The 36th matchday in the 3rd division brought a few surprises on Saturday. SSV Ulm 1846 is definitely through.

SSV Ulm return to the 2nd Bundesliga after 23 years. After Saturday’s 2:0 (0:0) win against FC Viktoria Köln, the third division leaders can no longer be denied their passage from the regional league to the second division two match days before the end of the season. As the reigning Regionalliga-Südwest champions, Ulm followed in the footsteps of Spielvereinigung Elversberg.

The goals for the former Bundesliga club, who now have 71 points to their name, came from Leonardo Scienza on a penalty in the 59th minute and Max Brandt (64th).

Under coaches Ralf Rangnick and Martin Andermatt at the end of the 1990s, Ulm managed to march through from the third tier to the Bundesliga – only to plummet to the fifth division following insolvency in 2001. Two further insolvencies followed by 2014. Those responsible around managing director Markus Thiele have therefore repeatedly emphasized that they will do everything in their power to avoid such economic chaos in the future.

In the outdated Donaustadion, Ulm will only be able to play their home games in the upcoming second division season, as they have already done in the third division, with a special permit. For this reason, the venue is now to be modernized at a cost of potentially around ten million euros. In the long term, SSV is considering building a pure soccer arena at a different location.

The situation is different at Rot-Weiss Essen. RWE play at SV Sandhausen at 4.30 pm (live ticker) and could take advantage of Dresden’s – and Jahn Regensburg’s – slip-ups with a win. Because at SSV Jahn, of all teams, almost nothing is going right in the final phase of the season. The team still second in the table lost 3-1 at relegated SC Freiburg II, while third-placed Preußen Münster play 1. FC Saarbrücken on Sunday. RWE, currently on 58 points, could move very close to Münster (61) and Regensburg (62) with a win in Sandhausen