FC Gelsenkirchen-Schalke 04, commonly known as Schalke 04, is a German football club originally from the Schalke district of Gelsenkirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia. Schalke has long been one of the most popular football teams in Germany, even though major successes have been rare since the club's heyday in the 1930s and early 1940s. The football team is the biggest part of a larger sports club with more than 80,000 members (September 2009) making it the second largest sports club in Germany.