The Eishockey-Bundesliga was formed in 1958 as the elite hockey competition in the Federal Republic of Germany, replacing the Oberliga in this position. From the 1994–95 season, it was in turn replaced by the Deutsche Eishockey Liga, which now also carries the name 1st Bundesliga in its logo. The DEL, originally administered by the DEB, the German Ice Hockey Federation, became an independent league in 1997.

The Adler Mannheim is a professional ice hockey team of the Deutsche Eishockey Liga, the highest-level ice hockey league in Germany. The team is based in Mannheim, a city in the northern part of Baden-Württemberg. Currently, the team plays at SAP Arena, where they moved to at the beginning of the 2005–06 season after having played at Eisstadion am Friedrichspark for nearly seven decades from 1938 through 2005. They have won the German Championship a total of eight times, seven of those coming after 1994 in the Deutsche Eishockey Liga.