1. FC Gera 03 is a German association football club

Football in Germany

Association football is the most popular sport in Germany. The German Football Association is the sport's national governing body, with 6.6 million members organized in over 26,000 football clubs. There is a league system, with the 1. and 2. Bundesliga on top, and the winner of the first...

 located in Gera

Gera

Gera, the third-largest city in the German state of Thuringia , lies in east Thuringia on the river Weiße Elster, approximately 60 kilometres to the south of the city of Leipzig and 80 kilometres to the east of Erfurt...

, Thuringia

Thuringia

The Free State of Thuringia is a state of Germany, located in the central part of the country.It has an area of and 2.29 million inhabitants, making it the sixth smallest by area and the fifth smallest by population of Germany's sixteen states....

.

History

The club was founded in 2003 through the fusion of TSV 1880 Gera-Zwötzen and SV 1861 Liebschwitz. The club is made up largely of players who used to play in higher divisions wityh a large number coming from the two most successful Thuringian clubs, FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt and FC Carl Zeiss Jena

FC Carl Zeiss Jena

FC Carl Zeiss Jena is a German association football club based in Jena, Thuringia.-History:The club was founded in May 1903 by workers at the Carl Zeiss AG optics factory as the company-sponsored Fussball-Club der Firma Carl Zeiss. The club underwent name changes in 1911 to Fussball Club Carl Zeiss...

. Gera won the Landesliga Thüringen

Landesliga Thüringen

The Thüringenliga is the sixth tier of the German football league system and the highest league in the German state of Thuringia . Until the introduction of the 3...

 (V) in 2006–07 and gained promotion to the Oberliga.

Geras most notable success to date was their advance to the final of the 2007 TFV-Pokal (Thuringer Cup) where they lost to FC Carl Zeiss Jena. Despite their losing appearance the team still qualified for the 2006–07 German Cup as Jena had already earned their place in that competition through their promotion to the 2nd Bundesliga. Gera hosted 1. FC Kaiserslautern

1. FC Kaiserslautern

1. Fußball-Club Kaiserslautern, also known as 1. FCK, FCK or simply Kaiserslautern, is a German association football club based in Kaiserslautern, Rhineland-Palatinate. On 2 June 1900, Germania 1896 and FG Kaiserslautern merged to create FC 1900...

 in the opening round and lost 0:2.

1. FC Gera 03 play in the Stadion der Freundschaft which has a capacity of 16,800 spectators. They share the venue with 1. SV Gera

1. SV Gera

BSG Wismut Gera is a German association football club playing in Gera, Thuringia. The club is the successor to 1. SV Gera whose football department joined Blau-Weiß Gera and Geraer KFC Dynamos in 2007 to form FV Gera Süd, which, in turn, changed its name to BSG Wismut Gera in 2009...

.

The best known footballer to have played for Gera 03 was Marco Weißhaupt

Marco Weißhaupt

Marco Weißhaupt is a German football player who currently plays for SpVgg Eschwege.-External links: *...

, who went on to play in the Bundesliga for Hamburger SV

Hamburger SV

Hamburger Sport-Verein, usually referred to as HSV in Germany and Hamburg in international parlance, is a German multi-sport club based in Hamburg, its largest branch being its football department...

, SC Freiburg

SC Freiburg

Sport-Club Freiburg, commonly known as SC Freiburg, is a German association football club, based in the city of Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg. SC Freiburg has played in the Bundesliga, the top tier of German football, since their promotion in 2009...

, and Hansa Rostock.

The club also has a women's football team, which plays at the Regionalliga level.