1. FFC Turbine Potsdam facts for kids
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| Full name | 1. Frauenfußballclub Turbine Potsdam 71 e. V. | ||
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| Nickname(s) | Turbinen (Turbines) Torbienen (Goal-bees) |
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| Founded | 3 March 1971 | ||
| Ground | Karl-Liebknecht-Stadion, Potsdam |
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| Capacity | 10,499 | ||
| President | Rolf Kutzmutz | ||
| Head coach | Sebastian Middeke | ||
| League | Frauen-Bundesliga | ||
| 2024–25 | 12th of 12 (relegated) | ||
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1. FFC Turbine Potsdam is a famous women's football club from Potsdam, Brandenburg, Germany. They are known as one of Germany's most successful women's football teams. Turbine Potsdam has won the top German league, the Frauen-Bundesliga, six times. They have also won the UEFA Women's Champions League twice, which is a huge achievement in European football.
The team plays its home games at the Karl-Liebknecht-Stadion in Potsdam. Their biggest rivals are Eintracht Frankfurt. Before Germany became one country again, Turbine Potsdam was one of the best teams in East German women's football. They are the only team from the former East Germany to have won the unified German league.
In 2005, they won the UEFA Women's Champions League by beating the Swedish team Djurgården/Älvsjö. They won it again in 2010 against the French team Olympique Lyonnais after a penalty shootout. In 2020, Turbine Potsdam started working together with the men's football club Hertha BSC from nearby Berlin.
Contents
Club History: From the Start to Today
How Turbine Potsdam Began
The club started as BSG Turbine Potsdam in 1955. It was a sports club supported by the local energy company. The men's football team was not very famous.
On New Year's Eve in 1970, a man named Bernd Schröder found a note saying a women's football team would start on March 3, 1971. No one ever found out who put up the note!
The women's team officially began on March 3, 1971, with Bernd Schröder as their first coach. Their first game was on May 25, 1971, and they won 3-0. A year later, they won their first local championship.
Bernd Schröder was always looking for new players. He often found athletes who used to do track and field but were no longer wanted by their old clubs. Because Schröder was a senior employee, he could even help new players find jobs and homes.
Winning Championships and Tricky Travels (1979–1990)
In 1979, the first unofficial women's football championship in East Germany was held. Women's football was not yet recognized by the Olympic Games. Turbine Potsdam was a favorite but didn't make it to the final tournament in 1979 or 1980.
In 1981, the final tournament was in Potsdam, and Coach Schröder felt a lot of pressure. His team trained hard and won their first championship! Each player received 50 East German mark, and Schröder was called an "Activist of socialist work."
Turbine Potsdam also won championships in 1982 and 1983. Their success became known in Europe, and they were invited to play in tournaments in the Netherlands and Italy. However, the East German government did not allow the team to travel to capitalist countries. They even stopped them from going to tournaments in other communist countries if teams from Western Europe were there.
Once, Schröder asked a Hungarian club to change the list of teams. They replaced teams from Austria and Yugoslavia with teams from Bulgaria and Czechoslovakia. The team went to Hungary, but a member of the ruling party realized something was wrong. Turbine played, but Schröder was banned from international travel for a year.
Later, Schröder tried again for a tournament in Poland. This time, he changed the list himself! Again, a party member came along and tried to stop the Western European teams from playing. As a compromise, Turbine played a friendly match against the home team. After this, the club was banned from traveling outside East Germany for a long time.
In 1989, Turbine won their sixth and final East German championship. Many players retired. After the Berlin Wall fell, the company supporting the club had money problems. On January 1, 1990, the club became SSV Turbine Potsdam. A few days later, they played their first game against a team from West Germany.
Tough Times and Getting Stronger (1990–1997)
Turbine Potsdam won the second division league (Oberliga Nordost) but couldn't get promoted to the top league. After 21 years, Bernd Schröder stepped down as head coach and became the manager. The club faced money problems, sometimes not knowing if they could afford to travel for away games. Many players also lost their jobs.
New coaches came and went. In the 1993-94 season, Frank Lange led the team to win their league. After a 3-2 win, Turbine was finally promoted to the Bundesliga!
Their first Bundesliga match was a disaster, losing 0-11 at home. The team kept losing. At the end of 1994, Coach Schröder had to fire Frank Lange. Former player Sabine Seidel coached the team for the rest of the season. Three Russian players joined in the winter break. The team managed to avoid being sent down to a lower league.
In 1996-97, the Bundesliga was still played in two groups. To join the new single-tier Bundesliga, teams needed to finish in the top four. Turbine finished fifth but made it after a playoff. They also reached the German Cup semi-final for the first time. The club then hired Eckart Düwiger as their first full-time coach.
Climbing to the Top (1997–2005)
Turbine signed Ariane Hingst, a German national team player. Her start was a bit difficult. When the club's main sponsor went bankrupt, Düwiger resigned, and Bernd Schröder became head coach again. Striker Conny Pohlers returned, and Turbine finished sixth in 1997-98.
On March 12, 1999, the women's part of the club decided to form its own club: 1. FFC Turbine Potsdam, founded on April 1, 1999. They finished fourth that season. A famous 4-4 draw against 1. FFC Frankfurt (where Potsdam came back from 0-4 down!) started a big rivalry between the two clubs.
In 2000, Turbine finished fourth again and was unbeaten at home. Ariane Hingst became team captain, a role she kept until 2007. This decision helped her take more responsibility. That same year, Turbine's girls' team won the first-ever German Juniors Championship.
In 2001 and 2002, Turbine finished second in the league. They signed goalkeeper Nadine Angerer in 2001. Conny Pohlers became Turbine's first league top scorer with 27 goals in 2002. They kept reaching cup semi-finals but couldn't win. They then signed more talented players like Petra Wimbersky, Navina Omilade, and Anja Mittag.
The 2002-03 season started with an early cup exit. But the league season was much better. On the last day, Turbine played Frankfurt for the title. Frankfurt was two points ahead, so Potsdam had to win. This "final game" had a record crowd of 7,900 fans and was shown live on TV. In the 89th minute, Petra Wimbersky scored, but it was ruled offside, and Frankfurt won the title.
Four Turbine players (Nadine Angerer, Ariane Hingst, Viola Odebrecht, and Conny Pohlers) became world champions with the German national team at the 2003 World Cup. In the German Cup, Turbine reached the final for the first time and beat their rivals Frankfurt 3-0 to win their first German Cup! They also won the Indoor Championship, their first trophy since Germany reunited.
In the league, Turbine kept winning. After a 7-2 win over Frankfurt in the final match, Potsdam finally won their first German championship since reunification! This win qualified them for the UEFA Women's Cup.
Turbine played great in Europe and reached the final against Djurgårdens IF/Älvsjö from Sweden. They won the first match 2-0 in Stockholm. In the second game, early goals secured a 3-1 win, giving Turbine their biggest triumph: the UEFA Women's Cup! The match in Potsdam had 8,700 fans, a record for a Turbine home game. They also won the German Cup and Indoor Championship again, both against Frankfurt. However, they finished third in the 2004-05 Bundesliga season.
Changes and New Stars (2005–2012)
In the 2005-06 season, Turbine Potsdam won their second German championship after beating Frankfurt 6-2. Conny Pohlers scored 36 goals, becoming the league's top scorer for the second time. They also won the German Cup again. However, Frankfurt beat them in the UEFA Women's Cup final.
After the season, some key players left. Coach Bernd Schröder faced criticism but decided to play young talents like 18-year-old defender Babett Peter and 16-year-old striker Bianca Schmidt. This paid off, as Turbine finished third in the league.
In 2008, Turbine signed Norwegian player Leni Larsen Kaurin. At the end of the 2008-09 season, Turbine surprisingly won the championship in a close race against Bayern Munich and Duisburg.
In the 2011-12 season, Turbine Potsdam won their fourth Bundesliga title in a row, a first for the league! They reached the semi-finals of the UEFA Women's Champions League. Players like Genoveva Añonma, who was the Bundesliga's top scorer in 2012, helped keep Potsdam at the top of German women's football.
In the years that followed, Turbine continued to play well in the league, often qualifying for the Champions League. However, other clubs like Wolfsburg and Bayern Munich started to become more dominant.
Cup Finals and a Coach's Farewell (2012–2022)
Even though important national players like Babett Peter, Bianca Schmidt, and Viola Odebrecht left in 2012, Turbine Potsdam stayed strong. They qualified for the Champions League in 2012-13 and reached the German Cup final, losing to VfL Wolfsburg. Yūki Nagasato was the league's top scorer with 18 goals.
Potsdam kept fighting for top spots. In 2013-14, they reached the Champions League semi-finals again and finished third in the league. In 2014-15, they finished fourth and lost another German Cup final to Wolfsburg. After this season, long-time head coach Bernd Schröder retired, ending an amazing 45 years with the club!
The 2015-16 season was tough, with Turbine finishing seventh, their lowest under Schröder. Co-trainer Matthias Rudolph took over and helped the team improve, leading them to third place in 2016-17 and fourth in 2017-18. After the 2019-20 season, Rudolph left, and Sofian Chahed became coach. Under Chahed, Potsdam reached the German Cup final in 2022 but lost badly to Wolfsburg. Soon after, Chahed was replaced by Sebastian Middeke.
Recent Years: Relegation and Comeback (2022–Present)
The 2022-23 season started very badly, with Turbine at the bottom of the league. Coach Middeke was fired. After a few temporary coaches, Marco Gebhardt took over. However, in May 2023, after a 1-5 loss, Turbine Potsdam was relegated from the Bundesliga for the first time in 29 years.
The team struggled at the start of the 2023-24 second division season, losing their first three games without scoring. But then they made an amazing comeback, winning seven games in a row without letting in any goals! On the last day of the season, Turbine won the league title and earned immediate promotion back to the Bundesliga.
Despite this success, the 2024-25 Bundesliga season started poorly. Both Gebhardt and the sporting director were dismissed in October. Austrian coach Kurt Russ took over, but he couldn't stop the team from going back down to the second division quickly. Turbine only got one point all season, finishing last in the table.
Team Colors and Badge
The club's colors are blue and white. They wear all-blue kits for home games and all-white kits for away games. Sometimes they mix the colors. Their third kit is all-red.
The club badge is a dark blue circle with the club name. It has three stars on each side, but these stars don't have a special meaning. Inside the badge, there's an eagle, which comes from the symbol of the state of Brandenburg. There's also a football and the letters "TP" for "Turbine Potsdam."
Home Stadium
The team plays its home games at the Karl Liebknecht Stadion in Potsdam-Babelsberg. They share this stadium with the men's team SV Babelsberg 03. The stadium can hold 9,254 people, and the main stand has many covered seats.
Supporters
Turbine Potsdam has two fan clubs. The "Turbine-Adler" (Turbine Eagles) started on December 4, 2004. The other fan club, "Turbine-Fans BaWü," is for fans from the state of Baden-Württemberg.
Players
Current Squad
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Former Players
Ilaria Mauro
Cristiane
Ingrid Wells
Club Achievements
Turbine Potsdam has won many important titles:
- Frauen-Bundesliga (German League)
- Winners (6): 2003–04, 2005–06, 2008–09, 2009–10, 2010–11, 2011–12
- Runners-up: 2000–01, 2001–02, 2002–03, 2012–13
- German Democratic Republic Women's Football Championship (East German League)
- Winners: 1981, 1982, 1983, 1985, 1986, 1989
- DFB Pokal (German Cup)
- Winners (3): 2003–04, 2004–05, 2005–06
- Runners-up: 2008–09, 2010–11, 2012–13, 2014–15, 2021–22
- UEFA Women's Cup/Champions League
- Winners: 2004–05, 2009–10
- Runners-up: 2005–06, 2010–11
Indoor Football
- DFB-Hallenpokal: 2004, 2005, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2013, 2014
Youth Teams
- German Juniors Champions: 2000, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009
Images for kids
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Turbine flag at Karl-Liebknecht-Stadion
See also
In Spanish: 1. FFC Turbine Potsdam para niños
