History of Bundesliga | The German Professional Division!

The Bundesliga is one of the five great national tournaments in Europe. German football can boast of its great teams and players, both German and foreign, who arrive in the Bundesliga to give their best.

But what is the history of the Bundesliga? What is the story of the German Football Association, and what did it do to empower the quality of this incredible league? These are big questions, and the following lines answer them!

Let’s start with this quick gaze into the history of the German Football League, the Bundesliga!

 

Table of Contents

• What is the Bundesliga?
• The Pre Bundesliga Era
• History of Bundesliga
• History of Crucial Bundesliga Clubs
• Some Crucial Football Players of the Bundesliga
• Play the German National Cup in FootballTeam

 

What is the Bundesliga?

The Bundesliga is the German Football League, which is divided into two major leagues, the first and second divisions. It is considered one of the five major leagues in Europe, along with the Premier League from England, LALIGA EA Sports from Spain, the Serie A from Italy, and the Ligue 1 from France.

The Bundesliga takes place every year from August to May, bringing together all the teams of the first division of the German Football Federation.

The classic match of Deutsche Fußball Liga (DFL) between football clubs is Bayern Munich vs. Borussia Dortmund, which stops football in the Teutonic country. This match between clubs from the south and west of Germany is a great showdown that brings together thousands of people in front of the TV!

Now, let’s check a brief history of this beautiful tournament, from the Bundesliga’s inception to the last matches in the German lands!

 

The Pre Bundesliga Era

The Deutscher Fußball Bund (DFB), a national association with 86 member clubs, was founded in Leipzig on January 28, 1900.

After the Second World War, civil activities in Germany slowly restarted. Many leagues began to appear in different parts of Germany, showing the need for Germans to play this beautiful sport as before the war. These leagues were called “Oberligas.”

There were five Oberligas in total: the Oberliga of the South, in the zone occupied by Americans; the Oberliga of the Southeast, in the zone occupied by French; the Oberliga of the North and West, in the zone occupied by British; and the DDR-Oberliga, in the Soviet zone of Germany.

These Oberligas started in 1949 before the creation of the state of East Germany.

 

History of Bundesliga

The Bundesliga emerged from a real necessity of German football to create a competitive league after the defeat of the German National Team in the 1962 Chile World Cup. In this tournament, Yugoslavia eliminated West Germany in the quarter-finals.

This way, after a convention celebrated in Westfalenhalle, Dortmund, on July 28, 1962, the German Football Federation approved the creation of the new league. The final goal of this competition was to boost international competitiveness and create a new hotbed of talented players to compete in the international showdown and future World Cups.

The Beginning of the Bundesliga

The Bundesliga started on August 24, 1963, and sixteen clubs participated in that tournament. All the sixteen clubs came from the past Oberliga, so there was already some rivalry between them. This entire season was a real spectacle for fans, journalists, and football enthusiasts who chose the first German champions.

The first Bundesliga Champion was F. C. Köln (Colony), and the first player to score a goal in that first season was Friedheim Konietzka, a Borussia Dortmund footballer, in a match against Werder Bremen.   

Other clubs that stood out during the first years of the competition were 1860 Munich, Werder Bremen, Eintracht Braunschweig, F. C. Núremberg, Hamburger SV, and Bayern Munich. Besides, Borussia Dortmund and FC Bayern Munich started to reach important places in international competitions, winning the Europa Cup Winners. However, many of these clubs reached big fame in the first season of the Bundesliga, but then they fell into oblivion. For example, FC Nürnberg won its unique title in 1968, being its only Bundesliga trophy.

The 70s

During the 1970s, Borussia Mönchengladbach, Borussia Dortmund’s archrival, widely ruled the Bundesliga. Mönchengladbach won five tournaments in those years (1970, 1971, 1975, 1976, and 1977). In that decade, Bayern Munich also consolidated its power in the international ambiance, becoming the first German team to win the Europa Champions League in the 1973-74 season. In this year, Gladbach also won two Europa League titles.

This power was reflected in the international achievements of the German National Team. West Germany won the 1972 UEFA EURO and the 1974 FIFA World Cup, which Germany hosted.

The 80s

In the 1980s, FC Bayern Munich dominated the tournament, winning seven titles, the most in those years. Impressive! Following the German reunification, East German leagues were merged with the West German league system. In 2014, Cologne fans marked 50 years since becoming the first Bundesliga champions.

 

History of Crucial Bundesliga Clubs

German teams are among the best in Europe and the world. Throughout its history, thirteen teams have been Bundesliga champions:

• F. C. Bayern Munich is the king of the tournament, with thirty-two cups in total. 
• Borussia Mönchengladbach is in second place, with five championships.
• Borussia Dortmund with five tournaments.
• Werder Bremen in a level below with four championships.
• Hamburger SV also with four championships.
• VfB Stuttgart with three championships.
• FC Köln and FC Kaiserslautern with two championships each.
• TSV 1860 München, Eintracht Braunschweig, FC Nürnberg, VfL Wolfsburg, and Bayer 04 Leverkusen with one championship each.

Bayern Munich

Bayern Munich is by far the German club with the most Bundesliga titles. By 2024, it had won 32 editions of the tournament and had placed second ten times.

Bayern Munich was created on February 27, 1900. Nowadays, it is one of the most prestigious clubs in the world. It’s one of the five clubs in Europe to win three Champions League in a row (1974, 1975, and 1976) while winning the German national tournament three times in a row, in 1972, 1973, and 1974.

With the start of the new Bundesliga in 1963, coach Wilhelm Neudecker started a journey to attract new talent to the club. Still, the club’s golden age began in 1971, after a series of third and second positions in this German national league. In the season 1971-72, Bayern Munich reached the first position in the Bundesliga and established some records, such as a total of 55 points and a total of 101 scored goals.

Bayern Munich has played in the Allianz Arena, one of the world’s most incredible football stadiums and a landmark for German clubs, since 2005.

Borussia Dortmund

Borussia Dortmund is another great club in the Bundesliga, having won the national championship on five occasions since the creation of the Bundesliga. It’s located in North Rhine-Westphalia, a region in the west of Germany. It was founded in 1909 as a football club, and it’s generally recognized as one of the country’s top three clubs. Borussia Dortmund has also won five DFB-Pokals and six DFL-Supercup.

One of Borussia Dortmund’s highest achievements was winning the Champions League in 1997 and reaching second place in the tournaments in 2013 and 2023. Still, Borussia Dortmund was the first German team to win an international tournament, the Cup Winners Cup, in 1966.

Borussia Dortmund plays in Signal Iduna Park, the biggest stadium in Germany, which has the highest average attendance in the world. 

The first two clubs on this list dispute the label of the biggest club in the Bundesliga, and their match against each other is called the “Der Klassiker.”

Eintracht Frankfurt

Eintracht Frankfurt is one of the oldest clubs in Germany. It was founded in 1899 as a sports club, highlighting its football section. Despite its one-hundred-twenty-five-year history, Eintracht Frankfurt has won the league just once, before it was called the Bundesliga.

Eintracht Frankfurt has won three international tournaments, the most important being the Europa League of 2022. This victory gave it the opportunity to face the Champions League winner, Real Madrid FC,  in the 2022 UEFA Supercup. Unfortunately, Eintracht Frankfurt lost the match against “La Casa Blanca” in a thrilling match that ended 2-0.

Displaying good football in the 1960s made it worthy of being among the sixteen teams that played in the first Bundesliga in 1963. Since then, Eintracht Frankfurt has been relegated to the second division of German football and ascended, which gives it an inconsistent trajectory in the Bundesliga.

Bayer Leverkusen

Bayern Leverkusen was founded in 1904 by employees of the pharmaceutical Bayern AG in Leverkusen, North Rhine-Westphalia. The original organization included several sports beyond football, but in 1999, the football department separated from the original institution and became Bayer 04 Leverkusen Fußball GmbH.

Bayern Leverkusen was not among the sixteen teams that formed the first Bundesliga. Leverkusen ascended to the major league of German football in 1979 and has been continuously participating in the tournament since then, with different results.

Leverkusen won its first Bundesliga championship in the season 2024 under Xavi Alonso’s leadership. The most incredible part of this result is that the club did not lose any games, marking a new record in the German competition!

Its direct rivals are FC Köln, Borussia Mönchengladbach, and Fortuna Düsseldorf, teams with whom it shares a storied rivalry.

FC Köln

FC Köln is a more recent club, founded in 1948 when two clubs, Kölner Ballspiel-Club 1901 and SpVgg Sülz 07, merged. It is one of the clubs with the most extensive history and tradition in Germany. Still, despite this fact, it will play in the 2. Bundesliga during the season 2024-25 due to relegation.

Still, FC Köln has two Bundesliga titles, occupying the eighth position in the historical table of the most winning clubs in Germany. The club has the honor of being the winner of the first version of the Bundesliga in 1963. It also has won the DFB-Pokal, the second most important club tournament in Germany, on four occasions.

VFB Stuttgart

VFB Stuttgart is also one of the oldest clubs in Germany, having been founded in 1893. It has won five first-division tournaments: three Bundesliga and two pre-Bundesliga German tournaments. It also has won three DFB-Pokals, one SuperCup, and two 2. Bundesliga titles.

VFB Stuttgart was especially successful in the Oberliga Süd, winning three tournaments in 1946, 1952, and 1954. At the same time, Stuttgart won two German tournaments in 1950 and 1952, the competition that gathered the best clubs from all Oberligas. 

Since VFB Stuttgart showed a high level of competitiveness in the previous decade, it was chosen as one of the sixteen original clubs of the Bundesliga in 1963. During that decade, Stuttgart didn’t achieve notable results, but it was classified in the Europa League in 1974.

In the season 1991-92, Stuttgart won its first Bundesliga, staying one step ahead of Borussia Dortmund due to goal difference.

SV Werder Bremen

Werder Bremen is another classic club of German football. It was founded in 1899 and has a rich story of victories in the Bundesliga and other national and international tournaments. Werder Bremen has won four Bundesliga titles in the seasons 1965-65, 1987-88, 1992-93, and 2003-04. It makes it the fourth-most-winning club in the Bundesliga after Bayern Munich and both Borussia teams. Still, it won the extinct Ligapokal once and the Supercup four times.

Werder Bremen also secured the Cup Winners Cup in 1992 and the Intertoto Cup in the 1997-98 season. It also disputed the final of the UEFA Europa League in the season 2008-09, losing against Shakhtar Donetsk from Ukraine.

Werder Bremen’s participation in the Oberliga Nord was so good that it earned a more-than-deserved place among the sixteen founding members of the Bundesliga. Its place as a founding member was a price for its achievements.

VFL Wolfsburg

VFL Wolfsburg is a post-war club founded in 1945. It’s still one of the most popular clubs in Germany and is well known for its participation in the Bundesliga. It won its first Bundesliga championship in 2009 after defeating Werder Bremen as a host.

Since 2007, Volkswagen, the automotive conglomerate, has owned 100% of the club’s activities, which has given the club a great boost in its football ambitions.

VFL Wolfsburg won its first Bundesliga in the season 2008-09 under coach Felix Magath. The Brazilian player Grafite was the top scorer of that legendary team. After his feat, Wolfsburg participated in multiple international tournaments, reaching different results. An international highlight was VfL’s memorable participation in the Champions League of the season 2015-16, falling in the quarter-finals against Real Madrid FC.

Borussia Mönchengladbach

Borussia Mönchengladbach, commonly known as Gladbach, was founded in 1900 but joined the Bundesliga in 1965. With a squad of young, fast players, the club achieved its greatest successes during the 1970s, winning the Bundesliga five times within the decade.

Today, Borussia Mönchengladbach is the sixth-largest club in Germany, boasting 94,000 members. It ranks among the top five clubs with the most German league titles, making it a formidable opponent in most seasons since the 1970s.

Although Gladbach is one of the founding members of the Bundesliga, which was established in 1963, the team initially played in the second-tier Regionalliga West before earning promotion to the top division of German football.

FC Kaiserslautern

Founded in 1900 in the city of Kaiserslautern, FC Kaiserslautern has a storied history of victories and setbacks. The club was one of the founding members of the Bundesliga in 1963 and competed in the top tier of German football until 1996.

Over the years, FC Kaiserslautern has won four Bundesliga titles, two DFB-Pokal trophies, and one DFL Supercup. It also reached the quarter-finals of the Champions League in the 1998-99 season and made two UEFA Europa League semifinal appearances.

Currently playing in the 2. Bundesliga, Kaiserslautern has shown promising form in recent competitions, suggesting a potential return to the top division of German football in the near future.

 

Some Crucial Football Players of the Bundesliga

Now let’s meet the best footballers who have played in the Bundesliga since 1963, most of them German players who contributed a lot to the world of football!

Franz Beckenbauer

Franz Beckenbauer is commonly recognized as one of the best players in history and likely the best defensive player, together with other cracks as Elías Figueroa and Paolo Maldini. Beckenbauer was a beast on the football pitch, either playing for Bayern Munich or the Nationalmannschaft, the German national team.

Beckenbauer was crucial to the rise of Bayern Munich and the German national team during the 1970s, when he was known as The Kaiser. Sadly, Beckenbauer retired early from football when he received a strong blow to the liver. Since then, he has entered the pitch as a coach, leading the German national team to the final of Mexico in 1986 and winning the World Cup in Italy in 1990.

Gerd Muller

Like Franz Beckenbauer, Gerd Müller is one of the most iconic players in both Bayern Munich’s history and the Bundesliga. He is also one of football’s greatest scorers, amassing an incredible 735 goals and 106 assists, according to the Rec Sports Soccer Statistics Foundation. Remarkably, Müller holds the record as the Bundesliga’s all-time top scorer with 365 goals—an achievement that still stands today.

During his time at Bayern Munich, Müller won four Bundesliga titles, the DFB Cup, three Champions League trophies, the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup, and the Intercontinental Cup. He was also the star striker for the German national team that triumphed in the 1974 FIFA World Cup. On an individual level, Müller was awarded the Ballon d’Or in 1970 and two Golden Shoes (Soulier d’Or).

Thomas Müller

Thomas Müller is another iconic figure in FC Bayern Munich’s history. As of this writing, Müller has spent nearly his entire career at Bayern, setting a remarkable record as the German footballer with the most national and international titles. In addition, he holds the record for the most assists in Bundesliga history and is the most decorated player to ever wear the Bayern Munich jersey.

Given his continued success, it’s likely that Thomas Müller will win even more trophies before he retires. Among the greatest players in Bundesliga history, Müller undoubtedly belongs in the top tier, and he may well be regarded as one of the best German footballers of all time.

Lothar Matthaus

Lothar Matthäus was one of the most celebrated players in German football over the past decades, standing alongside legends like Franz Beckenbauer and Gerd Müller. Matthäus began his career at Borussia Mönchengladbach before transferring to Bayern Munich, where he continued to shine.

With Bayern, Matthäus won the Bundesliga twice and the DFB-Pokal once. After his success in Germany, he moved to FC Internazionale Milano, where he reached the pinnacle of European football, playing in two Champions League finals. Unfortunately, despite his stellar performances, Matthäus never managed to win Europe’s top international club competition.

Robert Lewandowski

For youngsters and fans of modern football, Robert Lewandowski is likely the most recognizable player on this list. This Polish footballer is universally recognized as one of the best strikers in the world. Despite the fact he is Polish, he played for a long time in Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich, scoring a remarkable number of goals, becoming the third forward with the highest number of goals in the Bundesliga. Lewandowski also has an impressive record of scoring the fastest triplet, quadruplet, and quintuplet in the same match.

 

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