1940–41 Gauliga

Gauliga

Season	1940–41
Champions	20 regional winners
German champions	SK Rapid Wien
← 1939–40 1941–42 →

The initial 16 districts of the Gauliga from 1933 to 1938

The 1940–41 Gauliga was the eighth season of the Gauliga, the first tier of the football league system in Germany from 1933 to 1945. It was the second season of the league held during the Second World War.

The league operated in twenty regional divisions, two more than in the previous season, with the league containing 225 clubs all up, nine more than the previous season. The majority of Gauligas returned to their pre-war single-division format, having been split into regional sub-divisions for the first war season. The league champions entered the 1941 German football championship, won by SK Rapid Wien who defeated FC Schalke 04 4–3 in the final. It was Rapid's sole German national championship.^[1]

The 1940–41 season saw the seventh edition of the Tschammerpokal, now the DFB-Pokal. The 1941 edition was won by Dresdner SC, defeating FC Schalke 04 2–1 on 2 November 1941, leaving Schalke to have lost both the championship and cup final in 1941.^[2]

The number of Gauligas, twenty, increased by two compare to the previous season because of the introduction of the Gauliga Danzig-Westpreußen, named after the city of Gdańsk (German: Danzig) and the former Prussian province of West Prussia and formed by clubs from the Free City of Danzig and Pomeranian Voivodeship, annexed from Poland, and Gauliga Elsaß, formed in the Alsace (German: Elsaß) region which was annexed by Nazi Germany from France.^[3][4]

In the part of Czechoslovakia incorporated into Germany in March 1939, the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, a separate Czech league continued to exist which was not part of the Gauliga system or the German championship.^[5][6]

Champions

Map of Nazi Germany showing its expansion 1938 -1945

The 1940–41 Gauliga champions qualified for the group stage of the German championship. VfL Köln 99, Dresdner SC, FC Schalke 04 and SK Rapid Wien won their championship groups and advanced to the semi-finals with the latter two reaching the championship final which Rapid won.^[7][8][9]

FC Schalke 04 won their eighth consecutive Gauliga title, Vorwärts-Rasensport Gleiwitz their fourth consecutive title, Stuttgarter Kickers and Dresdner SC their third while SK Rapid Wien, Kickers Offenbach and VfB Königsberg defended their 1939–40 Gauliga title.^{[8][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17]}

Club	League	No. of clubs
VfL Neckarau	Gauliga Baden	10
TSV 1860 München	Gauliga Bayern (1940–41 season)	13
Tennis Borussia Berlin	Gauliga Berlin-Brandenburg	12
Preußen Danzig	Gauliga Danzig-Westpreußen^‡	6
FC Mühlhausen 93	Gauliga Elsaß^‡	16
Borussia Fulda	Gauliga Hessen	11
SV Jena	Gauliga Mitte	8
VfL 99 Köln	Gauliga Mittelrhein	10
TuS Helene Altenessen	Gauliga Niederrhein	10
Hannover 96	Gauliga Niedersachsen	12
Hamburger SV	Gauliga Nordmark	12
SK Rapid Wien	Gauliga Ostmark (1940–41 season)	10
VfB Königsberg	Gauliga Ostpreußen	8
LSV Stettin	Gauliga Pommern	14
Dresdner SC	Gauliga Sachsen	12
Vorwärts-Rasensport Gleiwitz^#	Gauliga Schlesien	11
NSTG Prag	Gauliga Sudetenland	10
Kickers Offenbach	Gauliga Südwest	16
FC Schalke 04	Gauliga Westfalen	12
Stuttgarter Kickers	Gauliga Württemberg	12

• ^# Vorwärts-Rasensport Gleiwitz qualified for the finals as they were leading the table when participation in the German championship was determined. The competition was not completed but Germania Königshütte led the table at the time of cancellation for war reasons on 30 March 1941.^[7]
• ^‡ Denotes new Gauligas for the 1940–41 season.

References

1. "(West) Germany -List of champions". Rsssf.com. Retrieved 17 January 2016.
2. "ALLE DFB-POKALSIEGER" [All German Cup winners]. dfb.de (in German). German Football Association. Retrieved 15 January 2016.
3. "Where's My Country? French clubs in the German football structure 1940-1944". Rsssf.com. Retrieved 17 January 2016.
4. "Where's My Country? Polish clubs in the German football structure 1940-1944". Rsssf.com. Retrieved 17 January 2016.
5. "Czechoslovakia / Czech Republic - List of League Tables". Rsssf.com. Retrieved 18 January 2016.
6. "Where's My Country? Czech clubs in the German football structure 1938-1944". Rsssf.com. Retrieved 15 January 2016.
7. "Gauliga final tables". f-archiv.de (in German). Retrieved 17 January 2016.
8. "Germany 1940–41". claudionicoletti.eu. Retrieved 17 January 2016.
9. "German championship 1941". Rsssf.com. Retrieved 17 January 2016.
10. "Germany 1939–40". claudionicoletti.eu. Retrieved 17 January 2016.
11. "Germany 1938–39". claudionicoletti.eu. Retrieved 17 January 2016.
12. "Germany 1937–38". claudionicoletti.eu. Retrieved 17 January 2016.
13. "Germany 1936–37". claudionicoletti.eu. Retrieved 17 January 2016.
14. "Germany 1935–36". claudionicoletti.eu. Retrieved 17 January 2016.
15. "Germany 1934–35". claudionicoletti.eu. Retrieved 17 January 2016.
16. "Germany 1933–34". claudionicoletti.eu. Retrieved 17 January 2016.
17. kicker Allmanach 1990, page: 243-245

Sources

• kicker-Almanach 1990 (German) Yearbook of German football, publisher: kicker Sportmagazin, published: 1989, ISBN 3-7679-0297-4
• 100 Jahre Süddeutscher Fußball-Verband (German) 100 Years of the Southern German Football Federation, publisher: SFV, published: 1997
• Die deutschen Gauligen 1933–45 – Heft 1–3 (German) Tables of the Gauligas 1933–45, publisher: DSFS

External links

• Das Deutsche Fussball Archiv (German) Historic German league tables