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, 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.

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History of German football: Early history

Prior to the formation of the Bundesliga, German football was played at an amateur level in a large number of sub-regional leagues (until 1945) which, in post-war times, had a top layer of semi-professional regional Oberligen (Premier Leagues). Regional champions and, from 1925 onwards, runners-up played a series of playoff matches for the right to compete in a final game for the national championship. On January 28, 1900, a national association, the Deutscher Fussball Bund (DFB) was founded in Leipzig with 86 member clubs. From the start, the DFB was - and still is - a federation of regional associations. The first recognised national championship team was VfB Leipzig, who beat DFC Prague 7-2 in a game played in Altona on May 31, 1903.

The nascent German association permitted teams from outside the country in their new league, as long as they were ethnically German sides. This is how Prague, a team from Austria-Hungary, managed an appearance in the German national final. Once the DFB joined FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) in 1904, clubs from outside the country were no longer permitted to play in Germany.

The last team to win the Viktoria was Dresdner SC, who beat the air-force club Luftwaffen SV Hamburg in Berlin's Olympiastadion 4-0 to end the 1943–44 competition. In the confusion at the end of World War II, the trophy disappeared. It was re-discovered decades later in an East German bank safe-deposit box where it had been placed by a Dresden supporter for safekeeping. It has since been returned to the DFB. In the meantime, a new championship trophy, the Meisterschale ("Championship Plate"), sometimes nicknamed "die Salatschüssel" (the salad bowl), was created in 1949.

In 1919, there were 150,000 registered football players in Germany; by 1932, there were more than a million. In spite of the formation of a national association, German football held to an ideal of amateurism built around regional and local sports associations who felt that professionalism would diminish sportsmanship and local participation in the game. In the early 1930s, the DFB's president, Felix Linnemann, pushed for the creation of a professional league, or Reichsliga, in which the country's best teams would compete for the national championship. The idea was rebuffed by the regional federations dominating the sport.

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West Germany

As in most aspects of life, the pre-war traditions and organisations of Germany were carried on by the Federal Republic of Germany, which was referred to as West Germany. This applied also to the restored DFB which had its headquarters in Frankfurt am Main and still employed coach Sepp Herberger. With recognition by FIFA and UEFA, the DFB maintained and continued the record of the pre-war team. Neighboring Switzerland was once again the first team that would play (now West) Germany in 1950, with Turkey and Republic of Ireland being the only non-German speaking nations to play them in friendly matches during 1951.

After only 18 post war games in total, West Germany had qualified for the 1954 World Cup, having prevailed against Norway and the "third German state", the Saarland. To prove themselves the champion Germany National Football team now got a chance by qualifying to the FIFA World cup 2010. Keeping their terrific history in mind they are supposed to perform their best in this tournament. Ticket4football is providing fans with the full joy of watching the world cup matches live at cheaper rates by offering Germany World Cup Tickets online. 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.

East Germany national football team

The East Germany national football team was from 1952 to 1990 the football team of the German Democratic Republic, playing as one of three post-war German teams, along with Saarland and West Germany.

After German reunification in late 1990, the Deutscher Fußball Verband der DDR (DFV), and with it the East German team, joined the Deutscher Fußball Bund (DFB) and the German national football team that had just won the World Cup. In 1949, before the GDR was founded and while regular private clubs were still banned under the Soviet occupation, efforts were made to play football anyway. Helmut Schön coached selections of Saxony and the Soviet occupation zone before moving to the West. On 6 February 1951, the GDR applied for FIFA membership, which was protested by the DFB, which was already a full member. FIFA accepted the GDR association (later called DFV) on 6 October 1951 as a provisional member, and on 24 July 1952 as a full member.

The first international game, not competitive but rather a display of good will, took place on 21 September 1952 against Poland in Warsaw, losing 3-0 in front of a crowd of 35,000. The first home game was on 14 June 1953 against Bulgaria, a 0-0 in front of a crowd of 55,000 at Heinz-Steyer-Stadion in Dresden. Only three days later, the Uprising of 1953 in East Germany prevented the permitted assembly of that many Germans. On 8 May 1954 games resumed, with a 1-0 loss against Romania. The East Germans had not even considered to enter the World Cup which was won by the West Germans two months later. This caused much euphoria not only in the West, and the GDR tried to counter this by abandoning their policy of presenting a group of socialist role models of their "new German state"; instead, players were selected purely according to ability. The GDR entered the qualification for the WC 1958 and were hosts to Wales on 19 May 1957 in Zentralstadion Leipzig. 500,000 tickets were requested, officially 100,000 were admitted, but 120,000 in the crowded house witnessed a 2-1 victory.

East Germany was not as successful as its Western counterpart in World Cups or European Championships. It never qualified for the finals of the European Championship and only qualified for one World Cup, in 1974. However, they were always serious contenders in qualifying throughout their history. Well the current representative of German nation, Germany national football team has qualified for World cup 2010, you can buy Germany world cup tickets and World cup tickets for other teams online from ticket4football.

Saarland national football team (Germany)

The Saarland national football team was the association football team representing the German state of the Saarland from 1950 to 1956 during the French occupation following World War II. As France opposed a membership of the Saarland in the Federal Republic of Germany until 1956, they administered it separately from the rest of Germany as the Saar protectorate.

As the local population did not want to join France, separate organisations were founded, like in 1950 a NOC that led to an appearance of Saar at the 1952 Summer Olympics. Also, considering themselves not an independent nation different from Germany, the football team was not designated as a "national team", and was more generally referred to as a "selection" (German: Auswahl) or some similar term.

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Memorable losses and Game of the Century

In the 1966 World Cup, West Germany reached the final after beating the USSR in the semifinal, facing hosts England at Wembley Stadium. Wolfgang Weber's last minute goal took the game into extra time, a goal claimed to be controversial by the English, with the ball appearing to hit the hand of a German player as it travelled through the England penalty area before he prodded it in. The first extra time goal by Geoff Hurst, nicknamed Wembley-Tor (Wembley goal) in Germany, is still controversial after all this time. Later video evidence indicates that the ball never crossed the line after hitting the crossbar. As the Swiss referee did not see the situation properly, the opinion of the Soviet linesman Tofik Bakhramov who believed that the ball bounced back from the net rather than the crossbar led to one of the most contentious goals in the history of football. While the Germans pushed hard to tie the game, spectators entered the field in the final seconds, and Hurst scored another controversial goal giving England a 4-2 win.

West Germany gained a measure of revenge in the 1970 World Cup by knocking England out in the quarter-finals 3-2, having been 2-0 down, before they suffered another memorable extra time loss, this time in the semi-final against Italy at Estadio Azteca. Karl-Heinz Schnellinger scored during injury time to level the match at 1-1, and during extra time, both teams held the lead at one time. Memorably, Franz Beckenbauer remained on the field even with a dislocated shoulder, his arm in a sling strapped to his body, as West Germany had used up their two allowed substitutions. Eventually won 4-3 by Italy, this match with five goals in extra time is one of the most dramatic in World Cup history, and is called "Game of the Century" in both Italy (Partita del secolo) and Germany (Jahrhundertspiel). While the exhausted Italians lost to Brazil, West Germany went on to claim third place by beating Uruguay 1-0, and Gerd Müller finished as the tournament top scorer with 10 goals.

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Germany and Netherlands football rivalry

The Netherlands national football team has rivalry with the Germany national football team that dates back to the 1974 FIFA World Cup, where the Netherlands lost to Germany in the final despite being favoured.

When the Dutch failed to qualify for the 2002 World Cup, Germans fans often rejoiced with singing "Ohne Holland fahr'n wir zur WM" ("Without Holland we're going to the World Cup"). In the 2006 World Cup documentary Deutschland. Ein Sommermärchen, the early elimination of the Dutch team is illustrated by showing an Autobahn sign "Netherlands, exit right". After the elimination of Germany in Euro 2004, Dutch supporters went to the German fan zone and hung up a sign saying "Zimmer Frei" ("Open vacancy" in German). When Germany hosted the 2006 FIFA World Cup, Dutch musicians de Toppers scored a hit in the Netherlands with the song "Wir Sind die Holländer" which heavily referenced the rivalry between the countries, including the fact that many Dutch still mockingly complain about the Germans "stealing our bikes", referring to Nazi Germany confiscating Dutch bikes during World War II. The Dutch supporters are also known to chant "Jetzt geht's los" to the German side, meaning "It's about to go down".

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