Western German football championship

Western German football championship
Country
Region Western Germany
Founded 1903
Folded 1933 (25 seasons)
Replaced by
Level on pyramid Level 1
Last champions FC Schalke 04
(1932-33)

The Western German football championship (German: Westdeutsche Fußball Meisterschaft) was the highest association football competition in Western Germany, in the Prussian Province of Westphalia, the Rhine Province, the northern parts of the province of Hesse-Nassau as well as the Principality of Lippe, later to become the Free State of Lippe. The competition was disbanded in 1933 with the rise of the Nazis to power.

It is not to be confused with the German championship in what was commonly referred to as West Germany from 1949 to 1990.

Overview

German football was, from its beginnings, divided into regional associations, which carried out their own championship, which often pre-dated the national German championship. With the interception of the later in 1903, the former became qualifying tournaments for it but these regional championships still held a high value for the local clubs. These regional championships were:[1]

All this regional championships were suspended with the rise of the Nazis to power in 1933. At the end of the Second World War, some resumed, now in league format. Others completely disappeared, like the Baltic championship, as the territories they were held in were not part of Germany any more. With the South West German football championship, a new regional competition also appeared in 1945. Ultimately, with the formation of the Fußball-Bundesliga, all this regional championships ceased altogether.

History

Background

The Prussian Rhine Province (red), within the Kingdom of Prussia (blue)
The Prussian province of Westphalia (red), within the Kingdom of Prussia (blue)

When the Western German championship was established in 1903, the region of Western Germany (German: Westdeutschland) was politically divided into three territories, the first three being part of the Kingdom of Prussia:

With the defeat of the German Empire in 1918 and the formation of a Republic, the former Kingdoms and Principalities became states. For the two Prussian provinces, this only meant that the Kingdom was replaced with the Free State of Prussia, while the Principality was transformed into the Free State of Lippe.

Football association

On 23 October 1898, the Rheinischer Spielverband was formed, initially without the clubs from the region around Kassel, who moved across in 1906. In 1900, the Rheinisch-Westfälischen Spielverband was formed, which, in 1907, was renamed Westdeutscher Spielverband.[2]

Competition

1903 to 1914

The Western German football championship was first contested in 1903 and won by the Cölner FC 1899. It consisted of three clubs, one each from Essen, Cologne and Mönchengladbach, then spelled München-Gladbach, and was determined in a group stage with home-and-away games.[3] The winner of this first competition did not take part in the first edition of the national German championship.

To qualify for the Western German championship, a club had to take out the title in its regional competition or league. As more football clubs were formed in Germany, the number of leagues increased and thereby also the numbers of clubs taking part in the Western championship.

The second edition was played out in the same modus and its champion was permitted to enter the national finals for the first time. A round of deciders was necessary to determine the Western champion as all three clubs sat on equal points. In 1906, the championship was expanded to four clubs with a decider once more being necessary to determine the champion.

In 1907, the system to determine the Western champion was altered to a knockout modus with six clubs participating, increased to seven for the following year and eight in 1909. The championship continued to operate as a knockout competition in the following years, and, in 1913, Duisburger SV became the first club from the west to reach a national German final, losing 3-1 to VfB Leipzig, who thereby won a record third German championship. The Duisburger SV in turn was an early powerhouse of western football, continuing to win regional championships up until the late 1920s.

The last pre-First World War season, 1914, saw a return to the finals being played as a league with home-and-away games. Five clubs were meant to compete but Düsseldorfer SV was deemed to have been determined to late as local champions and it was barred from participating.

1914 to 1919

In 1914-15, football in Germany had come to an almost complete halt. As it became clear, that the war would last longer than anticipated, local competitions restarted in 1915. In most regions of Germany, like the South, the championships were restarted from 1915 onwards but in the West, this was not so. A Western German Championship was not played again until 1920.

1920 to 1933

As a consequence of the lost war, a strip of land along the German - Belgian border was awarded to the later, with the cities of Eupen and Malmedy becoming part of Belgium. These were the only territorial changes within the area of the Western championship.

The Western German championship was restarted in 1920 with eight clubs in a knockout system. The eight clubs represented the following regions:

The following year, a return to a five-team group stage was made to determine the champion. In 1922, this was expanded to six clubs.

Western German football took a very different approach to its football championships from 1922 to 1924, expanded the local competitions to last over two years. The German championship still being an annual event, a Western championship was nevertheless needed in order to determine the club who would participate in the national finals. The seven top-of-the-table sides at the time therefore played a knockout competition to do so in 1923, something of an oddity. The 1924 championship, with seven clubs and a single round of games in a league format, was the proper Western German championship for 1922-24.

In 1925, a seven-team league was once more employed to determine the champion. The German championship had now been enlarged to sixteen clubs and for the West this meant, it could send three clubs to the national finals from now on.

Until 1928, the format of the Western championship did not change, but in 1929, the championship was enlarged to eight clubs in two groups of four. The two top-teams in each group then moved on to a four-team finals group. All games were played as single round, not home-and-away. This system remained in place until 1931.

In 1932 and 1933, eight clubs played in a knockout format once more. It was after this last edition of the Western championship, that the first German title went to the West, when Fortuna Düsseldorf beat FC Schalke 04 3-0. After 30 years of little national success, the clubs from the west, led by Schalke, would dominate the German championship from now on.

Aftermath

The Western German championship was replaced with four regional Gauligen by the Nazis in 1933, a quarter of the 16 new tier-one football leagues in the country. In the era that followed, the clubs from Western Germany saw a fast improvement in their performance, taking out twelve national championships until 1963.

After the end of the Second World War, Germany remained divided until 1991 and the new Oberliga West, formed in 1947, covered most of the heartland of the old Western German championship, being considered the successor to the later. The region of northern Hesse became part of the new Oberliga Süd instead, while the southern parts of the Rhine province became part of the new state of Rhineland-Palatinate and the Oberliga Südwest.

Western German football champions

German champions in bold:

Season Winner Runner-Up Result
1903 Cölner FC 1899 Essener SV 1899 N/A
1904 Duisburger SV Bonner FV N/A
1905 Duisburger SV not determined N/A
1906 Cölner FC 1899 Duisburger SV 3-2
1907 Düsseldorfer FC 1899 Casseler FV 3 7-0
1908 Duisburger SV FC München-Gladbach 2 5-0
1909 FC München-Gladbach Preußen Duisburg 3-2 aet
1910 Duisburger SV Casseler FV 6-1
1911 Duisburger SV Vfvb Ruhrort 3-0
1912 Cölner BC 1901 Borussia München-Gladbach 4-2
1913 Duisburger SV Arminia Bielefeld declared
1914 Duisburger SV Preußen Münster N/A
1915 not held
1916 not held
1917 not held
1918 not held
1919 not held
1920 VfTuR München-Gladbach Cölner BC 01 3-1
1921 Duisburger SV Kölner BC 01 2 N/A
1922 Arminia Bielefeld Kölner BC 01 N/A
1923 4 Arminia Bielefeld TuRu Düsseldorf 4-3 aet
1924 Duisburger SV Arminia Bielefeld N/A
1925 Duisburger SV Schwarz-Weiß Essen declared
1926 VfR Köln BV Altenessen N/A
1927 Duisburger SV FC Schalke 04 N/A
1928 SpVgg Sülz 07 Preußen Krefeld N/A
1929 FC Schalke 04 Duisburger SV 2-1
1930 FC Schalke 04 VfL 06 Benrath 2-1
1931 Fortuna Düsseldorf VfB Bielefeld N/A
1932 FC Schalke 04 Borussia Fulda 5-1
1933 FC Schalke 04 Fortuna Düsseldorf 1-0

Winners and runners-up of the Oberliga West (1947–63)

The Oberliga West, formed in 1947, is considered to be a continuation of the Western German football championship. It only included teams from the newly formed state of North Rhine-Westphalia and was disbanded with the introduction of the Fußball-Bundesliga in 1963. This event marked the end of the Western German football championship.

Season Winner Runner-Up
1947-48 Borussia Dortmund Sportfreunde Katernberg
1948-49 Borussia Dortmund Rot-Weiß Essen
1949-50 Borussia Dortmund Preußen Dellbrück
1950-51 FC Schalke 04 Preußen Münster
1951-52 Rot-Weiß Essen FC Schalke 04
1952-53 Borussia Dortmund 1. FC Köln
1953-54 1. FC Köln Rot-Weiß Essen
1954-55 Rot-Weiß Essen SV Sodingen
1955-56 Borussia Dortmund FC Schalke 04
1956-57 Borussia Dortmund Duisburger SV
1957-58 FC Schalke 04 1. FC Köln
1958-59 Westfalia Herne 1. FC Köln
1959-60 1. FC Köln Westfalia Herne
1960-61 1. FC Köln Borussia Dortmund
1961-62 1. FC Köln FC Schalke 04
1962-63 1. FC Köln Borussia Dortmund

Source: "Oberliga West". Das deutsche Fussball-Archiv. Retrieved 2008-01-09. 

Further reading

References

  1. ↑ kicker Almanach 1990 (German) Yearbook of German football 1990, publisher: kicker, published: 1989, page: 241-42, accessed: 18 May 2009
  2. ↑ Rheinischer Südkreis Hirschis Fussball Seiten, accessed: 18 May 2009
  3. ↑ Rheinisch Westfälischer Spielverband 1903 Hirschi's Fussball Seiten, accessed: 18 May 2009

Sources

External links

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