RW Essen

Early years

Rot-Weiss Essen was founded in the Vogelheim district of Essen on 1 February 1907 as Sportverein Vogelheim, formed from the merger of two local clubs, SC Preußen and Deutsche Eiche. The club played its first competitive matches in the summer of 1910. Late that year it began talks with the gymnastics club Turnerbund Bergeborbeck, and in August 1911 the two merged. The merger made Vogelheim a member of the regional football association and allowed it to enter championship competition. The arrangement lasted only two years. The footballers broke away from Turnerbund Bergeborbeck in September 1913 and continued as an independent club called Spiel- und Sportverein Emscher-Vogelheim. They took the name Spiel und Sport 1912 after World War I. In 1923 the club merged with Turnerbund Bergeborbeck once more, and the combined side adopted the name Rot-Weiss Essen.

Breakthrough to the Gauliga

In 1938, Rot-Weiss Essen reached the top flight by qualifying for the Gauliga Niederrhein, one of sixteen regional first divisions created in the 1933 reorganisation of German football under the Third Reich. The club was among the division's stronger sides in the years before World War II. It finished third in 1939 and 1940 and runner-up in 1941, each time narrowly failing to qualify for the national championship finals. As wartime conditions made it harder to field full sides, many clubs pooled their players. For the 1943–44 season, RWE joined with BV 06 Altenessen to compete as KSG SC Rot-Weiss Essen/BV 06 Altenessen. The combined side was soon enlarged by Ballfreunde Borbeck and went on to play as KSG RWE/BV 06 Essen.

Rise and golden years

The club returned to first division football in the Oberliga West in 1948, where a series of strong seasons saw them win divisional championships in 1952 and 1955, as well as finishing runners-up in 1949 and 1954 and third in 1950 and 1953. The pinnacle of the club's success came with a 2–1 win over Alemannia Aachen in the 1953 DFB-Pokal final, followed by a national championship in 1955 when it beat 1. FC Kaiserslautern 4–3. Due to this success Rot-Weiss became the first German side to qualify for the European Cup, losing 5–1 on aggregate to Scottish club Hibernian in the first round.

The club remained competitive for the remainder of the 1950s, continuing to finish in the division's top half, but 1961 saw a sharp decline leading to relegation from the Oberliga West at the end of the season. The club then played most of the 1960s as a second division side, though it did make a first appearance in the top-flight Bundesliga in 1966–67. It returned to the Bundesliga for two seasons in 1969–70, and again, for four seasons beginning in 1973–74.

Financial problems and slow decline

Between 1978 and the end of the century Rot-Weiss was a second- or third-tier club, with just one season spent in the regional Oberliga Nordrhein (IV) in 1998–99. During this period, the club was plagued by financial problems that saw it denied a licence in 1984, 1991, and 1994, leading to relegation from the 2. Bundesliga each time as a result. Bright spots during this period included winning the German amateur championship in 1992 and an appearance in the 1994 DFB-Pokal final, which they lost 1–3 to SV Werder Bremen.

RWE returned to the Regionalliga Nord (III) in 1999, but dropped to the Oberliga (IV) the next season. In 2004, they won promotion back to the 2. Bundesliga, but stumbled to a 17th-place finish and were relegated once again.

In November 2005, Pelé became an honorary club member (membership number 23101940).

The team reappeared in the 2. Bundesliga after winning the Regionalliga Nord in 2006, but narrowly missed staying up when they lost the critical final match of the 2006–07 season 3–0 to MSV Duisburg. Rot-Weiss then became a fourth division side following the introduction of the 3. Liga in 2008.

RWE filed for insolvency in June 2010 and were therefore not granted a license to continue playing in the Regionalliga West, but the club were granted a license to play in the fifth-tier NRW-Liga for the 2010–11 season whilst administrators restructured the club's finances. They won the fifth level NRW-Liga in 2010–11 and returned to Regionalliga West for the 2011–12 season.

In March 2014, Marc Fascher was appointed as head coach on a contract until 2015. He was sacked on 31 March 2015.

On 14 October 2017, Argirios Giannikis was appointed as manager of the club on a contract until the end of the season. He led Essen to pick up 13 points from the six games between his appointment and the winter break. On 20 January 2018, Giannikis announced that he would not renew his contract at Essen beyond the end of the season, as it was later announced that he was to become VfR Aalen manager for the following season. Having suffered hostility from Essen supporters for this decision, he left the club on 7 April 2018 and was immediately succeeded by Karsten Neitzel.

Rot-Weiss were promoted to the 3. Liga for the 2022–23 season as champions of the 2021–22 Regionalliga West, returning to the third tier of German football for the first time in 14 years.