1933:
SV Austria Salzburg was founded on the 13th September 1933 by merging "Hertha Salzburg" and "Rapid Salzburg". Violet and white become the official club colours. Lehen, Rapid's former home, becomes the club's new home. The reason for the founding of Austria Salzburg is quite simple: a new Upper-Austria / Salzburg league is founded and only two clubs from Salzburg are allowed to take part. On the one hand SAK 1914 and on the other Rapid Salzburg. Rapid is considered to be too weak and thus the amalgamation. A bourgeois Hertha and working class Rapid also try to establish a sort of counterbalance to a superior SAK. Two days after its foundation the club wins its first game - a 6:0 thrashing of Vienna's HSV. In the first game of the official season Austria Salzburg squanders a 4:0 half time lead and finally draws 4:4 against Austria Germania Linz.
1934-1945:
Relegation is avoided in the first two years of the new league and in 1937 the club achieves the first big success in its history: Austria Salzburg wins the Salzburg Cup thanks to a 2:1 victory against SAK. The first encounters with Vienna's professional football are disappointing: a 6:3 and 0:7 defeat against SK Austro-Fiat. The "Anschluss" and the subsequent world war influence the team but nevertheless the club wins Salzburg's championship in 1940 and 1941. In 1943 Austria Salzburg, SAK and SSK establish the so-called "football community" to ensure football continues to be played in Salzburg despite the war.
1945-1949:
In the summer of 1945 the reconstruction of the team starts. The club has to move to the Franz-Joseph Park because of the destruction of its home football ground in Lehen. Many of the original players lost their lives during the war and a new team has to be built.
1949-1952:
The foundation of the "Tauernliga" (Salzburg/Carinthia) enables teams from Salzburg to gain direct promotion to Staatsliga A, Austria's top division at that time. Austria Salzburg strengthens its team continuously and in 1951 finishes in the 3rd as the best team from Salzburg. A 1:1 draw against top division club Vorwaerts Steyr shows that the time is ripe for promotion. The club is also sent to a friendly in France as Austria's working class national team.
1953:
After local rivals SAK are promoted to - and relegated from - the Staatsliga in 1952 it is now Austria Salzburg's time. The club wins the Tauernliga and in the play-off finals defeats Innsbruck (5:0 and 9:0 !!) and wins on aggregate against Kapfenberg (6:0 and 1:3). So for the first time Austria Salzburg plays in Austria's top division.
1953/54:
Promotion to the Staatsliga means that the club gives up amateurism and becomes professional. In the 4th game of the season the club wins sensationally away to Austria Vienna (3:2 with goals from Bruno Fleck (2) and Fredl Gruen (1)). Austria Vienna had thrashed German champions Kaiserslautern 9:2 just 4 days earlier. However, the team also suffers heavy defeats (0:5 to Vienna, 0:9 to Wacker) but escapes relegation finishing 9th.
1954/55:
Salzburg again finishes 9th in the division. Man of the season is Willy Koenig who scores 20 goals in 22 appearances. After the season the team goes on a 56-day journey to Asia. The highlight of this tour is definitely a 2:2 against Indonesia's national side in front of 35,000 spectators.
1955/56:
Salzburg has its best season in Austria's top division finishing in 8th place; the most outstanding performance being a 6:4 victory over champions Vienna impressing a crowd of 14,000 at the ground in Lehen. Another defining feature of the season is a defeat away to Kapfenberg which ends with fighting among the players because Richard Jelinek demonstrates to keeper Krammer that he’s not good enough to wear the team's shirt after Krammer concedes five goals. Jelinek tears Krammer's shirt off and continues the game as goalkeeper whereas Krammer leaves the pitch in tears.
