delegations and finished the 1951-52 season on seventh place.[6]

The team of SG Volkpolizei Potsdam was subsequently delegated to Berlin in March 1953. The team and the place in the DDR-Liga would be taken over by SG Deutsche Volkspolizei Berlin in the middle of the 1952-53 season.[6] The sports association SV Deutsche Volkspolizei became SV Dynamo on 27 March 1953 and all sports clubs affiliated to SV Deutsche Volkspolizei became part of SV Dynamo.[6] The football department of SG Volkspolizei Potsdam was then joined with SG Deutsche Volkspolizei Berlin as SG Deutsche Volkspolizei Berlin became SG Dynamo Berlin.[7][6][8] The sports club itself would continue as SG Dynamo Potsdam, with departments in various sports, such as rowing, rugby, chess and athletics. Its department in rowing would become a designated center of excellence, which came to foster several Olympic gold medalists, such as Jörg Landvoigt and Bernd Landvoigt.

The home ground of SG Volkspolizei Potsdam was the Ernst-Thälmann-Stadion in central Potsdam. The stadium was built in 1948-1949 and named after communist leader Ernst Thälmann, who was executed in Buchenwald in 1944.

The stadium was built on the grounds of the Lustgarten, next to the adjoining Potsdam City Palance. The Lustgarten had been heavily damaged by air raids in World War II. The construction was carried out by members of the Volkspolizei, members of SG Volkspolizei Potsdam and volunteers. War debris from Potsdam was partially used for the building of the ramparts. The stadium had bleachers, a covered grandstand, technical facilities, a grass court and a 400 m cinder track. The stadium was the first major sports facility built in Germany after World war II.[9][10][11]

The Ernst-Thälmann-Stadion would later be used by SG Dynamo Potsdam and BSG Turbine Potsdam, and was the home ground of Potsdamer Kickers in the 1990s.[9] The stadium was demolished in 1999, and the Lustgarten was rebuilt in 2001 in accordance with its historical shape.