Like many other German clubs, TSG Hoffenheim grew out of a gymnastics club. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, gymnastics was clearly the dominant activity. A handball department was added in the late 1920s, initially for field handball, as was common then.\n\nWhen field handball was pushed aside by indoor handball, the department was dissolved in the early 1970s because there was no suitable hall.
Alongside athletics, gymnastics is the only sport still practiced within TSG Hoffenheim today. Former sections that no longer exist include chess, volleyball, judo and jiu-jitsu.