1.FC Heidenheim1. FC Heidenheim 1846 is one of the clearest examples of how patience can transform a small club into a Bundesliga side. Based in a town of fewer than 50,000 people, the club's roots stretch back to 1846, when Turngemeinde Heidenheim was founded as a gymnastics association, with a football department only added in 1910. The modern, independent club emerged in 1972 through a merger of predecessor clubs, and it was not until 2007, when the football department of Heidenheimer Sportbund split off to form the current 1. FC Heidenheim, competing in the fourth tier, that the club's remarkable rise truly began under long-serving manager Frank Schmidt, a former player at the predecessor club who took charge on 17 September 2007.
Schmidt guided Heidenheim to the 3. Liga in 2009 and to the 2. Bundesliga in 2014, before completing the journey with the club's first-ever promotion to the Bundesliga in 2023, sealed in dramatic fashion with two late goals on the final day of the season. On 17 September 2023 - exactly sixteen years after taking the job - Schmidt marked the anniversary with a 4-2 home win over Werder Bremen, on the very same day becoming the longest-serving head coach in the history of German professional football, surpassing Freiburg's Volker Finke. In their first season in the top flight, 2023-24, Heidenheim exceeded all expectations, finishing eighth in the table, and secured a place in the UEFA Conference League play-offs after champions Bayer Leverkusen's DFB-Pokal final win over Kaiserslautern freed up an additional European berth - the club's first taste of continental football in 178 years of existence.
The red-and-blues play their home matches at the compact but distinctive Voith-Arena, the highest stadium in Germany's top three divisions at 555 metres above sea level, standing on the very same site as the athletics ground first opened by the city in 1970 and expanded repeatedly to meet league requirements as the club climbed the football pyramid. Holding just 15,000 spectators - the smallest capacity in the Bundesliga, with 9,000 of those places standing only - the stadium has become known for its close-to-the-pitch atmosphere, with the nearest stands just six metres from the touchline, and the club purchased the ground outright from the city of Heidenheim in 2019 for two million euros.
