World Football Club Crests

In just a few years VfB Stuttgart has gone from pole position – regular Champions League appearances and a Bundesliga title – to fighting for survival and bouncing between the two top tiers of German football.

In the spring of 2007, things were looking good: 250,000 people gathered in Stuttgart to celebrate a most unexpected league title. In a dramatic final game, the team had turned from being underdogs to victors and defeated Energie Cottbus 2-1, a win that gave Stuttgart their fifth league title and their first in 15 years. The team certainly relied on such key players as Pável Pardo and Thomas Hitzlsperger, but the outstanding fact was that 10 of the players in the squad had been brought on by their own academy. Among them were stars of the German national side, including Timo Hildebrand, Sami Khedira and Mario Gómez.

Since the Bundesliga shield was won, the club have been mired in chaos. Between 2007 and 2016 they went through 10 coaches, three managers and three presidents, a lack of continuity that threatens Stuttgart’s position as Swabia’s leading club. Here VfB has traditionally been the dominant force, even if Stuttgarter Kickers made a brave attempt to assert themselves around 1910. Now the map is being seriously redrawn. In recent years clubs like FC Augsburg, Hoffenheim and Karlsruher have challenged, and in some cases nearly overtaken, the old pride of Swabia. A shame, considering the club’s promise.

CLUB: VfB Stuttgart 1893

NICKNAMES: Die Roten (the Reds) and Die Schwaben (the Swabians)

FOUNDED: 1893

STADIUM: Mercedes-Benz Arena, Stuttgart (60,441 capacity)

HISTORIC PLAYERS: Karlheinz Förster, Guido Buchwald, Jürgen Klinsmann and Krasimir Balakov

1912–1949. VfB Stuttgart was born through the merger of the clubs FV Stuttgart and Kronen-Klub Cannstatt. The emblem chosen was taken from the royal house of Württemberg and its crest. The shield, whose three black symbols represent antlers, has been documented as far back as the 13th century. They also appear in the logo of Porsche, the famous car company founded in Stuttgart.

1993–1998 and 1998–2014. After the 1992 Bundesliga title, the crest was updated. The antlers were straightened and the background was given a different shade of yellow. The contours of the shield were changed from red to black and the style of the initials was clarified. In 1998, the same year that Stuttgart took part in the last ever Cup Winners Cup final at Råsunda in Stockholm, the emblem was changed again. The letter V was opened up and the year was replaced with ‘Stuttgart’. The antlers were also further simplified.

1949–1993 and 2014–present. After the end of the Second World War, when the German football league had been restarted, the club emblem was reworked. The former crest was incorporated in the larger shield, which also featured the initials alongside the year of the founding of FV Stuttgart, the forerunner of VfB. The emblem returned later, after 21 years’ absence, thanks to its popularity among fans – a smart move from the newly elected club president Bernd Wahler.

A dejected Hans Mueller after VfB Stuttgart lose 3-2 to Schalke 04 in a German Cup match in 1978/79.