History of German Football - German Football Under The Third Reich

German Football Under The Third Reich

The reach of Germany's totalitarian Nazi regime stretched into social institutions at all levels, including their football leagues. Most sports and football associations were disbanded or replaced by Nazi-sponsored organisations. To join a DFB club, a player required recommendations from two non-Marxists to be permitted to play. The DFB gradually lost its independence as it was assimilated into the Deutscher Reichsausschuss für Leibesübungen (DRA) (Reich Committee for Physical Education).

Under Hans von Tschammer und Osten as Reichssportsführer, appointed by the Nazis, formerly independent sports organisations became departments of a new organisation which replaced the DRA — Deutscher Reichsbund für Leibesübungen (DRL, later NSRL or Nationalsozialistischer Reichsbund für Leibesübungen). As in most of German society at the time, sports associations and football teams took part in the purge of Jews from their organisations as ordered by the regime. A few clubs, such as Alemannia Aachen and Bayern Munich, moved to support or protect their members in the face of these actions.

Football was re-organised into sixteen Gaue (DRL sub-divisions) in the Gauliga, which was in place from 1933 to 1945. The overall effect of this was positive for German football. Prior to 1933, nearly 600 clubs competed in the top flight. League re-organisation reduced this to about 170 sides and significantly raised the level of competition. This was the beginning of a process of consolidation of the myriad of small regional leagues that would culminate in a stronger, unified national league structure. The German Cup was introduced in 1935. Known initially as the Tschammerpokal, after Hans von Tschammer, the first cup winner was 1. FC Nuremberg. Play for the Tschammerpokal went on until 1943 and was not resumed again until 1953, under its new name.

The pre-war period saw a number of German sides from Saarland, Danzig and the Memel Region playing in German league and cup competitions even though the Versailles Treaty had handed those regions over to the League of Nations after the end of World War I; football-wise, they had remained within the DFB (or DRL, respectively). In post-war times, 1. FC Saarbrücken (formerly FV Saarbrücken) played in the French Second Division for one season. They won that division handily but were denied promotion to the First Division. The Saarland was to be granted its own FIFA membership until it was re-united with Germany in 1956.

Twenty years back, FC Schalke 04 dominated German football during the Nazi era and was often held up for propaganda purposes as an example of the new Germany. As the Reich expanded through conquest, teams from Austria, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Alsace-Lorraine and Luxembourg were incorporated into the Gauliga. After the Anschluss, the forced union of Austria with Germany, Vienna's Rapid Wien captured the Tschammerpokal in 1938 and the German national championship in 1941, the latter with a 4-3 win over Schalke, who had been three goals ahead with just fifteen minutes to play in the game.

During the war, football was used as a morale booster for the population and was supported by the regime. Many teams were sponsored by the Luftwaffe, the SS, or other branches of the military. As the tide turned against Germany, the Gauliga began to crumble as players were called away to military service or were killed in the conflict, stadiums were bombed and travel became difficult. The original sixteen Gauligen broke up into over thirty smaller, more local circuits. The level of play deteriorated and lopsided scores became common, the record being a 32-0 win by Germania Mudersbach over FV Engen. The 1943–44 championship was initially cancelled but eventually went ahead after widespread protest. The 1944–45 season began less than two weeks later, rather than after the usual three-month summer break. The last recorded match in the Third Reich was on April 23, 1945 as Bayern Munich defeated 1860 Munich 3:2. Less than three weeks later, Germany surrendered unconditionally.