FC Carl Zeiss Jena
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| Full name | Fußball-Club Carl Zeiss Jena e.V. | ||
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| Nickname(s) | FCC | ||
| Founded | May 13 1903 | ||
| Ground | Ernst-Abbe-Sportfeld | ||
| Capacity | 12,000 | ||
| Chairman |  Rainer Zipfel | ||
| Manager | Heiko Weber | ||
| League | 2. Bundesliga | ||
| 2005-06 | Regionalliga Nord (III), 2nd (promoted) | ||
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FC Carl Zeiss Jena is a German football club based in Jena, Thuringia.
History
The club was founded in May of 1903 by workers at the Carl Zeiss optics factory as the company-sponsored Fussball-Club der Firma Carl Zeiss. The club underwent name changes in 1911 to Fussball Club Carl Zeiss Jena e.V. and then again in March 1917 to 1. Sportverein Jena e.V.
The 1930s and World War II
In 1933, 1. SV Jena joined the Gauliga Mitte, one of sixteen top flight divisions formed in the re-organization of German football under the Third Reich. The team captured the division title in 1935, 1936, 1940, and 1941. This earned Jena entry to the national finals, but they performed poorly and were never able to advance out of preliminary round group play. After the 1943-44 season the Gauliga Mitte broke up into a collection of city-based leagues as World War II overtook the area.
Postwar play in East Germany
In the immediate aftermath of the war, associations of all types including sports and football clubs, were banned in Germany by the occupying Allied authorities. Jena was re-constituted in June 1946 as SG Ernst Abbe Jena and like many other clubs in East Germany would undergo a number of name changes and was known variously as SG Stadion Jena (October 1948), SG Carl Zeiss Jena (March 1949), BSG Mechanik Jena (January 1951), BSG Motor Jena (May 1951), and SC Motor Jena (November 1954).
In 1950, the club became a founding member of the DDR Liga (II) and in their second season captured a divisional title to win promotion to the top flight DDR Oberliga for a single season appearance. Re-named SC Motor Jena in 1954, they played their way back to the upper league by 1957. Jena won its first honours with the capture of the East German Cup in 1960 and followed up with the East German national title in 1963. The club was "re-founded" as FC Carl Zeiss Jena in January 1966 and became one of East German football's "focus centres" for the development of talented players for the national side. Jena would go on to become a dominant side in the DDR-Oberliga between then and 1975. They took two more national titles in 1968 and 1970, but finished in second place another half dozen times to sides like Vorwärts Berlin, Dynamo Dresden, and 1. FC Magdeburg. In addition to their national titles, FCC captured East German Cups in 1972, 1974, and 1980. The club also appeared in the 1981 European Cup Winners' Cup final, losing 1:2 to Dinamo Tbilisi.
German re-unification
After German re-unification in 1990, Jena was seeded into the 2.Bundesliga. Their second place finish in 1992 deteriorated into a seventeenth place finish in 1994 and relegation to Regionalliga Nordost (III). They won immediate re-promotion and played three more years at the tier II level. Since 1999 the team has played tier III and IV football: a second place finish in the Regionalliga Nord has secured Jena promotion to the 2. Bundesliga for the 2006-07 season.
Current Squad
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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Notable Players
FCC sent 33 players to the DDR (East German) national side.
- Konrad Weise, 86 caps (1970-81)
- Eberhard Vogel, 74 caps (1962-76)
- Peter Ducke, 68 caps (1960-75)
- Lothar Kurbjuweit, 66 caps (1970-81)
- Rüdiger Schnuphase, 45 caps (1973-83)
- Harald Irmscher, 41 caps (1966-74)
- Roland Ducke, 37 caps (1958-67)
Before the end of World War II Jena sent 3 players to the German national side (Willy Krauß 1911/12, Heinz Werner 1935, Ludwig Gärtner 1939-41)
Honours
FC Carl Zeiss Jena holds first place in the all-time table for East German football clubs.
- East German Champions: 1963, 1968, 1970
- East German Cup Champions: 1960, 1972, 1974, 1980
Team trivia
- In the immediate aftermath of World War II, East German authorities had a penchant for tagging sports teams with the names of socialist heroes: Ernst Abbe was a local son and physicist who had an association with the Zeiss optical factory. He made an early contribution to easing the plight of workers by introducing the 8-hour work day at the Zeiss plant, a significant milestone for labour in the late 19th century.