Other branches included in the club are basketball, handball, table tennis, winter sports and athletics. Schalke 04 achieved its first European victory in the 1996-97 season by winning the UEFA Cup against Internazionale, which it beat in a penalty kick in Milan. Papa Jan Pol became an honorary member of the club during a ceremony at the Park stadium in 1987.
Schalke has a long-standing rivalry with Borussia Dortmund club called the River derby. The club is nicknamed miners because it was founded in 1904 in the region where Germany's working class, especially the largest mines, were concentrated.
The stadium currently used by the club with a capacity of 61,271 was opened at the beginning of the 2001-02 season. The stadium, which was previously known as Gelsenkirchen Stadt and Arena AufSchalke, was named Veltins-Arena in 2005 with the sponsorship of Veltins company.
Although it has won 7 German Championships, the club has never won a Bundesliga championship, and its last championship was in the 1957-58 season. Since that season, although they came very close to the championship in the 2000-01 and 2006-07 seasons, they lost the championship in the last weeks. Its biggest success in Europe, other than the UEFA Cup championship in the 1996-97 season, was by playing in the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League in the 2010-11 season.
Despite the bad progress of the club lately, it has very loyal fans. The club's supporter group is Ultras Gelsenkirchen, also known as Nordkurve Gelsenkirchen. Nordkurve Gelsenkirchen is also considered by most European football fans to be the strongest and most aggressive fan base in Europe.
Discussions
Schalke 04 won six of their seven championships while Hitler was in power (1933-1942), which led to some controversy. In the 50 worst fans article published in The Times magazine in March 2015, he wrote that Hitler was a Schalke fan and that they won consecutive championships thanks to Hitler's support. Some columnists and historians in Tรผrkiye also express similar claims.
According to historian and writer Ahmet รzgรผr Tรผren, Hitler supported Schalke and opposed Bayern Munich because its manager was Jewish. Additionally, the author states that the leader of Borussia Dortmund was imprisoned for not supporting Nazism.
These claims are partially true. In 1933, Bayern Munich president Kurt Landauer, youth department manager Otto Beer and coach Richard Dombi were forced to leave the club due to their Jewish background, and as a result the club lost many members. The Nazis did not support Schalke against Bayern Munich, but another Bavarian team, 1860 Munich.
Not only Bayern Munich but also three other clubs at that time were branded as Judenklub (Jewish club) because of their Jewish managers and employees. These are: FK Austria Wien, Eintracht Frankfurt and FSV Frankfurt. Despite the pressure on these clubs, there is no concrete evidence that Hitler supported and supported Schalke. Because Hitler never watched any of Schalke's matches. The club also rejects claims that Hitler supported them.
Championships
National
- German League
- Champion (7): 1933-34, 1934-35, 1936-37, 1938-39, 1939-40, 1941-42, 1957-58
- Second (6): 1971-72, 1976-77, 2000-01, 2004-05, 2006-07, 2009-10
- 2. Bundesliga
- Champion (3): 1981-82, 1990-91, 2021-22
- DFB-Pokal
- Champion (5): 1936-37, 1971-72, 2000-01, 2001-02, 2010-11
- Second (7): 1935-36, 1940-41, 1954-55, 1968-69, 1973-74, 2004-05, 2011-12
- DFL-Supercup
- Champion (1): 2011
- DFL-Ligapokal
- Champion (1): 2005-06
International
- UEFA Cup
- Champion (1): 1996-97
- UEFA Intertoto Cup (2):
- Champion (2): 2003-04, 2004-05
Cast
Current squad
- As of 1 July 2025
