Predecessor sides
FG Mannheim,
Mannheimer FG Union and
Viktoria Mannheim were each
founding members of the
German Football Association in 1900. These various Mannheim teams were members of the VSFV (Verband Süddeutscher Fussball Vereine or Federation of South German Football Clubs) and after their merger in 1911 played as VfR through the 1910s and 1920s in the
Westkreis-Liga. The club emerged as the league champions of the
Kreisliga Odenwald in 1922 and the
Bezirksliga Rhein in 1925. They took part in the national playoffs after their Bezirksliga title and subsequent regional
Süddeutschland win, but went out in an eighth final to
TuRu Düsseldorf. The club finished in mid-table throughout the late 1920s and early 1930s in the
Bezirksliga Rhein-Saar.
Success through the 1930s and 1940s After the 1933 re-organization of German football under the
Third Reich into sixteen top flight regional leagues, Mannheim began play in the
Gauliga Baden. The club performed well in the years leading up to
World War II and the throughout the conflict, taking division titles in 1935, 1938, 1939, 1943 and 1944. However they could not translate this success in league play into success in the national playoffs with their best result being an advance to the 1943 quarterfinals where they were put out 2–3 by eventual vice-champions
FV Saarbrücken. Mannheim repeated as division champions in 1944. Wartime conditions made playing football increasingly difficult in the country, so much so that the national playoffs were initially abandoned and VfR declared champions by the sport's governing authority. However, this decision was revoked after protests from other clubs and the playoff competition reinstated. Mannheim advanced only as far as the eighth final before being eliminated by
1. FC Nürnberg.
Postwar national championship After the war VfR Mannheim played in the first division
Oberliga Süd where they earned unremarkable results until a surprising breakthrough in 1949 that saw the team transform a distant second-place finish in their division into a national championship. After thrashing
Hamburger SV 5–0 in the opening round, they upset
Kickers Offenbach, who had finished eleven points ahead of them in their Oberliga division that season, by a score of 2–1. VfR then earned a come from behind 3–2 overtime victory over
Borussia Dortmund in front of 90,000 fans in the final. Between 1903 and 1944 German national champions were awarded the
Viktoria trophy. The 1944 final between
Dresdner SC and
Luftwaffen-SV Hamburg was the last Viktoria match ever played as the trophy disappeared at war's end. The missing prize was replaced by the
Meisterschale in 1949 and was first awarded to Mannheim despite 1. FC Nürnberg being Germany's first postwar champions in 1948. Today the Meisterschale recognizes the country's Bundesliga champions and is inscribed with the names of each national championship team since 1903. The Viktoria has since been recovered and is held by the
German Football Association. The next year they again met Dortmund in the playoffs, this time in the opening round, and once again eliminated them. However, they would themselves be put out in the next round by
Preußen Dellbrück and begin a slide into anonymity.
Descent from the top flight Mannheim played in the second tier
Regionalliga Süd formed in 1963 at the same time as Germany's new professional league, the
Bundesliga. After ten years near or at the bottom of the league table they fell to tier III football, the
Amateurliga Nordbaden. Despite ongoing financial problems they rebuffed offers of a merger from
SV Waldhof Mannheim in 1998 and again in 2003. They were denied a license that year and driven to the
Verbandsliga Nordbaden (V). However, the side performed well enough to win their division the next season and promotion to
Oberliga Baden-Württemberg (IV), where they play today. With a sixteenth place in 2007–08, they narrowly avoided relegation, being on equal points with the seventeenth team. After suffering relegation in 2009, the club took two seasons to recover before returning to the Oberliga in 2011. In its first season back the club finished second in the league behind
SSV Ulm 1846. In the 2014–15 season the club came second-last in the league and was relegated to the Verbandsliga. ==Honours==