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, or regions, 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 the return of a number of German sides that played in a rump league set up in the Saarland, a German state occupied by the French since the end of World War I. Some of these teams played in the French Second Division, including FV Saarbruecken (later renamed 1. FC Saarbrücken), who won that division handily but were denied promotion to the First Division.
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.
Buy Germany World Cup Tickets online for the FIFA world cup 2010. Other than World cup tickets you can also get Champions League tickets, Champions League final tickets, Premier League tickets and Carling cup tickets from the same spot online without any headache and with guaranteed delivery of tickets at home.
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, or regions, 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 the return of a number of German sides that played in a rump league set up in the Saarland, a German state occupied by the French since the end of World War I. Some of these teams played in the French Second Division, including FV Saarbruecken (later renamed 1. FC Saarbrücken), who won that division handily but were denied promotion to the First Division.
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.
Buy Germany World Cup Tickets online for the FIFA world cup 2010. Other than World cup tickets you can also get Champions League tickets, Champions League final tickets, Premier League tickets and Carling cup tickets from the same spot online without any headache and with guaranteed delivery of tickets at home.
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