1939–40 Gauliga

Football league season
Gauliga
Season1939–40
Champions18 regional winners
German championsSchalke 04
5th German title
← 1938–39
1940–41 →
The initial 16 districts of the Gauliga from 1933 to 1938

The 1939–40 Gauliga was the seventh season of the Gauliga, the first tier of the football league system in Germany from 1933 to 1945. It was the first season held during the Second World War.

The league operated in eighteen regional divisions with the league containing 216 clubs all up, 41 more than the previous season. The majority of Gauligas were regionally sub-divided during the season, with finals or final rounds played to determine the champions. The league champions entered the 1940 German football championship, won by FC Schalke 04 who defeated Dresdner SC 1–0 in the final. It was Schalke's fifth national championship, with the club winning six championships all up during the Gauliga era.[1]

The 1939–40 season saw the sixth edition of the Tschammerpokal, now the DFB-Pokal. The 1940 edition was won by Dresdner SC, defeating 1. FC Nürnberg 2–1 on 1 December 1940.[2]

The number of Gauligas, eighteen, remained unchanged compare to the previous season which had seen the addition of the Gauliga Ostmark and Gauliga Sudetenland to the original sixteen.[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] In Poland the German invasion in September 1939 caused the Polish league to stop play near the end of the 1939 season and, unlike in Bohemia and Moravia, the league would not resume till after the war.[7] Eventually, in 1941, the Gauliga Wartheland, covering the Reichsgau Wartheland, and the Gauliga Generalgouvernement, covering the General Government, were created in the areas annexed by Nazi Germany and in occupied Poland put these leagues were only for ethnic German clubs and not open to Polish teams.[8]

Champions

Map of Nazi Germany showing its expansion 1938 -1945

The 1939–40 Gauliga champions qualified for the group stage of the German championship. SK Rapid Wien, SV Waldhof Mannheim, Dresdner SC and FC Schalke 04 won their championship groups and advanced to the semi-finals with the latter two reaching the championship final which Schalke won.[9][10][11]

FC Schalke 04 won their seventh consecutive Gauliga title, Fortuna Düsseldorf won their fifth consecutive one, Vorwärts-Rasensport Gleiwitz their third consecutive title while Stuttgarter Kickers, Dresdner SC, CSC 03 Kassel and VfL Osnabrück defended their 1938–39 Gauliga title.[10][12][13][14][15][16][17]

Club League No. of clubs
SV Waldhof Mannheim Gauliga Baden 25
1. FC Nürnberg Gauliga Bayern
(1939–40 season)		 10
Union Oberschöneweide Gauliga Berlin-Brandenburg 12
CSC 03 Kassel Gauliga Hessen 12
SV Jena Gauliga Mitte 8
Mülheimer SV Gauliga Mittelrhein 13
Fortuna Düsseldorf Gauliga Niederrhein 10
VfL Osnabrück Gauliga Niedersachsen 12
Eimsbütteler TV Gauliga Nordmark 13
SK Rapid Wien Gauliga Ostmark
(1939–40 season)		 8
VfB Königsberg Gauliga Ostpreußen 8
VfL Stettin Gauliga Pommern 11
Dresdner SC Gauliga Sachsen 12
Vorwärts-Rasensport Gleiwitz Gauliga Schlesien 14
NSTG Graslitz Gauliga Sudetenland 12
Kickers Offenbach Gauliga Südwest 14
FC Schalke 04 Gauliga Westfalen 10
Stuttgarter Kickers Gauliga Württemberg 12

German championship

References

  1. ^ "(West) Germany -List of champions". Rsssf.com. Retrieved 15 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? Austrian clubs in the German football structure 1938-1944". Rsssf.com. Retrieved 15 January 2016.
  4. ^ "Where's My Country? Czech clubs in the German football structure 1938-1944". Rsssf.com. Retrieved 15 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. ^ "Poland Final Tables (1st and 2nd level)". Rsssf.com. Retrieved 18 January 2016.
  8. ^ "Where's My Country? Polish clubs in the German football structure 1940-1944". Rsssf.com. Retrieved 17 January 2016.
  9. ^ "Gauliga final tables". f-archiv.de (in German). Retrieved 15 January 2016.
  10. ^ a b "Germany 1939–40". claudionicoletti.eu. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 15 January 2016.
  11. ^ "German championship 1940". Rsssf.com. Retrieved 15 January 2016.
  12. ^ "Germany 1938–39". claudionicoletti.eu. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 15 January 2016.
  13. ^ "Germany 1937–38". claudionicoletti.eu. Archived from the original on 16 January 2016. Retrieved 15 January 2016.
  14. ^ "Germany 1936–37". claudionicoletti.eu. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 15 January 2016.
  15. ^ "Germany 1935–36". claudionicoletti.eu. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 15 January 2016.
  16. ^ "Germany 1934–35". claudionicoletti.eu. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 15 January 2016.
  17. ^ "Germany 1933–34". claudionicoletti.eu. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 15 January 2016.

Sources

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

External links

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