1944 German football championship

1944 German championship
Deutsche Fußballmeisterschaft
Replica of the Viktoria trophy
Tournament details
CountryGermany
Dates16 April – 18 June
Teams31
Final positions
ChampionsDresdner SC
2nd German title
Runner-upLSV Hamburg
Tournament statistics
Matches played32
Goals scored185 (5.78 per match)
Top goal scorer(s)Helmut Schön (14 goals)
← 1943
1948 →

The 1944 German football championship, the 37th edition of the competition, was won by Dresdner SC, the club defending its 1943 title by defeating Luftwaffe team LSV Hamburg in the final.[1][2]

The final years of the German Championship during the war saw many military teams compete in the championship, Luftwaffe teams, Luftwaffensportvereine, short LSV, and, Wehrmacht teams, Wehrmachtssportvereine, short WSV, became very competitive.[3]

Dresden's Helmut Schön, who would later coach Germany to the 1974 FIFA World Cup, became the top scorer of the 1944 championship with 14 goals, the second-highest individual amount of any player in the history of the competition from 1903 to 1963.[4]

It was the last edition of the tournament during the Second World War, with the competition not being held again until 1948. The thirty-one 1943–44 Gauliga champions, two more than in the previous season,[5] competed in a single-leg knock out competition to determine the national champion.[6]

Dresdner SC became the last club to be awarded the Viktoria, the annual trophy for the German champions from 1903 to 1944. The trophy disappeared during the final stages of the war, did not resurface until after the German reunification and was put on display at the DFB headquarters in Frankfurt until 2015, when it was moved to the new Deutsches Fußballmuseum in Dortmund.[7]

  1. ^ (West) Germany -List of champions rsssf.org, accessed: 22 December 2015
  2. ^ Dresdner SC » Steckbrief (in German) Weltfussball.de – Dresdner SC honours, accessed: 22 December 2015
  3. ^ Als Wien deutscher Meister wurde (in German) Augsburger Allgemeine – When Vienna became German champions, published: 3 September 2015, accessed: 26 December 2015
  4. ^ "Deutsche Meisterschaft » Torschützenkönige" [German championship: Top goal scorer]. Weltfussball.de (in German). Retrieved 2 January 2016.
  5. ^ kicker Allmanach 1990, page: 243-245
  6. ^ German championship 1944 rsssf.org, accessed: 25 December 2015
  7. ^ POKALE AUF REISEN: VIKTORIA UND CO. WANDERN INS FUSSBALLMUSEUM (in German) DFB website, accessed: 27 December 2015