SSV Markranstädt is a German association football club from the city of Markranstädt, Saxony near Leipzig. It is part of a larger sports club that also has departments for badminton, cycle ball, gymnastics, table tennis, and volleyball.
Established following World War II as Sportgemeinde Markranstädt, the club took up play in the top-flight regional Landesliga Sachsen/Leipzig in the Soviet-occupied eastern part of the country and earned a first-place finish in the 1947–48 season. Renamed SG Glück-Auf Markranstädt, the team slipped to consecutive seventh-place finishes in its next two seasons. The club then disappeared into lower-tier play in East Germany and, like most other clubs there, underwent a succession of name changes over the years: BSG Stahl Markranstädt (1951–1952); BSG Motor Markranstädt (1952–1958); BSG Turbine Markranstädt (1959–1984); BSG Motor Markranstädt (1984–1988); and BSG Turbine Markranstädt (1988–1990).
Following German reunification in 1990 Turbine adopted its current identity as Spiel- und Sportverein Markranstädt. The merger of the football competitions of the two Germanys saw SSV placed in the Landesliga Sachsen (V) where they would stay until relegated in 1993. The team rebounded to return to fifth-tier play in 1995, but was again immediately sent down and did not return to the Landesliga until 1999. Following their 2007 divisional championship, Markranstädt was promoted to the NOFV-Oberliga Süd (IV), where they earned mid-table results in the next two seasons.
Season 2008–09 | Season 2009–10 | Season 2010–11 |
---|---|---|
SSV Markranstädt | RB Leipzig | RB Leipzig |
ESV Delitzsch | RB Leipzig II | |
SSV Markranstädt II | RB Leipzig II | SSV Markranstädt |
ESV Delitzsch II | ESV Delitzsch | |
SSV Markranstädt III | RB Leipzig III | SSV Markranstädt II |
RB Leipzig IV | SSV Markranstädt III |
The club's licence was purchased by energy drink maker Red Bull in 2009 and the team resumed play in the now fifth tier Oberliga in 2009–2010 as the rebranded RB Leipzig, the fourth football team in the company's sports advertising portfolio. The ownership's goal was to advance to the country's first division Bundesliga within a decade.
SSV Markranstädt continued to operate as an affiliated club, and won the Landesliga Sachsen in 2012. The club then played in the Oberliga as a top of the table side for majority of their stay, finishing third in 2015 and qualifying for the promotion play-offs to the expanded Regionalliga Nordost against FSV Luckenwalde where they lost the return leg 4–1 and missed out on promotion. The club followed this up with a 16th-place finish in the following season, with which it was relegated back down to the Sachsenliga, where it has been competing ever since.