VfL Wolfsburg

The first years

As early as 1938, the WKG VW Stadt des KdF-Wagens (VW City of the KdF Car) was a company sports club within the Volkswagen factory, which was active in the higher division of the Gauliga Osthannover until 1944. In 1945, the competition community was prematurely withdrawn from the game and dissolved.

Only a few months after its foundation on September 12, 1945, the club experienced its first bitter setback. Almost the entire team left the club and founded the 1st FC Wolfsburg. The coach at the time, Josef Meyer, put together a new team.

Already in the first year of its existence, the team succeeded in winning the 1st Kreisklasse championship and promotion to the Bezirksliga. In the seasons 1951, 1952 and 1954 followed further titles in the amateur Oberliga Lower Saxony East. In the latter year finally succeeded the promotion to the Oberliga Nord, one of the highest German divisions at that time. In the last promotion match, VfL won 2-1 against Heider SV.

In the Oberliga North

Even though VfL Wolfsburg caused a sensation in their first year in the Oberliga with a 1-0 victory over Hamburger SV - the team that dominated the Oberliga Nord year after year and almost always became champions - the club otherwise did not play a major role in this division. In the first three years of their membership, they only narrowly escaped relegation, whether under coach Ludwig Lachner, Ernst Sontow or Josef Kretschmann. Only the 1957/58 season under coach Walter Risse brought improvement with 11th place. In 1959, under Imre Farkaszinski, VfL had to return to the second division. The team was promoted back to the Regionalliga Nord in 1963 and reached the final of the German amateur championship in the same year, which they lost 1-0 to the amateurs of VfB Stuttgart. During this time, several bigger clubs such as FC Bayern München and FC Santos played test matches with VfL.

It was not until 1970 that the club was again on the verge of promotion to the first division; however, despite finishing runners-up in the Regionalliga Nord, promotion to the Bundesliga was missed. In the same year, VfL Wolfsburg was involved in the first penalty shootout in the history of the DFB Cup. In the first main round of the 1970/71 DFB Cup against FC Schalke 04, the new rule had to be used for the first time after a 2:2 n. V. in the first leg and a 1:1 n. V. in the replay. The Wolves could only convert one penalty kick and lost 2:4 after penalty shootout.

VfL qualified for the 2nd Bundesliga, which was founded in 1974, but was relegated in its premiere season and disappeared from professional football for a good fifteen years after subsequent promotion and relegation, despite occasional participation in the promotion rounds to the 2nd Bundesliga as a result of good placings.

Second division and Bundesliga promotion (1990-2007)

In the 1990/91 season they became champions of the Regionalliga Nord for the first time, but failed once again in the promotion round. After winning the championship again in 1992, the team then also won the promotion round and thus made the leap into the Second Division. Afterwards, VfL was able to establish itself in the Second Division for the time being. Under the leadership of manager Peter Pander, the club became a promotion contender as early as 1995. Despite leading the table until the 22nd matchday, the club was defeated by Fortuna Düsseldorf due to the worse goal difference and lost the DFB Cup final against Borussia Mönchengladbach with 0:3. On 11 June 1997, VfL was finally promoted to the Bundesliga. In a quasi-final against 1. FSV Mainz 05, who could also have been promoted with a win, Wolfsburg won 5:4. Roy Präger and Detlev Dammeier scored two goals each.

Since then, VfL Wolfsburg has become a permanent fixture in the Bundesliga. As early as 1999, the team succeeded in reaching the UEFA Cup, after which they qualified for the UI Cup five times. In the autumn of 2004, the team topped the Bundesliga table for the first time. In 2006, 2007 and 2011, however, they only finished the season in 15th place and narrowly avoided relegation.

The Magath era

On 30 May 2007, it was announced that Felix Magath would be the new coach, manager and managing director of the Wolves from 15 June. His area of responsibility also included the supervision of the youth area as well as the rest of the sporting area. He was given a free hand, which he used consistently at the start of the 2007/08 season. The personnel merry-go-round was in full swing and the well-known departures (including Kevin Hofland, Diego Klimowicz, Mike Hanke) were offset by many new arrivals. Alongside experienced players such as Ricardo Costa, Josué and Grafite, young players such as Marcel Schäfer, Jan Šimůnek, Sascha Riether, Christian Gentner and Ashkan Dejagah were signed and quickly integrated into the team structure and became regulars. Long-time goalkeeper Simon Jentzsch was replaced by young Diego Benaglio in the winter. To everyone's surprise, a UEFA Cup place was achieved at the end of the season. The team secured the necessary 5th place in the table on the last matchday with a 4:2 victory over Borussia Dortmund. The team also reached the semi-finals of the DFB Cup in 2007 and 2008, where they were defeated by VfB Stuttgart (0:1) and FC Bayern München (0:2).

In order to further upgrade the squad, Magath tried to secure the services of experienced and developing players in the summer of 2008, as he had done the previous year. With Andrea Barzagli and Cristian Zaccardo, he signed two Italian world champions from 2006, who should give the defence greater stability. Turkish junior selector Mahir Sağlık and talented German striker Alexander Esswein also arrived in VW City.

The team faced Rapid Bucharest in the first round of the UEFA Cup. The first leg was won 1-0 with a goal by Grafite, the second leg in Bucharest ended 1-1. Now VfL faced AC Milan, SC Heerenveen, Sporting Braga and FC Portsmouth from England in Group E; they managed to finish first in the group with a 2-2 draw against the Milanese. They were eliminated in the round of 16 by Paris Saint-Germain.

The greatest sporting success was winning the German championship in the 2008/09 season. Alongside coach Magath, the two strikers Grafite and Edin Džeko, who together scored 54 of Wolfsburg's 80 goals, and Zvjezdan Misimović, who with 22 assists became the best provider in Bundesliga history, played a key role. With the 54 goals (this corresponds to a rate of 68%), the previous best mark of the duo Gerd Müller and Uli Hoeneß from the 1971/72 season was surpassed. Grafite was also top scorer with 28 goals. VfL Wolfsburg became the twelfth champions in Bundesliga history and the first new title holder since 1970 to be immortalised on the championship trophy. VfL were also the first Lower Saxony champions since Eintracht Braunschweig in 1967.

Last-minute rescues and brief return to the top flight (since 2009)

At the end of June 2009, Magath surprisingly terminated his contract with Wolfsburg and moved to FC Schalke 04. He was succeeded by Armin Veh, who initially served not only as coach but also - like Magath before him - as sports director and managing director in personal union. In January 2010, Dieter Hoeneß was hired as manager to relieve Veh in this area of responsibility. At the end of January 2010, after nine competitive games without a win and most recently a 3-2 defeat to 1. FC Köln, Armin Veh was given his leave of absence. He was replaced by Lorenz-Günther Köstner, who took over as head coach of the VfL Wolfsburg first team until further notice.

After a lengthy search for a coach, Steve McClaren, the former national coach of England, was hired for the 2010/11 season. This made VfL Wolfsburg the first Bundesliga club to hire an English coach. McClaren had won the championship in the Netherlands with FC Twente the previous year. Former professional footballer and 1990 World Champion Pierre Littbarski was hired as assistant coach. On 7 February 2011, however, McClaren was dismissed for lack of success and Littbarski took over as head coach.

On 18 March 2011, the return of Felix Magath as coach and managing director of sport was finally announced, and he took over the "Wolves" in the middle of the relegation battle and managed to keep them in the league by winning 3-1 at Hoffenheim on the last matchday of the 2010/11 season.

On 25 October 2012, Magath was relieved of his duties prematurely - after eight match days of the 2012/13 season, the team was in last place; it had scored only two goals by then. The previous amateur coach Lorenz-Günther Köstner was again in charge of VfL. The first match under his direction was a 4:1 win against Fortuna Düsseldorf. On 22 December 2012, the previous head coach of 1. FC Nürnberg, Dieter Hecking, was signed as head coach for the first team by the managing director Klaus Allofs, who had come from Bremen. He was given a contract until 2016.

In 2014, the club qualified for the Europa League again after five years. In January 2015, VfL Wolfsburg signed André Schürrle from Chelsea FC, who is considered VfL's most expensive purchase to date. In the Europa League, VfL reached the quarter-finals, where they were eliminated by SSC Napoli. They finished the Bundesliga season as runners-up, which allowed VfL to participate in the 2015/16 UEFA Champions League.

On 30 May 2015, VfL Wolfsburg won the 72nd DFB Cup final with a 3:1 victory over Borussia Dortmund. It was VfL's first DFB Cup victory. On 1 August 2015, they won the DFL Supercup against FC Bayern München.

In August 2015, German Footballer of the Year Kevin De Bruyne moved to Manchester City for a Bundesliga record sum of around €75 million. In the Champions League, VfL finished top of their group ahead of PSV Eindhoven, Manchester United and ZSKA Moscow, and went on to beat KAA Gent in the round of 16. On 6 April 2016, VfL Wolfsburg won 2-0 over Real Madrid in the first leg of the quarter-finals. However, they lost the second leg 3-0 and were eliminated. Wolfsburg finished the Bundesliga season in eighth place, missing out on qualification for the European Cup again.

On the final matchday of the 2016/17 season, VfL slipped from 15th to 16th in the table after losing their last Bundesliga match against then 16th-placed Hamburger SV. VfL had to go to relegation, in which they beat local rivals Eintracht Braunschweig 1-0 both at home and away to stay in the league. On 18 September 2017, they parted ways with head coach Andries Jonker and introduced Martin Schmidt as their new coach. On 19 February 2018, Martin Schmidt resigned with immediate effect and Bruno Labbadia took over as coach. At the end of April 2018, sporting director Olaf Rebbe was dismissed. With a 4-1 win against 1. FC Köln, Wolfsburg secured their participation in the relegation on the last matchday of the season, where two wins (3:1, 1:0) against Holstein Kiel ensured their relegation as in the previous year.

On June 1, 2018, Jörg Schmadtke was hired as the new managing director of sport. Under him, Marcel Schäfer became the new sporting director. In the summer of 2018, Daniel Didavi, a regular player, left the club when he joined VfB Stuttgart. Meanwhile, Daniel Ginczek was signed from the Swabians. Dutchman Wout Weghorst from AZ, who became top scorer with 17 goals, and Jerome Roussillon from HSC Montpellier also joined VfL. The season began with a 1-0 win at SV Elversberg in the first round of the DFB Cup. VfL Wolfsburg started the Bundesliga with a 2-1 win over runners-up Schalke, before going on to pick up just two wins in ten games, which saw them slip to eleventh place. At the end of the first half of the season, VfL finished fifth in the table. Six defeats and three draws in eight wins saw Wolfsburg finish sixth in the table at the end of the 2018/19 season, qualifying for the UEFA Europa League group stage under coach Labbadia after last year's rescue through relegation.

Despite the success, VfL and the coach parted ways as Labbadia did not want to extend his expiring contract. Oliver Glasner, who won the Austrian runners-up championship with Linzer ASK the previous year, was signed as his successor for the 2019/20 season. Glasner signed a contract until 2022, and Wolfsburg also played under him throughout the season for the international places; in the end, VfL finished seventh, which allows them to participate in the 2nd qualifying round of the Europa League. In a 5-3 win over Werder Bremen on 28 November 2020, the Wölfen achieved the 300th Bundesliga win in the club's history.

VfL Wolfsburg-Fußball GmbH was founded on 16 January 2001 and has since been registered with the Braunschweig Local Court under the registration number HRB 100486. The professional players' division of VfL Wolfsburg e. V. was spun off into the company on 23 May 2001. Volkswagen AG initially held 90 percent of the shares and e. V. 10 percent. This was made possible by an exception to the 50+1 rule, which allows a commercial enterprise to take a majority holding if it has continuously and substantially promoted the parent club's football for more than 20 years. Otherwise, at most a shareholding of 50 percent minus one vote is possible, as the club must retain the majority of votes in its spun-off football department. In addition to VfL Wolfsburg, this exemption applies to Bayer 04 Leverkusen and TSG 1899 Hoffenheim. Volkswagen AG became the sole shareholder on December 20, 2007.

Volkswagen AG holds its shares via Volkswagen Group Services GmbH and, in accordance with section 264 of the German Commercial Code (HGB), waives publication of the annual financial statements of VfL Wolfsburg-Fußball GmbH.

The GmbH is run by the management. The current managing directors are Michael Meeske, Jörg Schmadtke and Tim Schumacher.

The supreme decision-making body is the shareholders' meeting. It elects the nine-member Supervisory Board, whose Chairman is Frank Witter, CFO of Volkswagen AG.