Westfalia Schalke

1908

The earliest known photograph of Schalke 04 (above) dates from 1908, when the club was still known as Westfalia Schalke. 
At the time of the club's formation in 1904 the protagonists were around 14 years of age.
They came from the neighbourhood of the Consolidation Colliery, and the team still carry the nickname Die Knappen (The Miners).
The class divide in German Association football effectively excluded Schalke from official league competition until 1912.

Schalker Kreisel

Passing and retaining possession are fetishes in the modern game. Possession statistics are revered as evidence of a teams worth. We played the better football... even if we lost.
 Kreisel is often translated as 'spinning top'- gyroscope is more correct- and was used as a term to describe the short interpassing play of Schalke 04.
The term was first used in 1925.
The style originated with the brothers Fred and Hans Ballmann . Their parents had emigrated to the UK and during the 1914-18 war the family was interned. On returning to Germany in 1920 the Ballman brothers could hardly speak German, but they played football in a distinctive manner that they considered to be the Scottish Style- short, sharp flat passing.
Schalke were criticised for sometimes being over elaborate and 'forgetting' to score - one player remembered 'we would put the ball in the net if there was no one to pass to...'
The Third Reich Era saw Schalke dominating German football. They won the Gauliga Westfalen 11 times in succession NEVER LOSING A HOME GAME! Much of this comes outside our era - but they did win the national championships in 1933–34, 1934–35 and 1936–37, They also won the cup (Tschammerpokal) in 1937.

Another depiction of the Kreisel- Schalke 04 players as spiders in their web.

Standing Room Only

Kampfbahn Glückauf 

Fußballclub Gelsenkirchen-Schalke 04 e. V-  they romanticised themselves as a band of self governing outsiders, at odds with the exclusive bourgeois nature of many German sports clubs.  They were undeniably a working class club, the players and supporters sharing a background in heavy industry. 
German football was puritannical in its anti-professionalism, and in 1931 Schalke fell foul of the authorities over payments to players.
They were suspended for 6 months. 
Any doubts about the importance of the club to the people of Gelsenkirchen were answered when the  ban was lifted.
Since 1928 the club had played at Kampfbahn Glückauf , a stadium designed to hold 34,000.
When Schalke played their comeback match, a friendly against Fortuna Dusseldorf, an estimated 70,000 crowded into the ground. 

Glück auf Kampfbahn, FC Schalke 04- by Friedrich G. Einhoff

Good vantage point for any goalmouth incident

Lads enjoying a birds eye view of the goal

Vereinslied

Schalke 04 - 1929

Blue and White I Love You
Hans J. König  (1924)

Blue and white I love you
Blue and white forsake me not
Blue and white is the heavens
Blue and white is our strip

If we had a kingdom 
We'd make it all Schalke

All girls, so young and beautiful 
Should go out in blue and white

Mohammed was a prophet 
Who knew nothing about football
But of all the lovely colours
It was blue and white he chose 

A thousand fires in the night
Have brought us the best of luck
Then  FC Schalke will never go down
A thousand friends stand together
Schalke will never go down

My translation- I have only a basic grasp of German.