1.
Bundesliga
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The Bundesliga, is a professional association football league in Germany and the football league with the highest average stadium attendance worldwide. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germanys primary football competition, the Bundesliga is contested by 18 teams and operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the 2. Seasons run from August to May, most games are played on Saturdays and Sundays, with a few games played on weekdays. All of the Bundesliga clubs qualify for the DFB-Pokal, the winner of the Bundesliga qualifies for the DFL-Supercup. A total of 54 clubs have competed in the Bundesliga since its founding, FC Bayern Munich has won the Bundesliga the most, winning the title 25 times. However, the Bundesliga has seen other champions with Borussia Dortmund, Hamburger SV, Werder Bremen, Borussia Mönchengladbach, the Bundesliga is broadcast on television in over 200 countries. The Bundesliga was founded in 1962 in Dortmund and the first season started in 1963, the structure and organisation of the Bundesliga along with Germanys other football leagues have undergone frequent changes right up to the present day. The Bundesliga was founded by the Deutscher Fußball-Bund, but is now operated by the Deutsche Fußball Liga, the Bundesliga is composed of two divisions, the 1. Bundesliga, and, below that, the 2, Bundesliga, which has been the second tier of German football since 1974. Below the level of the 3, Liga, leagues are generally subdivided on a regional basis. For example, the Regionalligen are currently made up of Nord, Nordost, Süd, below this are thirteen parallel divisions, most of which are called Oberligen which represent federal states or large urban and geographical areas. The levels below the Oberligen differ between the local areas, the league structure has changed frequently and typically reflects the degree of participation in the sport in various parts of the country. In the early 1990s, changes were driven by the reunification of Germany, every team in the two Bundesligen must have a licence to play in the league, or else they are relegated into the regional leagues. To obtain a licence, teams must be healthy and meet certain standards of conduct as organisations. As in other leagues, there are significant benefits to being in the top division. Bundesliga teams draw significantly greater levels of fan support, average attendance in the first league is 42,673 per game — more than twice the average of the 2. Greater exposure through television and higher attendance levels helps 1, Bundesliga teams attract the most lucrative sponsorships. Bundesliga teams develop substantial financial muscle through the combination of television and gate revenues, sponsorships and this allows them to attract and retain skilled players from domestic and international sources and to construct first-class stadium facilities
2.
East Germany
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East Germany, formally the German Democratic Republic, was an Eastern Bloc state during the Cold War period. The Soviet zone surrounded West Berlin, but did not include it, as a result, the German Democratic Republic was established in the Soviet Zone, while the Federal Republic was established in the three western zones. East Germany, which lies culturally in Central Germany, was a state of the Soviet Union. Soviet occupation authorities began transferring administrative responsibility to German communist leaders in 1948, Soviet forces, however, remained in the country throughout the Cold War. Until 1989, the GDR was governed by the Socialist Unity Party, though other parties participated in its alliance organisation. The economy was centrally planned, and increasingly state-owned, prices of basic goods and services were set by central government planners, rather than rising and falling through supply and demand. Although the GDR had to pay war reparations to the USSR. Nonetheless it did not match the growth of West Germany. Emigration to the West was a significant problem—as many of the emigrants were well-educated young people, the government fortified its western borders and, in 1961, built the Berlin Wall. Many people attempting to flee were killed by guards or booby traps. In 1989, numerous social and political forces in the GDR and abroad led to the fall of the Berlin Wall, the following year open elections were held, and international negotiations led to the signing of the Final Settlement treaty on the status and borders of Germany. The GDR was dissolved and Germany was unified on 3 October 1990, internally, the GDR also bordered the Soviet sector of Allied-occupied Berlin known as East Berlin which was also administered as the states de facto capital. It also bordered the three sectors occupied by the United States, United Kingdom and France known collectively as West Berlin. The three sectors occupied by the Western nations were sealed off from the rest of the GDR by the Berlin Wall from its construction in 1961 until it was brought down in 1989, the official name was Deutsche Demokratische Republik, usually abbreviated to DDR. West Germans, the media and statesmen purposely avoided the official name and its abbreviation, instead using terms like Ostzone, Sowjetische Besatzungszone. The centre of power in East Berlin was referred to as Pankow. Over time, however, the abbreviation DDR was also used colloquially by West Germans. However, this use was not always consistent, for example, before World War II, Ostdeutschland was used to describe all the territories east of the Elbe, as reflected in the works of sociologist Max Weber and political theorist Carl Schmitt
3.
East German football league system
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The football league system of the German Democratic Republic existed from the creation of the DDR-Oberliga in 1949 until shortly after German reunification in 1990. From 1949 until 1991 East Germany had its own league system. It had its own league called Oberliga which existed throughout the whole GDR history. Since 1954 the DDR-Oberliga consisted of 14 teams, the two worst-placed teams were relegated to the Liga, which was introduced in 1950. Following the dissolution of the five federal states the five old Landesliga divisions were replaced by 15 new Bezirksliga divisions as the level of the league system. By 1955 however, there was change in the league system as the 2nd DDR-Liga was created as a level between the DDR-Liga and the Bezirksligen. In 1962, the DDR-Liga was once divided into two divisions and a year later the 2nd DDR-Liga was abandoned. In 1971 the DDR-Liga was divided into five Divisions, and for that reason was now similar to the Landesliga of the 1940s, the five division champions played a qualification round to determine which clubs would promote to the Oberliga. From 1984 to 1991, the Liga consisted of two divisions again, whose champions were promoted to the Oberliga. Below the two DDR-Liga divisions were the fifteen Bezirksligen whose champions had to play a round to determine the six clubs that would move up to the 2nd Division. Below the Bezirksliga there were Bezirksklasse, Kreisliga and, at the lowest level, several Kreisklasse divisions, the 1989-90 season was the last true season of DDR football. The league system presented here had been in use since 1984, all leagues at the same level run parallel. Leagues below the Bezirksliga not shown, the boundary between the two 2nd Divisions was geographically not fixed, teams promoted from the Bezirksligen in the central part of East Germany could end up in either league. The allocation of the Bezirksligen to the 2nd Division shown here is therefore a guide only, Bezirksliga Karl-Marx-Stadt changed its name to Bezirksliga Chemnitz on 21 June 1990. The 1989-90 season was the last before the reunification of Germany in October 1990, one more season was played after that before the two league systems were integrated. Also, the DDR-Oberliga was renamed NOFV-Oberliga, all leagues on the same level run parallel. Leagues below the Bezirksligen not shown, the clubs in the East German league system were very similar to clubs in other eastern European communist countries and therefore very different from the rest of Europe. Free, uncontrolled formation of sports or football clubs was not possible, erich Mielke, head of the Stasi was the patron of all Dynamo clubs and especially of Dynamo Berlin, resulting in very favorable results for those clubs
4.
Promotion and relegation
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In sports leagues, promotion and relegation is a process where teams are transferred between two divisions based on their performance for the completed season. In some leagues, playoffs or qualifying rounds are used to determine rankings. This process can continue through several levels of divisions, with teams being exchanged between levels 1 and 2, levels 2 and 3, levels 3 and 4, the number of teams exchanged between the divisions is almost always identical. Such variations will almost inevitably cause an effect through the lower divisions. Even in the absence of such circumstances, the pyramid-like nature of most European football league systems can still create knock-on effects at the regional level. The system is said to be the characteristic of the European form of professional sports league organization. Promotion and relegation have the effect of allowing the maintenance of a hierarchy of leagues and divisions and they also maintain the importance of games played by many low-ranked teams near the end of the season, which may be at risk of relegation. In contrast, a low-ranked US or Canadian teams final games serve little purpose, although not intrinsic to the system, problems can occur due to the differing monetary payouts and revenue-generating potential that different divisions provide to their clubs. For example, financial hardship has sometimes occurred in leagues where clubs do not reduce their wage bill once relegated, some leagues offer parachute payments to its relegated teams for the following year. The payouts are higher than the money received by some non-relegated teams and are designed to soften the financial hit that clubs take whilst dropping out of the Premier League. However, in many cases these parachute payments just serve to inflate the costs of competing for promotion among the lower division clubs as newly relegated teams retain a financial advantage. If these are not satisfied, a team may be promoted in their place. While the primary purpose of the system is to maintain competitive balance. On several occasions, the Italian Football Federation has relegated clubs found to have involved in match-fixing. This occurred most recently in 2006, when the initial champions Juventus were relegated to Serie B. An exception is the proposed UEFA Nations League, which will feature promotion and relegation across four levels, in tennis, the Davis Cup has promotion and relegation where each group uses a knockout tournament format in which first-round losers play off to avoid relegation. In the United States, Canada, and Australia, teams are not promoted or relegated. The USL set up two leagues, now known as the United Soccer League and the Premier Development League, although the system is now in place, it is not compulsory and is rarely used
5.
DDR-Liga
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The DDR-Liga was, prior to German reunification in 1990, the second level of football competition in the DDR, being roughly equivalent to the Bundesliga in West Germany. The league was established two divisions of ten teams each in 1950 as the level of play below the DDR-Oberliga. It remained the second tier in various configurations throughout its existence until it was disbanded in 1991, the champion of each division was directly promoted to the Oberliga. While not having geographical tags attached to the division, Staffel 1 was originally equivalent to a Northern Division while Staffel 2 was the Southern Division. The system was not static however, clubs were moved between groups to balance out league numbers, and sometimes also for political reasons. In the same way, clubs were moved between cities out of a variety of reasons. In its second season, the divisions were expanded to twelve teams each, the year 1954 saw the creation of a third group, Staffel 3, making geographical categorizing more difficult, but essentially One was north, Two was south and Three was central. The league system changed completely in 1955, East Germany followed the example of the Soviet Union and switched to a calendar year system, resulting in a shortened autumn competition for 1955 only with a single division, fourteen-team format. From the 1956 season the league continued to operate as a single format with the top two teams gaining promotion. After the 1960 season, the league reverted to the system of playing from autumn to spring. This meant that the 1961-62 season, as a transition season, the year after, the league returned to two divisions, North and South, still with fourteen clubs each and the winners gaining promotion. In 1963, the two divisions were expanded to sixteen clubs each, the year after, all five divisions had twelve clubs. The new system meant that not all league winners could be directly promoted, instead, the five champions played a promotion round with the top two teams gaining entry to the Oberliga. Until 1976, reserve teams of Oberliga clubs were permitted in the DDR-Liga and they were then banned from entering the second tier in order to increase the appeal of the leagues as attendance for matches involving reserve teams in Germany never were particularly high. This also resulted in the promotion round now definitely being played by the league champions, previously, when one of the five divisions was won by a reserve team, the best placed first team from the division was entered in the promotion round. The year 1984 saw the DDR-Liga revert to a system, now with eighteen clubs per division. Also, reserve teams were re-admitted to the league but still barred from promotion to the Oberliga, the 1989-90 season was the last under the old East German system, in the following season the league operated under the name of NOFV-Liga, meaning Nordostdeutscher Fussballverband-Liga. The majority of clubs moved away from their, mostly communist, background, in its final season, 1990–91, the league was under the authority of the DFB, the German Football Association
6.
FDGB-Pokal
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The FDGB-Pokal was an elimination football tournament held annually in the former East Germany. It was the second most important national title in East German football after the DDR-Oberliga championship, the founder of the competition was East Germanys major trade union. The inaugural FDGB Pokal was contested in 1949, four years before the initial DFB-Pokal was played in the half of the country. The first national cup competition had been the Tschammerpokal introduced in 1935, each football club which participated in the East German football league system was entitled to enter the tournament. Clubs from the lower leagues played in qualification rounds, with the winners joining the teams of the DDR-Oberliga and DDR-Liga in the main round of the tournament of the following year. Each elimination was determined by a game held on the ground of one of the two participating teams. Until the mid-80s the field of competition was made up of as many as sixty teams playing in five rounds due to the number of eligible clubs in the country. Beginning in 1975 the final was held each year in the Berliner Stadion der Weltjugend and drew anywhere from 30,000 to 55,000 spectators. The last cup final, played in 1991 after the fall of the Berlin Wall, was a 1–0 victory by Hansa Rostock over Stahl Eisenhüttenstadt, the most successful side in 42 years of competition was 1. FC Magdeburg which celebrated seven FDGB Cup wins, one of those wins ultimately led to victory in the UEFA Cup Winners Cup 1973-74, the only winners of the competition to reach the final of the DFB-Pokal since the re-unification of the country are 1. FC Union Berlin, who appeared in the 2001 German Cup final, to date the only other former East German club to appear in the German Cup final is Energie Cottbus. The performance of clubs is shown in the following table, Notes,1 Also known as SC Rotation Leipzig. 2 Also known as Motor Jena,3 Also known as SG Planitz, Horch Zwickau, Motor Zwickau and Sachsenring Zwickau. 4 In 1953, the club was picked up from Leipzig and moved to East Berlin to play as ZSK Vorwärts Berlin, later ASK Vorwärts Berlin, in 1971, the club was picked up and moved again, this time from the capital to Frankfurt, Brandenburg. The team was known as FC Vorwärts Frankfurt,5 Also known as FC Sachsen Leipzig and SC Lokomotive Leipzig. 6 Also known as SG Freiimfelde Halle and Hallescher FC Chemie,7 Also known as Empor Rostock. 8 Also known as SG Aue, BSG Pneumatik Aue, Zentra Wismut Aue, in 1954 the team moved from Aue to Chemnitz. After German reunification in 1990, the club was renamed FC Wismut Aue before taking on its current name,9 Also known as BSG KWU Erfurt, Fortuna Erfurt, Turbine Erfurt
7.
F.C. Hansa Rostock
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F. C. Hansa Rostock is a German association football club based in the city of Rostock, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. They have emerged as one of the most successful clubs from the former East Germany and have made appearances in the top-flight Bundesliga. After being in the Bundesliga for ten years, from 1995 to 2005, in 2012, the club was relegated to the 3. Liga for the time and is now playing there for the fifth consecutive season. The club was established on 1 November 1954 as the multi-sport Sportclub Empor Rostock, the wholesale transfer of the Lauterers to Rostock part way through the 1954–55 season led to the disappearance of that association from play. A new club was formed in 1956 as BSG Motor Lauter and on 1 August 1990, newly formed SC Empor Rostock took the place of the former Lauter-based club in first division play in November 1954. They finished second the season, but in 1956 plunged to 14th place and were relegated. The new clubs name acknowledged Rostocks history as one of the trading centres of northern Europes Hanseatic League. This is their top flight title to date in play in East Germany or the unified Germany. They also captured the last ever East German Cup with a 1–0 win over FC Stahl Eisenhüttenstadt, Hansa, however, was unable to stay up and was relegated after falling just a single point shy of SG Wattenscheid 09. Three seasons of tempering in the 2, Bundesliga would return the club to the top flight for the 1995–96 season. In ten years spent in the Bundesliga, the teams best results were a pair of sixth-place finishes. In spite of frequent placings in the bottom-half of the league table, on 1 December 2002, Rostock became the first club to field six foreigners from the same country in a Bundesliga match. Rostock had a poor first half in the 2004–05 season. After two years in the 2, Bundesliga, the club returned to the top-flight for the 2007–08 season, but was again relegated. The clubs poor form continued in 2009–10 and they finished third-last, with this season, a new promotion/relegation format accompanied the introduction of the 3. Liga and Rostock found itself in a playoff versus the third place third division club FC Ingolstadt, Hansa lost both legs of the contest and was sent down to the 3. Liga, while Ingolstadt won promotion to the 2, Bundesliga alongside the top two third tier teams which advanced automatically by virtue of their finishes
8.
Berliner FC Dynamo
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Berliner FC Dynamo is a German football club from Berlin and the record champion of East Germany with ten consecutive championships from 1979 through 1988. A predecessor side to the club was established in 1949 as Sportgemeinde Deutsche Volkspolizei Berlin. In March 1953, this assumed the place of SC Volkspolizei Potsdam in the DDR-Liga. The Potsdam and Berlin sides were formally merged and after 27 March 1953 played as part of the larger Sportvereinigung Dynamo sports club under the name SG Dynamo Berlin. After a 14th-place result in the 1953–54 season, the team was demoted to the Bezirksliga Berlin, the club was again renamed, being christened Sport Club Dynamo Berlin on 1 October 1954. In 1954, team members of Dynamo Dresden were ordered to leave for the capital to establish a side in Berlin. Dynamo Berlin enjoyed some success in the late 1950s and early 1960s with a number of top-three finishes, by 1963, however, their play had fallen off and they had become a lower table side leading to their relegation in 1967. The club returned to first division play after a seasons absence. The side was known as being the team of Erich Mielke. Playing in the DDR-Oberliga BFC won ten titles from 1979 to 1988 allegedly assisted by obedient referees. BFC Dynamo was reviled by many East Germans and referee obedience incurred the unofficially expressed displeasure of the countrys ruling Politburo. After German re-unification in 1990, the side was renamed FC Berlin in an attempt to re-package it and distance it from its past, in 1999, they again took up the name BFC Dynamo. Without its powerful patron and losing its best players to West German Bundesliga teams, the club filed for insolvency in 2001–02 but was required by the German Football Association to play out the balance of its games for the season as mandatory friendlies. BFC recovered to win the Verbandsliga Berlin championship in 2004 and return to fourth division play in the Oberliga Nordost-Nord where they settled in as upper-table side. On 12 June 2013, BFC Dynamo won the Berlin Cup for a time, beating SV Lichtenberg 47 1–0, thus qualifying for the national cup of the DFB. The crowd of 6,381 set a new record for a Berlin Cup final, the subsequent DFB-Pokal match against VfB Stuttgart took place on 4 August 2013 in front of 9,227 spectators. The stadium capacity of the Friedrich Ludwig Jahn Sportpark had been limited, while Dynamos Christoph Köhne came close after hitting the inner post in the 31st minute, Vedad Ibišević won the game for Stuttgart with goals in the 40th and 75th minutes, resulting in a 0–2 defeat. In the 2013–14 Oberliga season, BFC Dynamo won 15 out of the initial 16 games, after 21 season matches, the streak was extended to 20 wins and one draw, effectively securing promotion to Regionalliga Nordost with a 25-point lead
9.
Dynamo Dresden
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Sportgemeinschaft Dynamo Dresden e. V. commonly known as SG Dynamo Dresden or Dynamo Dresden, is a German association football club, based in Dresden, Saxony. It was founded on 12 April 1953, as an affiliated with the East German police. After the reunification of Germany, Dynamo played four seasons in the top division Bundesliga, the club will begin the 2016–17 season in the 2. The city of Dresden had played a significant part in German football before, after the war the occupying Allied authorities dissolved organizations across the country, including sports and football clubs like SC, as part of the process of denazification. DSC was reestablished in 1946 as SG Friedrichstadt, but with the part of the country, including Dresden, under Soviet control. After a riot at the final of the 1950 East German championship, the city needed a new, ideologically safe representative, and a new football club as founded, as part of SG Deutsche Volkspolizei Dresden. A team was assembled with players delegated from 11 other police-affiliated clubs, in April 1953, the central sports society SV Dynamo was founded, to which VP Dresden were affiliated, taking the name of SG Dynamo Dresden. Shortly after this the club claimed its first East German title and this success, though, proved to be the clubs undoing. Erich Mielke, head of the Stasi, of which Dynamo were now part, was unhappy that Dresden was enjoying footballing success, while the capital, East Berlin, in 1954, Dynamos team were moved to Berlin, to form Dynamo Berlin. Dynamo Dresden were left with a composed of youth and reserve players. They began to climb the leagues, though, and by 1962 they were back in the DDR-Oberliga and they recovered equally well from another relegation in 1968, and remained in the Oberliga from 1969 until its dissolution in 1991. Dynamo Dresden were one of these, although retained the title of Sportgemeinschaft. During the 1970s, Dynamo established themselves as one of the top teams in East Germany and they won five league titles, and two cups. FC Magdeburg for domination of the league, and became the most popular the side in the country, regularly drawing crowds of 25,000, around three times what other clubs were attracting. During this time Dynamo came up against West German opposition for the first time, on three occasions they were eliminated by English side Liverpool, twice in the UEFA Cup and once in the European Cup, and each time Liverpool went on to win the competition. In 1973, Hans-Jürgen Kreische was the first Dynamo Dresden player to be named East German Footballer of the Year, Kreische was the leagues leading goalscorer on four occasions, and was named in East Germanys squad for the 1974 World Cup, along with team-mate Siegmar Wätzlich. History was to repeat itself, though, at the end of the 1970s, East German football had generally been set up in favour of the Fußballclubs, who were usually delegated the best players, but the authorities had usually kept out of on-pitch matters. This changed in the late-1970s and 80s though, as players, BFC won ten consecutive titles, from 1979 to 1988
10.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
11.
Allied-occupied Germany
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The four powers divided Germany into four occupation zones for administrative purposes, into what is collectively known now as Allied-occupied Germany. This division was ratified at the Potsdam Conference, in Autumn 1944 the United States, United Kingdom, and Soviet Union had agreed on the zones by the London Protocol. The Final German Peace Treaty would result in the westward of Polands borders back to approximately as they were before 1722. In the closing weeks of fighting in Europe, United States forces had pushed beyond the boundaries for the future zones of occupation. The so-called line of contact between Soviet and American forces at the end of hostilities, mostly lying eastward of the July 1945-established inner German border was temporary. After two months in which they had areas that had been assigned to the Soviet zone. All territories annexed by Germany before the war from Austria and Czechoslovakia were returned to these countries, the Memel Territory, annexed by Germany from Lithuania before the war, was annexed by the Soviet Union in 1945 and transferred to the Lithuanian SSR. All territories annexed by Germany during the war from Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Poland, the American zone consisted of Bavaria and Hesse in Southern Germany, and the northern portions of the present-day German state of Baden-Württemberg. The ports of Bremen and Bremerhaven were also placed under American control because of the American request to have certain toeholds in Northern Germany, the headquarters of the American military government was the former IG Farben Building in Frankfurt am Main. Beginning in May 1945, many of the American combat troops and airmen in, Army, the Army Air Forces, and the U. S. Navy upon their return home. The Canadian Army was tied down in surrounding the Netherlands until the Germans there surrendered on 5 May 1945 – just two days before the surrender of the Wehrmacht in Western Europe to U. S. Then in July 1945, the British Army withdrew from small slices of Germany that had previously agreed to be occupied by the Soviet Army. Within the British Zone of Occupation, the CCG/BE re-established the German state of Hamburg, also in 1947, the German state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen became an exclave of the American Zone of Occupation located within the British Zone. In 1946, the Norwegian Brigade Group in Germany had 4,000 soldiers in Hanover, despite its being one of the Allied Powers, the French Republic was at first not granted an occupation zone in Germany. This created a French zone of occupation in the westernmost part of Germany and it consisted of two barely contiguous areas of Germany along the French border that met at just a single point along the Rhine River. It included the Saargebiet, which was disentangled from it on 16 February 1946, by 18 December 1946 customs controls were established between the Saar area and allied occupied Germany. The French zone ceded further adjacent municipalities to the Saar, included in the French zone was the town of Büsingen am Hochrhein, a German exclave separated from the rest of the country by a narrow strip of neutral Swiss territory. The Swiss government agreed to limited numbers of French troops to pass through its territory in order to maintain law
12.
Gauliga
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A Gauliga was the highest level of play in German football from 1933 to 1945. The leagues were introduced in 1933, after the Nazi takeover of power by the Sports office of the Third Reich, the German word Gauliga is composed of Gau, approximately meaning county or region, and Liga, or league. While the name Gauliga is not in use in German football anymore, mainly because it is attached to the Nazi past, some sports in Germany still have Gauligen, like gymnastics, the Gauligen were formed in 1933 to replace the previously existing Bezirksligas in Weimar Germany. The Nazis initially introduced 16 regional Gauligen, some of them subdivided into groups, the introduction of the Gauligen was part of the Gleichschaltung process, whereby the Nazis completely revamped the domestic administration. The Gauligen were largely formed along the new Gaue, designed to replace the old German states, like Prussia and Bavaria, shortly before the Nazis came to power, the DFB started to seriously consider the establishment of such a national league. In a special session on 28 and 29 May 1933, a decision was to be made on the establishment of the Reichsliga as a professional league, four weeks before that date, the session was cancelled, professionalism and Nazi ideology did not agree with each other. With the disappointing performance of the German team at the 1938 FIFA World Cup, in reality, this step was not taken until 1963, when the Bundesliga was formed, for similar reason, after the disappointing performance at the 1962 FIFA World Cup. It did, however, reduce the number of clubs in top leagues in the country considerably, beginning in 1935, with the re-admittance of the Saarland into Germany, the country and the leagues began to expand. With the aggressive expansion politics, and later, through the Second World War, new or regained territories were incorporated into the Third Reich. In those regions incorporated into Germany, new Gauligen were formed, with the outbreak of the Second World War, football continued but competitions were reduced in size as many players were drafted to the German Wehrmacht. Most Gauligen split into subgroups to reduce travel, which became more difficult as the war went on. Many clubs had to merge or form Kriegsgemeinschaften due to lack of players, the competition became increasingly flawed as the list of available players to a club fluctuated on a weekly basis, depending on who was where at a time. Unlike most leagues today, where income is generated from sponsors and TV in addition to ticket sales, but while in todays leagues the hosting teams keep the cash from the ticket sales, this was handled differently in the Gauligen. In the regular season, in cup matches or other competitive matches, the money was shared between the German Football Association, who received 5% of the income, the hosting club, in particular, the hosting club received 10% for using their ground and 5% for administrative costs. The remaining 75% of the income were shared between the two clubs. These relations changed for the play-offs for the German championship, here the matches were usually played on neutral ground, therefore 15% of the income were allotted for renting the ground, administrative cost and travel cost for the teams. The remaining income was divided equally between the clubs and the DFB, for the semi-final and final matches, yet another distribution key was applied. In the semi-final, teams received 20% of the net income, while some areas took until 1947, to restart football competitions, in the south of Germany, a highest league was formed soon after the Nazi collapse
13.
Nazism
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National Socialism, more commonly known as Nazism, is the ideology and practice associated with the 20th-century German Nazi Party and Nazi Germany, as well as other far-right groups. Nazism subscribed to theories of racial hierarchy and Social Darwinism, identifying Germans as part of what Nazis regarded as an Aryan or Nordic master race and it aimed to overcome social divisions and create a homogeneous society, unified on the basis of racial purity. The term National Socialism arose out of attempts to create a nationalist redefinition of socialism, the Nazi Partys precursor, the Pan-German nationalist and anti-Semitic German Workers Party, was founded on 5 January 1919. By the early 1920s, Adolf Hitler assumed control of the organisation, following the Holocaust and German defeat in World War II, only a few fringe racist groups, usually referred to as neo-Nazis, still describe themselves as following National Socialism. The full name of Adolf Hitlers party was Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, the shorthand Nazi was formed from the first two syllables of the German pronunciation of the word national. The term was in use before the rise of the NSDAP as a colloquial and derogatory word for a peasant, characterizing an awkward. It derived from Ignaz, being a version of Ignatius, a common name in Bavaria. Opponents seized on this and shortened the first word of the name, Nationalsozialistische. The NSDAP briefly adopted the Nazi designation, attempting to reappropriate the term, the use of Nazi Germany, Nazi regime, and so on was popularised by German exiles abroad. From them, the spread into other languages and was eventually brought back to Germany after World War II. In English, Nazism is a name for the ideology the party advocated. The majority of scholars identify Nazism in practice as a form of far-right politics, far-right themes in Nazism include the argument that superior people have a right to dominate over other people and purge society of supposed inferior elements. Adolf Hitler and other proponents officially portrayed Nazism as being neither left- nor right-wing, but the politicians of the Right deserve exactly the same reproach. It was through their miserable cowardice that those ruffians of Jews who came into power in 1918 were able to rob the nation of its arms, a major inspiration for the Nazis were the far-right nationalist Freikorps, paramilitary organisations that engaged in political violence after World War I. The Nazis stated the alliance was purely tactical and there remained substantial differences with the DNVP, the Nazis described the DNVP as a bourgeois party and called themselves an anti-bourgeois party. After the elections in 1932, the alliance broke after the DNVP lost many of its seats in the Reichstag, the Nazis denounced them as an insignificant heap of reactionaries. The DNVP responded by denouncing the Nazis for their socialism, their violence. Kaiser Wilhelm II, who was pressured to abdicate the throne and flee into exile amidst an attempted communist revolution in Germany, there were factions in the Nazi Party, both conservative and radical
14.
FC Erzgebirge Aue
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Fußball Club Erzgebirge Aue e. V. commonly known as simply FC Erzgebirge Aue or Erzgebirge Aue, is a German football club based in Aue, Saxony. The former East German side was a member of the 3. Liga in 2008–09, after being relegated from the 2, the city of Aue has a population of about 18,000, making it one of the smallest cities to ever host a club playing at the second highest level of German football. However, the team supporters from a larger urban area that includes Chemnitz and Zwickau. The club was founded as SG Aue in 1945, and on 1 November 1948 became BSG Pneumatik Aue under the sponsorship of the construction tool works. Changes in sponsorship led to a change in name to Zentra Wismut Aue in 1949, the club performed well, advancing through third and second tier play to the DDR-Oberliga in 1951. BSG finished as national vice-champions in 1953 losing in a final to Dynamo Dresden by a score of 2–3 and it was during this time that the club became dominant in East German football. It captured the 1955 East German Cup and followed this up with four titles in 1955,1956,1957 and 1959. It also played for the 1959 East German Cup, but lost 2–3 in a rematch versus Dynamo Berlin after the clubs had drawn 0–0 in the first game and those successes led to Aues participation in the European Champion Clubs Cup in 1958,1959 and 1961. In 1963, Karl-Marx-Stadt got its own team and Aues squad recovered its identity as BSG Wismut Aue, Aue sits 4th on the all-time DDR-Oberliga list and over the course of thirty-eight years played more games than any other East German side. Just behind them, 6th place Rot-Weiß Erfurt played 1,001 matches, after German reunification in 1990, the club was renamed FC Wismut Aue before taking on its current name, FC Erzgebirge Aue in 1993. The name Erzgebirge, Ore Mountains in English, recognizes that the home is located in the western part of these mountains. Aue was relegated to the DDR-Liga Staffel B in the 1989–90 season, so it was admitted to the NOFV-Oberliga Süd, in the combined football leagues of the newly united Germany, Aue began play in the NOFV-Oberliga Süd. With the establishment of the Regionalliga Nordost in 1994, the qualified for the new league. The club was moved to the Regionalliga Nord in 2000, and after a league title there in 2003. Bundesliga where it delivered mid-table performances in its first three seasons, but suffered relegation back to the tier in 2008. Aue became part of the new 3 and it finished runner-up in the league in its second season there, earning promotion back to the 2. After a fifth-place finish in its first season back, the club has struggled against relegation, Aue made its first appearance in the DFB-Pokal, the German Cup, in 1992 and since 2001 has been a regular participant there
15.
NOFV-Oberliga
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The NOFV-Oberliga is a division at step 5 of the German football league system. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, it became the successor of the DDR-Oberliga, and functions today as a 5th division in the territory of East Germany. This league is named after the Nordostdeutscher Fußballverband, the association of the DFB in the former East German territories. The league is split in two groups, north and south, the NOFV-Oberliga Nord and NOFV-Oberliga Süd. A third league, the NOFV-Oberliga Mitte existed from 1991 to 1994, the NOFV-Oberliga developed after the entry of the Deutscher Fußball-Verband to the Deutscher Fußball-Bund. It was the successor of the DDR-Oberliga and functioned as the division in the former East Germany for this season only. FC Hansa Rostock became champions of that league, with Dynamo Dresden being the runners-up, thereby both acquired the starting rights for the 1991–92 Bundesliga season. The following teams qualified directly for the 2, Bundesliga, FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt Hallesche FC Chemie Chemnitzer FC FC Carl Zeiss Jena These two teams qualified indirectly through a playoff round,1. FC Lokomotive Leipzig BSV Stahl Brandenburg All remaining clubs continued to play in the NOFV-Oberliga and this became the third-highest division starting with the 1991–92 season. During these three seasons the NOFV-Oberliga was the third-highest league in German football, at this time it consisted of three divisions, North, Central and South. Overall there were 10 Oberligen in Germany at the time, at the end of the season, the Oberliga champions had a play-off for promotion to the 2. The bottom two teams of division were relegated to the Landesligen. Division champions and promotion to 2, Bundesliga, 1991–92, Champion North, Berliner FC Dynamo – Champion Central,1. FC Union Berlin – Champion South, FSV Zwickau 1992–93, Champion North and promoted, FC Union Berlin – Champion South, FC Sachsen Leipzig 1993–94, Champion North, BSV Brandenburg – Champion Central,1. FC Union Berlin – Champion South and promoted, FSV Zwickau With the introduction of the Regionalliga the NOFV-Oberliga became the 4th level of the pyramid starting with the 1994–95 season, the number of divisions was reduced by one so that only North and South remained. Today it is the highest amateur division, the champions of both divisions were promoted directly to Regionalliga until Regionalliga was reduced from 4 to 2 divisions from the 1999–2000 season. Due to that change, there was no promotion from Oberliga in the 1998–99, starting with the 1999–2000 season promotion was decided by a two-leg playoff between the division champions. This rule was scrapped for the 2005–06 season, so that both division champions will be promoted to Regionalliga at the end of this season
16.
German Football Association
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The German Football Association is the governing body of football in Germany. A founding member of both FIFA and UEFA, the DFB has jurisdiction for the German football league system and is in charge of the mens and womens national teams, the DFB headquarters are based in Frankfurt am Main. Sole members of the DFB are the German Football League, organising the professional Bundesliga, Bundesliga, along with five regional and 21 state associations, organising the semi-professional and amateur levels. The 21 state associations of the DFB have a number of more than 25,000 clubs with more than 6.8 million members. From 1875 to the mid-1880s, the first kind of football played in Germany was according to rugby rules, later, association-style football teams formed separate clubs, and since 1890, they began to organise on regional and national levels. The DFB was founded on 28 January 1900 in Leipzig by representatives of 86 clubs, the vote held to establish the association was 62,22 in favour. Some delegates present represented more than one club, but may have voted only once, other delegates present did not carry their clubs authority to cast a ballot. The DFB consolidated the number of state-based German regional competitions in play for a single recognized national title for the season 1902/03. The German national team played its first game in 1908, before 1914, the German Empire was much larger than todays Germany, comprising Alsace-Lorraine and the eastern provinces. The borders of the associations were drawn according to suitable railway connections. Also, teams based in Bohemia, then part of Austria-Hungary, were eligible, as they were German Football clubs, thus, a German team from Prague was runner-up in the German championship. On the other hand, clubs of the Danish minority in Northern Schleswig refused to join the DFB and this area after World War I voted to join Denmark. Due to border changes imposed by the Treaty of Versailles, the DFB had to adopt its structure, the Saarland, Danzig, and the Memelland were detached from Germany and East Prussia was cut off from the main part by the Polish Corridor. The role of DFB and its representatives like Felix Linnemann under Nazi Germany was documented in 100 Jahre DFB, on a short general meeting on 9 July 1933 in Berlin, the DFB did so, at least formally. Later, the Hitler salute was made compulsory, Marxists and Jews were expelled, on the pitch, Germany had done well in 1934, but after a 0–2 loss in the 1936 Summer Olympics, with Adolf Hitler attending, the DFB and football fell from grace. Germany had made a bid to host the 1938 World Cup, following the Anschluss in March 1938 that made Austria part of Germany, the Austrian Football Association became part of the German federation. Four Germans represented West Europe in a FIFA friendly on 20 June 1937 in Amsterdam, during the war, Germany played international games until 1942. In the aftermath of World War II, German organisations were disbanded by the allies, FIFA decided in November 1945 to ban the no longer existing DFB from international competition, while the Austrian association was re-founded
17.
FC Stahl Brandenburg
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FC Stahl Brandenburg is a German association football club based in Brandenburg an der Havel, Brandenburg. The club was formed in 1950 as BSG Einheit Brandenburg and played its earliest seasons in the II division of East German football and they took on the name BSG Stahl Brandenberg in 1955 to reflect the backing of the local steel company. With that support, the able to assemble competitive sides by offering attractive salaries to the castoffs of other teams. The strategy drew some capable players to their ranks and helped develop a solid fan base. The side earned promotion to the DDR-Oberliga for the 1984–85 season, after a name change to BSV Stahl Brandenburg they spent the 1991–92 season in the 2. In 1993, with the closing of the steel mill. The club played in the tier three NOFV-Oberliga Nord from 1992 to 1994, won the league and earned promotion to the new Regionalliga Nordost, after a year at this level it dropped back to the Oberliga and down to the Verbandsliga Brandenburg in 1996. By the end of the 90s they found themselves mired in financial difficulty, the club declared bankruptcy in 1998 and quickly re-formed as FC Stahl Brandenburg, but continued to stumble. Fan protests from both sides – and more money problems – caused the merger to unravel the next year, today, after a stint in the tier seven Landesliga FC Stahl Brandenburg play in the Brandenburg-Liga as a lower table side. During the East German era, the also had a rugby union department, which now is separate club. The clubs honours, NOFV-Oberliga Nord Champions,1994 Runners-up,1993 Brandenburg Cup Winners,1994 Official website The Abseits Guide to German Soccer
18.
1. FC Lokomotive Leipzig
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The team won the 2015-16 NOFV-Oberliga Süd and qualified for the 2016–17 Regionalliga Nordost, where it will face former East German champions FC Carl Zeiss Jena and BFC Dynamo. The club was formed on 26 May 1896 out of the department of gymnastics club Allgemeine Turnverein 1845 Leipzig. The union lasted until 2 May 1900 when the two went their separate ways again. VfB Leipzig was one of the original eighty-six teams that came together in the city in 1900 to form the German Football Association and they were immediately successful at their chosen sport and made their way to the first German national championship final held in 1903. Their opponents were DFC Prag, an ethnically German side from Prague, the DFB had invited German clubs of this sort from other countries in order to boost numbers in their new national association. DFC Prag had made their way to the final under circumstances that had allowed them to playing a single playoff game. Arriving in Hamburg for the match, the heavily favoured Pragers took themselves off on a pub crawl the night before the contest. The contest against was delayed half an hour as officials scrambled to find a football that was in good condition, the host, FC93 Altona Hamburg, provided a new ball and eleven minutes in, DFC Prag scored the first goal. Leipzig played themselves into another final appearance in 1904, but the match was never contested, a protest by FV Karlsruhe over their disputed semi-final with Britannia Berlin was never resolved and the DFB called off the final only hours before its scheduled start. There would be no champion that year, the following season Leipzig found themselves unable to cover the expense of travelling to participate in their scheduled first round playoff match and so were eliminated from that years competition. They did, however, go on to raise the Viktoria again in 1906 and 1913, in the period leading up to World War II, VfB was unable to repeat their early success. After the re-organization of German football leagues under the Third Reich in 1933, while they earned good results within their own division, they were unable to advance in the playoff rounds. In 1937, they captured the Tschammerpokal, known today as the German Cup, in a match against FC Schalke 04, the dominant side of the era. The club, like most other organizations in Germany, including sports, club members reconstituted the team in 1946 as SG Probstheida under the auspices of the occupying Soviets. In 1963 Leipzigs two most important clubs – SC Rotation and SC Lokomotive Leipzig – were put together resulting in two new sides being founded – SC Leipzig and BSG Chemie Leipzig. East German football went through a general re-organization in 1965, creating football clubs as centres of high-level football, FC Lokomotive Leipzig, while rivals Chemie Leipzig continued as a Betriebssportgemeinschaft, or a company team. Lok earned a clutch of East German Cups with victories in 1976,1981,1986 and 1987 against failed appearances in the Cup final in 1970,1973 and 1977. They also won the UEFA Intertoto Cup in 1966 and made an appearance in the 1987 final of the UEFA Cup Winners Cup falling 0,1 to Johan Cruijffs Ajax Amsterdam after a Marco van Basten goal
19.
Chemnitzer FC
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Chemnitzer FC is a German association football club based in Chemnitz, Saxony. The roots of the club go back to its establishment as Chemnitzer BC1933 in 1933 after the collapse of former Chemnitzer BC1899, on 28 January 1900, Chemnitzer SC Britannia was a founding member of the German Football Association in Leipzig. During April the same year, the changed its name to Chemnitzer BC1899. The club was formed by students from Mittweida as Chemnitzer SC Britannia on 2 December 1899. On 8 August 1903, the became a founding member of the Verband Chemnitzer Fußball-Vereine. This local federation was included into the Verband Mitteldeutscher Fußball-Vereine, the regional federation of Central Germany. Until 1933, Chemnitzer BC were a side of the VMBV leagues. They took part in the WMBVs final round fifteen times, reaching the final once in 1927, despite a 0–4 defeat against VfB Leipzig, Chemnitz qualified for the 1927 German football championship as vice-champions, where they lost in the first round against eventual champions 1. In 1933, Chemnitzer BC1899 came into financial difficulties, despite a merger with local rivals SC Sachsen 1909 Chemnitz, bankruptcy and liquidation could not be avoided. The side was then immediately re-formed under the name Chemnitzer BC1933, CBC1933 were part of the Gauliga Saxony until the end of World War II. In the aftermath of the conflict, most organizations in Germany, including sports, upon the renaming of the city of Chemnitz to Karl-Marx-Stadt in 1953, the club followed suit and assumed the new city name as well. In 1956, the club was attached to the larger centralized sports club SC Motor Karl-Marx-Stadt. When the city re-claimed its original name in 1991, the team followed suit to become Chemnitzer FC, after joining the DDR-Oberliga for the 1962–63 season, the club generally earned uninspiring results, most often finishing in the lower half of the league table. They managed a surprising East German championship win at the end of the 1966–67 season, the club enjoyed its best international turn in 1989, advancing through two preliminary rounds to the Round of 16 of the 1989–90 UEFA Cup before being knocked out against Juventus. In the same season the finished as runners-up in the East German championship. After German reunification in 1990, Chemnitzer FC qualified for the 2, bundesliga at the end of the 1990–91 NOFV-Oberliga. Since then, the importance of the club has faded, the following four years were evenly split between the Regionalliga and the 2. Bundesliga before eventually being relegated back to the Regionalliga in 2001, the last couple of years, however, saw the club slowly rising through the German league system once again with promotions to the now fourth-tier Regionalliga in 2008 and the 3
20.
FC Carl Zeiss Jena
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FC Carl Zeiss Jena is a German football club based in Jena, Thuringia. The club was founded in May 1903 by workers at the Carl Zeiss AG optics factory as the company-sponsored Fussball-Club der Firma Carl Zeiss, the club underwent name changes in 1911 to Fussball Club Carl Zeiss Jena e. V. and in March 1917 to 1. SV Jena joined the Gauliga Mitte, one of 16 top-flight divisions formed in the reorganization of German football under the Third Reich, the team captured division titles in 1935,1936,1940, and 1941. This earned Jena entry to the finals, but they performed poorly and were never able to advance out of preliminary-round group play. After the 1943–44 season, the Gauliga Mitte broke up into a collection of city-based leagues as World War II overtook the area, in the immediate aftermath of the war, associations of all types were banned in Germany by the occupying Allied authorities. In the aftermath of World War II, East German authorities tagged sports teams with the names of socialist heroes, Ernst Abbe was a local son and he made an early contribution to easing the plight of workers by introducing the 8-hour work day at the Zeiss plant. In 1950 the club became a member of the DDR Liga. Renamed SC Motor Jena in 1954, they played their way back to the league by 1957. Jena won its first honours with the capture of the FDGB-Pokal in 1960, the club was re-founded as FC Carl Zeiss Jena in January 1966, and became one of East Germanys football clubs, focus centres for the development of talented players for the national side. Jena would go on to become a dominant side in the DDR-Oberliga between then and 1975 and they took two more national titles in 1968 and 1970, but finished in second place another half-dozen times to sides like Vorwärts Berlin, Dynamo Dresden and 1. In addition to their titles, FCC captured East German Cups in 1972,1974 and 1980. The club also appeared in the 1981 European Cup Winners Cup final and this was arguably the clubs greatest achievement. After German reunification in 1990, Jena was seeded into the 2 and their second-place finish in 1992 deteriorated into a 17th-place finish in 1994 and relegation to Regionalliga Nordost. They won immediate re-promotion, and played for three years at the tier-II level. Since 1999 the team has primarily played tier III and IV football, bundesliga in 2007–08, avoiding relegation by winning 2–1 away against FC Augsburg in their final match of the season. They would finish last in the 2, bundesliga in 2007–08, returning to the third tier. However, this would not be one of the Regionalligen, the German Football Association launched the new 3, Liga for 2008–09, of which Jena was a charter member. On 9 November 2009 Chairman Peter Schreiber announced his retirement, on 13 November the executive board accepted his resignation, the second team was involved in the 2009 European football betting scandal, accused of match-fixing in the game against ZFC Meuselwitz
21.
Hallescher FC
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Hallescher FC, sometimes still called by its former name Chemie Halle, is a German association football club based in Halle an der Saale, Saxony-Anhalt. The club currently plays in the 3, liga, the third highest level in the German football league system. For many years, Halle has been in East Germanys highest league, however, like many other teams from the former East, it then suffered the effects of economic and demographic decline in the region in the 1990s and fell down to amateur leagues. Since 2000, Hallescher FC has ended its downward trend and in the 2011–2012 season and these are all to be considered championships of one of numerous German first divisions. Main rivals here were Hallescher FC and to a lesser extent Borussia Halle, Sportfreunde Halle and those title qualified for participation in the Central German Championships which Wacker won 1921 and 1928. In the ensuing matches for the German Championship Wacker reached the semifinals in 1921. In 192810,000 saw a 0–3 quarterfinal exit versus FC Bayern Munich, in 1933–34 Wacker became first champions of the newly incepted central German division of the Gauliga. In the qualification group for the semifinals of the national championship Wacker came with one win, FC Nürnberg, Dresdner SC and Borussia Fulda. In the next seasons Wacker finished second and seventh before being relegated as ninth, in 1941 the club managed to return and achieved third places in the first two seasons and eighth in 1944. After World War II Wacker Halle was dissolved, like all German clubs, in 1948 the new club was renamed into SG Freiimfelde Halle, Freiimfelde being an inner eastern district. In April 1949 the footballers of Freiimfelde, after having won the championship of Saxony-Anhalt, joined ZSG Union Halle, the team finished the first two seasons on fifth, respectively sixth spot. After the first season the team played as BSG Turbine Halle, attendance average in 1950–51 was just under 10.000. In the season 1951–52 the average rose to 22,170 per match and Turbine won the championship of East Germany, ahead of SG Volkspolizei Dresden, the form could not be retained and Turbine finished in 1953 on the 13th spot. Nevertheless, in the 1953–54 DDR-Oberliga Turbine could improve to 8th position, the East German authorities were motivated by the West German World Cup win 1954 in Switzerland to make improvements to football in their country. BSGs were transformed to Sport Clubs, often part of major bodies of industry, in Halle this led to the foundation of SC Chemie Halle-Leuna on 18 September 1954 and a large part of the football department of Turbine was transferred to this new entity. Chemie Halle-Leuna were given the Oberliga spot of Turbine, which was kept alive, Chemie Halle-Leuna these days exists as Hallescher FC. Both clubs, Turbine Halle and Hallescher FC, claim the era between 1945 and 1954 as part of their history. The club would be renamed several times in the years, to SC Chemie Halle-Leuna in 1957, SC Chemie Halle in 1958
22.
1. FC Frankfurt
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FC Frankfurt is a German football club based in Frankfurt, Brandenburg. The club was founded in East Germany as the army club SV Vorwärts der HVA Leipzig in 1951 in the city of Leipzig, in 1953, the club was picked up and moved to East Berlin to play as ZSK Vorwärts Berlin. In October 1956, they were renamed ZASK Vorwärts Berlin, and in February 1957, Vorwärts won another two championships and in 1970 again took the FDGB-Pokal, but made a losing appearance in the national final. Throughout the entire period from 1951–71 the side played in the DDR Oberliga, in 1971, the club was moved again, this time from the capital to Frankfurt on the German-Polish border, to replace the local secret police-sponsored side SG Dynamo, which was then disbanded. Vorwärts then enjoyed another decent run in the 1980s, going to the UEFA Cup four times (where they were knocked out by West German clubs. In 1983 they finished second nationally, after German reunification in 1990, the club dropped its affiliation with the army and became FC Victoria Frankfurt/Oder. After financial problems and re-organization in 1993 the side emerged as Frankfurter FC Viktoria, in the early 1990s, they played a couple of seasons in tier III before slipping to division IV and V level play. The side then played in the Brandenburg-Liga before, on 1 July 2012, the new club took over Viktoria in the Brandenburg-Liga and was aiming for promotion to the higher leagues. Their first success was winning the league in 2015, earning promotion to the NOFV-Oberliga for the first time in 12 years. The forerunners of Viktoria out of Berlin bearing the name Vorwärts were not related to the traditional club Berliner FC Vorwärts 1890, the name Vorwärts was in common use in East Germany for teams associated with state security forces, including the police and the army. The E. V. in the present clubs name stands for the clubs names, Eintracht
23.
1. FC Magdeburg
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FC Magdeburg is a German association football club based in the city of Magdeburg. The club was founded in 1965 and spent all but one season in East Germanys top flight and it is the only East German club to have won a European title, winning the European Cup Winners Cup in 1974. It is the only East German club who won the double, winning the league, after German reunification, the club fell on hard times and only entered professional football in 2015 when the side was promoted to the 3. Football has been played in Magdeburg since the end of the 19th century, on 15 June 1896 SV Victoria 96 Magdeburg was founded, a club that had its best days before World War II, when it participated in the German championship finals on several occasions. Later the club participated in the Gauliga Mitte, after World War II, all sports clubs in the Soviet Occupation Zone were dissolved and a number of smaller clubs were created, which at first competed at a local and regional level. In 1945 players from the disbanded clubs Magdeburger SC Prussia 1899 and this club and SG Lemsdorf came together as the sports club BSG Eintracht Sudenburg, which in turn merged with SAG Krupp Gruson in 1950. The next year the club was renamed BSG Stahl Magdeburg, and then in 1952, in 1957 the football department of Motor Mitte was moved to SC Aufbau Magdeburg, a political decision with the goal of achieving higher standards of performance. In 1965, the department was again broken out of SC Aufbau. This was part of a general – again politically motivated – movement in East Germany towards football-only clubs with the goal of achieving higher standards, FC Magdeburg is the oldest of the football clubs created in this period. SC Aufbau were promoted to the first tier of East German football in 1959, at the beginning of the 1960s, the club usually played in the lower midtable of the DDR-Oberliga, but in 1964 the club had its first major success with a surprise win of the FDGB-Pokal. In the final at Dessau, Magdeburg came back from being 0–2 down to beat SC Leipzig 3–2. The cup win meant the first international appearance of a Magdeburg club, legend reports that the coin first stuck upright in the muddy ground, and only the second toss brought about a decision. SC Aufbau finished mid-table again in the 1964–65 season and managed to defend their cup title as the first team in East German football ever, however, the 1965–66 season, when SC Aufbaus footballers became 1. FC Magdeburg, ended in disaster, The club finished last in the table and was relegated to the second-tier DDR-Liga, with their new manager Heinz Krügel, Magdeburg were immediately repromoted and finished third in 1968 and 1969. With their third win of the FDGB-Pokal in 1969 the club had established itself among the top teams of East German football. During the 1970s, the DDR-Oberliga was mostly dominated by two teams,1, FC Magdeburg and SG Dynamo Dresden. One of the figures behind the success at Magdeburg was Heinz Krügel, under his reign, Magdeburg produced 9 East German internationals between 1969 and 1974 alone, four of which were part of the East German team competing at the 1974 FIFA World Cup. The golden age of Magdeburg football began in 1972, when the won the East German championship with the youngest squad in history
24.
FC Energie Cottbus
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FC Energie Cottbus is a German football club based in Cottbus, Brandenburg. It was founded in 1963 as SC Cottbus in what was East Germany, after the reunification of Germany, Energie played six seasons in the third tier of the German football league system before floating between the 2. Bundesliga and Bundesliga for 17 years between 1997 and 2014, from 2014 to 2016, the club played in the third tier,3. In the 2016–17 season, Energie Cottbus will play in the Regionalliga Nordost after being relegated, Energie Cottbus can trace its roots back to a predecessor side of FSV Glückauf Brieske-Senftenberg, a club founded by coal miners in 1919, in what was then called the town of Marga. FV Grube Marga, as the club was called, was active until 1924 when the miners left to form a new team called SV Sturm Grube Marga which was banned by the Nazi Party in 1933. The club re-emerged after World War II in 1949 as BSG Franz Mehring Grube, the players of this side formed SC Energie Cottbus in 1963, whilst the reserve team merged back to BSG Aktivist Brieske-Ost to form BSG Aktivist Senftenberg. The club still exists as FSV Glückauf Brieske-Senftenberg today, East German authorities had a penchant for tagging sports teams with the names of socialist heroes, Franz Mehring was a German socialist politician and journalist. In the mid-1960s, a program by the regime led to the separation of football sides from sports clubs. The football club went by name only briefly and was quickly renamed BSG Energie in early 1966. The team took on the name FC Energie in 1990 at the time of German reunification, after years as a II division or lower-table I division side in East Germany, Energie has emerged as one of the few former DDR sides to enjoy relative prosperity in a united Germany. After six seasons playing tier III football, the club earned promotion to the 2, Bundesliga in 1997, winning the Regionalliga Nordost, and then played its way into the Bundesliga in 2000, where it managed a three-year stay. A key player in the Bundesliga run was Vasile Miriuță, an imaginative midfield player who played a part in the teams promotion. After being relegated, Energie narrowly missed a return to the top tier. During season the manager and the chairman were replaced, next season was a much more successful one – the club returned to play in the First Division Bundesliga after winning promotion. The 2006–07 Bundesliga season resulted in a 13th-place finish and a record in Bundesliga season points earned. Energie Cottbus was the club from the former East Germany playing in the Bundesliga until 1. FC Nürnberg relegated the team on 1 June 2009, Bundesliga for another five seasons until 2014, when an 18th-place finish meant relegation to the 3. Liga, ending a 17-season stint in the Bundesliga and 2, after a 19th-place finish in the 3
25.
FC Sachsen Leipzig
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FC Sachsen Leipzig was a German football club from the Leutzsch district of Leipzig, Saxony. The club continued the traditions of BSG Chemie Leipzig, although several short-lived successor sides were created, only one has survived, the BSG Chemie established in 1997 after financial troubles. The club officially dissolved in 2011, the prewar identity of the club is rooted in the establishment of Britannia Leipzig in 1899 and its successor TuRa Leipzig. The reunification of East and West Germany saw significant change in football in the half of the country. At the end of May 1990, the club was renamed FC Grün-Weiß Leipzig and quickly merged with SV Chemie Böhlen to create FC Sachsen in August of that year and they took part in qualification play for the 2. Bundesliga at the end of 1990-91, but failed in their attempt to advance, Sachsen captured the Oberliga title in 1992-93, but were denied an opportunity to again take part in the promotion round because of financial problems. After another season at the Oberliga level, they slipped to the Regionalliga Nordost where they remained through 2001 before again collapsing into bankruptcy. In 2006, Red Bull tried to purchase FC Sachsen Leipzig, Sachsen continued to struggle and, in March 2009, the club had to declare bankruptcy for the second time in its history before folding on 30 June 2011. Two new sides soon appeared, both claiming to be the heirs of the tradition of FC Sachsen. Founded on 21 May 2011, SG Leipzig Leutzsch took the place of Sachsen in the league, in mid-2013 the club re-adopted the name SG Sachsen Leipzig, but their financial difficulties continued and in May 2014 the association was again bankrupt. However, the name Sachsen Leipzig was soon taken up again by a new club, LFV Sachsen Leipzig played the 2015-16 season in the 3. The team secured promotion to the 2016-172, a new BSG Chemie Leipzig was founded in 1997 and the team began play in the lowest tier city competition,3. That club won successive promotions and quickly advanced to 6th tier play and their progress stalled in 2013 when they slipped to Bezirkliga play for a single season. They also hope to preserve and build on the tradition represented by Chemie. In May 2014 it was announced that clubs would cooperate in the future at the junior level, as SG Sachsen is insolvent. The ultimate goal is the survival of the Association, so that at least the teams of SG Sachsen are secured. SG Sachsen Leipzig sees itself, similar to BSG Chemie Leipzig, SG Sachsen Leipzig played in the Saxony League. At the end of 2013 liquidity difficulties were encountered, the SG had Sachsen Leipzig on 5 May 2014 to file for bankruptcy, SG Leipzig Leutzsch / SG Sachsen Leipzig LFV Sachsen Leipzig BSG Chemie Leipzig Past players who are the subjects of Wikipedia articles can be found here
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Regionalliga Nordost
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The Regionalliga Nordost is the fourth tier of the German football league system in the states of Berlin, Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony and Thuringia. These comprise the states of former East Germany as well as West-Berlin, as such, its territorial cover is almost identical to the old DDR-Oberliga. It is one of five leagues at the tier, together with the Regionalliga Bayern, Regionalliga Südwest, Regionalliga Nord. From 1994 to 2000 it was part of the third tier, the last of these occurred in 2012, which saw the Regionalliga Nordost reinstated. The Regionalliga Nordost was formed in 1994 to form a third level of play between the 2. Bundesliga and the NOFV-Oberligas Nord, Mitte and Süd, the league was made up of 18 clubs, with two coming from the 2nd Bundesliga and six each from Mitte and Nord while the south only sent four. It was formed three other Regionalligas, the Regionalliga Nord, West/Südwest and Süd. With the introduction of the Regionalliga also went the disbanding of the division of the NOFV-Oberligas. Its clubs were spread between the remaining two, the founding members of the Regionalliga Nordost were, From the 2. The league winner was not always promoted to the 2nd Bundesliga, the champions of the Regionalligas Nord and Nordost had to play-off for a spot in the 2nd Bundesliga from 1996 to 2000. The winner of this contest was promoted, the loser faced the runners-ups of the Regionalligas Süd, in 1997, Energie Cottbus became the first club from the Regionalliga to reach a German Cup final, losing 2-0 to VfB Stuttgart. The league was disbanded after six seasons, in 2000, the number of Regionalligas was reduced from four to two. Most clubs from the league went to the Regionalliga Nord, some clubs from the south went to the Regionalliga Süd, the Regionalliga Nordost was not recreated, however. Instead, its clubs remained in the Regionalliga Nord, teams from its region playing in the Regionalliga Süd moved to the northern group as well, unless they qualified for the 2nd or 3rd Bundesliga. The other eleven teams were relegated to the NOFV-Oberligas. The number of leagues was expanded to five. The defunct Regionalliga Nordost was reestablished and a Regionalliga Bayern was established, also, the Regionalliga West lost the clubs from the south west to a new league, formed out of those clubs and clubs from Regionalliga Süd outside Bavaria. The new system came into operation at the beginning of the 2012–13 season, the number of reserve teams per Regionalliga was limited to seven
27.
West Berlin
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West Berlin was an enclave which comprised the western part of the city of Berlin during the Cold War. It was formally controlled by the Western Allies and formed a de facto part of West Germany, and was entirely surrounded by the Soviet-controlled East Berlin and East Germany. West Berlin had great significance during the Cold War, as it was widely considered by westerners as an island of freedom. A wealthy city, West Berlin was noted for its liberal and cosmopolitan character. With about two million inhabitants, West Berlin had the biggest population of any city in Cold War Germany and it was 100 miles east of the Inner German border and only accessible by land from West Germany by narrow rail and highway corridors. It consisted of the American, British, and French occupation sectors established in 1945 and was de facto part of West Germany and it had a special and unique legal status because its administration was formally conducted by the Western Allies. East Berlin, de jure occupied and administered by the Soviet Union, was the de facto capital of East Germany, the Berlin Wall, built in 1961, physically divided West Berlin from its East German surroundings until it fell in 1989. The Potsdam Agreement established the framework for the occupation of Germany in the wake of World War II. The territory of Germany, as it existed in 1937, would be reduced by most of Eastern Germany thus creating the former territories of Germany. The remaining territory would be divided into four zones, each administered by one of the allied countries, according to the agreement, the occupation of Berlin would end only as a result of a quadripartite agreement. The Western Allies were guaranteed three air corridors to their sectors of Berlin, and the Soviets also informally allowed road, at first, this arrangement was intended to be only a temporary administrative structure, with all parties declaring that Germany and Berlin would soon be reunited. However, as the relations between the allies and the Soviet Union soured and the Cold War began, the joint administration of Germany. Soon, Soviet-occupied Berlin and western-occupied Berlin had separate city administrations, in 1948, the Soviets tried to force the Western Allies out of Berlin by imposing a land blockade on the western sectors—the Berlin Blockade. The West responded by using its air corridors for supplying their part of the city with food, in May 1949, the Soviets lifted the blockade, and West Berlin as a separate city with its own jurisdiction was maintained. Following the Berlin Blockade, normal contacts between East and West Berlin resumed, however, in cases this proved only temporary. In 1952, the East German government began sealing its borders, as a direct result the electrical grids were separated and phone lines were cut. However, the culmination of the schism did not occur until 1961 with the construction of the Berlin Wall. From the legal theory followed by the Western Allies, the occupation of most of Germany ended in 1949 with the declaration of the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic
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FSV Zwickau
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FSV Zwickau is a German association football club located in Zwickau, Saxony. Todays club claims as part of its complex heritage sides that were East Germanys first champions,1948 Ostzone winners SG Planitz and 1950 DDR-Oberliga champions ZSG Horch Zwickau. In addition to the earliest East German championship sides, current day club FSV Zwickau can name a long list of local associations among its predecessors. Fußball-Club Planitz was established 27 April 1912 in a village of that name located south of Zwickau, on 28 August that year the team adopted the name Planitzer Sportclub and in 1918 was briefly known as Sportvereinigung Planitz, before again becoming SC on 2 February 1919. The clubs first notable appearance was in the playoffs of the regional Mitteldeutschland league in 1931 that saw them advance as far as the semi-finals, under the Third Reich German football was reorganized in 1933 into sixteen top-flight divisions known as Gauligen. They advanced to the national level quarter finals where they were put out 2,3 by eventual vice-champions Vienna Wien, through the late 1930s and early 1940s, SC made several early round appearances in play for the Tschammerpokal, predecessor of todays DFB-Pokal. In the aftermath of World War II most German organizations, including sports, in 1945, the club became part of Sportgruppe Planitz, an association made up of several area clubs. Football competition quickly resumed throughout the country and SG emerged as champions of the Soviet-controlled Ostzone through a 1,0 victory over SG Freiimfelde Halle on 4 July 1948 in Leipzig. The club was scheduled to represent the region of the country in the national playoffs in a preliminary round match versus 1. FC Nuremberg, but were denied permission to travel to Stuttgart to play the match as a result of early Cold War tensions between the Soviets and the Western Allies. Nuremberg went on to claim the title in a playoff staged under the authority of the German Football Association. The following year Planitz had a season and failed to qualify for the playoffs. In 1950 the club part of BSG Aktivist Steinkohle Zwickau another postwar side which had been formed 14 June 1949. Sometime in 1951 part of this broke away to become BSG Fortschritt Planitz which would in 1990 re-adopt the name SV Planitz. The remainder of Aktivist Steinkohle Zwickau was re-christened BSG Aktivist Karl-Marx Zwickau and this club also claimed the 1948 Ostzone champions as part of its lineage. They slipped to lower level competition until re-appearing in the third tier 2. They captured that division in 1962 were promoted to the DDR-Liga, after a string of undistinguished campaigns, they became part of BSG Motor Zwickau in 1968 which was renamed BSG Sachsenring Zwickau on 1 May that year. They were renamed ZSG Horch Zwickau in 1949 and became part of East Germanys new top-flight circuit and they emerged as the leagues first champions with a disputed victory over Dresden Friedrichstadt on the last day of the season
