Hamburger Sport-Verein e.V., commonly known as Hamburger SV, Hamburg or HSV, is a German sport club based in Hamburg, its largest branch being its football department. Although the current HSV was founded in June 1919 from a merger of three earlier clubs, it officially traces its origin to 29 September 1887 when the first of the predecessors, SC Germania, was founded. Until 2018 when the team were relegated for the first time in history, HSV's football team had the distinction of being the only team that had played continuously in the top tier of the German football league system since the founding of the club at the end of World War I. It was consequently also the only team that had played in every season of the Bundesliga since its foundation in 1963.
