Gauliga Baden - Overview

Overview

The league was introduced in 1933, after the Nazi take over of power in Germany and Baden. It replaced the Bezirksliga as the highest level of play in German football competitions.

The Gauliga Baden was established with ten clubs, all from the state of Baden.

The Gauliga replaced as such the Bezirksliga Württemberg-Baden and Bezirksliga Rhein-Saar, the highest leagues in the region until then.

In its first season, the league had ten clubs, playing each other once at home and once away. The league winner qualified for the German championship while the bottom two teams were relegated. The league remained unchanged until the outbreake of World War II.

In this era, the only success to come for a club from Baden was, when the SV Waldhof Mannheim reached the German cup final in 1939, losing to the 1. FC Nuremberg.

In 1939-40, the league played in four different groups with a finals round at the end to determined the Baden champion. The year after, it returned to its old system.

For the 1941-42 season, the Gauliga Baden split into a northern and a southern group with six teams each and a four-team finals round. In 1942-43 it returned to a single, ten-team format. Another change of system for the season after meant 19 clubs in three groups with a three team-finals round.

The imminent collapse of Nazi Germany in 1945 gravely affected all Gauligas and football in Baden ceased in January 1945 with none of the groups having absolved their full program.

With the end of the Nazi era, the Gauligas ceased to exist and the state of Baden found itself sub divided between two allied occupation zones, the French zone in the south and the US zone in the north.

The northern half soon saw the formation of the Oberliga Süd as the highest football league for the US occupation zone, while the south became part of the Oberliga Südwest.