“I am really happy to be able to welcome Christian Gross as our new head coach,” sporting director Jochen Schneider wrote on the club Twitter account.
“We are in a tough situation. Our aim is to survive. I am sure that Christian Gross is the right man to help us be successful in that goal.”
The 66-year-old Gross becomes the fourth manager since late September at a club whose run of Bundesliga games without a win has stretched to 29.
David Wagner was fired after the club opened the season with an 8-0 loss to Bayern Munich and a home defeat to Werder Bremen.
Manuel Baum was in turn axed on December 18 after drawing four and losing six in the Bundesliga.
Huub Stevens took over as caretaker and oversaw another Bundesliga loss and a cup win at fourth-tier Ulm.
Gross spent nine months at Tottenham Hotspur in 1997-8, taking over with the club in the bottom three and leading them to 14th.
He enjoyed his greatest success in a 10-year stint at Basel where he won four Swiss league titles. He also won trophies with Grasshoppers in Switzerland, Al-Ahly in Saudi Arabia and Zamalek in Egypt.
In a previous 10-month spell in Germany, he led Stuttgart to sixth place and Europa League qualification.
This is his first appointment at a European club since 2012.
