Founded in 1909, FC Viktoria Stendal was dissolved in the aftermath of World War II and re-established in Soviet occupation zone of Germany in 1945 as SG Stendal-Nord. The club underwent a number of changes in quick succession. It was renamed Blau-Weiss Stendal in 1948 and then SG Eintracht Stendal in April 1949. By year's end Eintract was merged with two railway sides – BSG Reichsbahn Stendal and BSG RAW Stendal – to emerge briefly in December as SG Hans Wendler Stendal. The practise of honouring industry in the worker's state through the renaming of football clubs was common in East Germany. Hans Wendler was an engineer who developed a method for using dust from the country's plentiful supplies of low grade brown coal to fuel older locomotives and so was briefly honoured by having one of the railway-sponsored football sides named after him. The team was finally dubbed BSG Lokomotive Stendal in 1950.
