KSW IceFighters Leipzig

The History of Ice Hockey in Leipzig

The tradition of ice hockey in Leipzig dates back to 1901. At that time, the Leipzig Sports Club was founded, and the team quickly developed into a leading force in German ice hockey or its predecessor – bandy, which is still played in some countries today. The playing field is larger, the equipment is not a puck but a ball, and the rulebook resembles hockey and football more than ice hockey. Between 1908 and 1912, the LSC even won the Austro-Hungarian ice hockey championship in bandy and established itself as the dominant team in Germany.

The years before and after the First World War were characterized by international duels and sporting successes. The venue was, among other places, the frozen pond on Hauptallee in the König-Albert-Park (which is today part of the Clara-Zetkin-Park), where the popularity of the sport led to numerous further team foundations in Leipzig. In 1912, the first city championship took place, and the Leipzig SC received approval to participate in the first German Ice Hockey Championship, which was not accepted. The LSC officials continued to focus on bandy and did not attach great importance to “Canadian ice hockey” – a misjudgment, as it later turned out. Notable from this time is a game in the unusual Canadian ice hockey, which was held in the Berlin Ice Palace: On February 27, 1911, the LSC defeated the Berlin Skating Club 5:1. Between 1912 and 1976, the Berliners became German ice hockey champions a total of 19 times.

After the First World War, it took until 1926 for the Leipzig SC to participate in a German Championship in ice hockey, as we know it today. The team reached sixth place in its debut season. In the 1934/35 season, the LSC advanced for the first time to the final round for the Central German Championship and took third place.

The ice hockey tradition in Leipzig took various turns. The successor to the Leipzig Sports Club was the BSG Aufbau Southwest Leipzig, which achieved promotion to the second-highest GDR league in 1953. In the following years, there were mergers and dissolutions, due to political directives and financial challenges. The High-Performance Sports Resolution (“Basic Line for the Development of High-Performance Sports in the GDR until 1980”) of the GDR Politburo in 1969 ultimately ensured that only two teams (Dynamo Berlin and Dynamo Weißwasser) played out the GDR championships among themselves – in the smallest league in the world.

After the political turn, there were initially few ambitions to establish an ice hockey team in Leipzig. Only in 1998 was the EHC Leipzig Ice Lions founded. Lacking an ice surface, they initially moved to the southern part of the Kohlrabizirkus, which had received its name due to its earlier use as a vegetable wholesale market hall. However, this did not meet the requirements, so they temporarily relocated to Grimma, among other places. In the summer of 2002, they finally moved to Hall 6 of the old trade fair grounds and were promoted from the state league to the Regionalliga Ost after that season. Since the summer of 2003, the Leipzig ice hockey team has competed under the name Blue Lions. In the 2004/2005 season, the team was admitted to the Oberliga Nord-Ost. In the following years, there were (among other things due to insolvency) several changes in the structure of the operating companies and the parent club.

In the 2010/2011 season, the Leipzig team competed for the first time under the name “IceFighters Leipzig,” and since the 2012/2013 season, the Leipzig Ice Sports Club (LEC) has been the parent club of the IceFighters. In that season, the legendary tent in Taucha became the home venue of the IceFighters and remained so until the 2017/2018 season. In the summer of 2018, the Oberliga team of the IceFighters moved back to the Kohlrabizirkus – this time to the North Hall of the distinctive building with the two far-visible domes.
Since February 2023, the ice hockey Oberliga team has carried the name KSW IceFighters Leipzig.

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