Wacker Halle, as the club was generally referred to, won the Saale district – named after the river
Saale – of the Central German championship twelve times between 1910 and its last edition 1933. These are all to be considered championships of one of numerous German first divisions. Main rivals here were
Hallescher FC and to a lesser extent
Borussia Halle,
Sportfreunde Halle and
SV Halle 98. Those title qualified for participation in the Central German Championships which Wacker won 1921 and 1928. In the ensuing play-off matches for the German Championship Wacker reached the semifinals in 1921, there losing at home in front of a crowd of 12,000 1–5 to the later winners
1. FC Nürnberg. In 1928 10,000 saw a 0–3 quarterfinal exit versus
FC Bayern Munich. In 1933–34 Wacker became first champions of the newly incepted central German division of the
Gauliga. In the qualification group for the semifinals of the national championship Wacker came with one win and five defeats last behind 1. FC Nürnberg,
Dresdner SC and
Borussia Fulda. In the next seasons Wacker finished second and seventh before being relegated as ninth. In 1941 the club managed to return and achieved third places in the first two seasons and eighth in 1944. The championship plate of 1952 After World War II Wacker Halle was dissolved, like all German clubs, and in 1946
SG Halle-Glaucha (SG stands for "sports community", Glaucha is an inner neighbourhood) was formed. In 1948 the new club was renamed into
SG Freiimfelde Halle, Freiimfelde being an inner eastern district. In April 1949 the footballers of Freiimfelde, after having won the championship of
Saxony-Anhalt, joined
ZSG Union Halle, the Central Sports Community of the People-Owned Enterprises of Halle. The team from Halle reached the final of the Soviet zone, winning the
1949 Championship of the Eastern Zone with a 4–1 victory over
SG Fortuna Erfurt in front of 50,000 in the
Ostragehege stadium of
Dresden. Still in the same year ZSG Union became one of the founding members of the
Oberliga, the first division of the
German Democratic Republic, the state founded on 7 October 1949 on the territory of the Soviet zone. The team finished the first two seasons on fifth, respectively sixth spot. After the first season the team played as
BSG Turbine Halle. Attendance average in 1950–51 was just under 10.000. In the
season 1951–52 the average rose to 22,170 per match and Turbine won the championship of East Germany, ahead of
SV Deutsche Volkspolizei Dresden and defenders
BSG Chemie Leipzig. The form could not be retained and Turbine finished in 1953 on the 13th spot. Worse, after this season some of the most important players like
Otto Knefler and coach Alfred "Fred" Schulz, who led the team to both championships, made off to West Germany in the context of the
uprising of 1953 in East Germany. Nevertheless, in the
1953–54 DDR-Oberliga Turbine could improve to 8th position. The East German authorities were motivated by the West German World Cup win 1954 in Switzerland to make improvements to football in their country. BSGs were transformed to "Sport Clubs," often part of major bodies of industry. In Halle this led to the foundation of
SC Chemie Halle-Leuna on 18 September 1954 and a large part of the football department of Turbine was transferred to this new entity. Chemie Halle-Leuna were given the Oberliga spot of Turbine, which was kept alive but forthwith played in lower leagues. Chemie Halle-Leuna these days exists as
Hallescher FC. Both clubs, Turbine and Hallescher FC, claim the era between 1945 and 1954 as part of their history. BSG Turbine Halle was in 1990, after the re-unification of Germany, renamed to UTSV Turbine Halle; in 1995 the UTSV part was dropped. The football department of the club remains in the lower divisions and it plays today in the eighth tier Landesklasse. == Stadium ==