German reserve football teams compete at all levels of league football within the German football league system apart from the top two divisions, the Bundesliga and 2. Bundesliga. The highest league these teams can currently enter is the 3. Liga, set at the third tier of the league system.
Until 2005, reserve teams of professional sides carried the title Amateure behind the club name to distinguish between the professional and reserve team of a club while all other reserve teams carried the Roman numeral II behind the club name as a distinction. Since 2005 all reserve teams carry the Roman numeral, regardless of the status of the first team. Any additional reserve teams carry the following Roman numeral behind the club's name.
From 1974 to 2008 reserve teams were permitted to compete in the DFB-Pokal, the premier German Cup competition. Arguably the greatest success of any reserve team has been the achievement of Hertha BSC Amateure which reached the German Cup final in 1992–93. Additional achievements have been the eleven titles won by reserve teams in the now defunct German amateur football championship.
In the former East Germany, reserve teams were at times permitted to play at the second tier of league football, below the DDR-Oberliga, in the DDR-Liga, and have achieved division titles at this level. As an example, the reserve team of BFC Dynamo, the BFC Dynamo II, under coach Werner Voigt won the DDR-Liga Staffel A in the 1985–86 season.