The 1955–56 Oberliga was the eleventh season of the Oberliga, the first tier of the

football league system Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

and the

Saar Protectorate The Saar Protectorate (german: Saarprotektorat ; french: Protectorat de la Sarre) officially Saarland (french: Sarre) was a French protectorate separated from Germany; which was later opposed by the Soviet Union, one side occupying Germany like ...

. The league operated in five regional divisions,

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating Direction (geometry), direction or geography. Etymology T ...

South South is one of the cardinal directions or Points of the compass, compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Pro ...

Southwest The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...

and

West West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sunset, Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic languages, German ...

. The five league champions and the runners-up from the west, south, southwest and north then entered the

1956 German football championship The 1956 German football championship was the culmination of the football season in West Germany in 1955-56. Borussia Dortmund were crowned champions for the first time in their second final appearance, having previously lost the 1949 German foo ...

which was won by

Borussia Dortmund Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, commonly known as Borussia Dortmund (), BVB (), or simply Dortmund (), is a German professional sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is best known for its men's professional footb ...

. It was Borussia Dortmund's first-ever

national championship A national championship(s) is the top achievement for any sport or competition, contest within a league of a particular nation or nation state. The title is usually awarded by contests, ranking systems, stature, ability, etc. This determines the be ...

and second appearance in the championship final, having previously lost to

VfR Mannheim VfR Mannheim is a Football in Germany, German association football club based in Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg formed in 1911 out of the fusion of Mannheimer FG 1896, Mannheimer FG 1897 Union, and FC Viktoria 1897 Mannheim. The club captured the n ...

1949 Events January * January 1 – A United Nations-sponsored ceasefire brings an end to the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947. The war results in a stalemate and the division of Kashmir, which still continues as of 2022. * January 2 – Luis ...

. A similar-named league, the

DDR-Oberliga The DDR-Oberliga (English: ''East German Premier League'' or ''GDR Premier League'') was the top-level association football league in East Germany. Overview Following World War II, separate sports competitions emerged in the occupied eastern ...

, existed in

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

, set at the first tier of the

East German football league system The football league system of the German Democratic Republic (GDR, German: ''Deutsche Demokratische Republik'' or DDR) existed from 1949 until shortly after German reunification in 1991. Structure For most of its history, competitive GDR footb ...

. The

1956 DDR-Oberliga The 1956 DDR-Oberliga was the eighth season of the DDR-Oberliga, the first tier of league football in East Germany. Rather than in the traditional autumn-spring format the Oberliga played for six seasons from 1955 to 1960 in the calendar year for ...

was won by

SC Wismut Karl-Marx-Stadt Fußball Club Erzgebirge Aue e.V., commonly known as simply FC Erzgebirge Aue or Erzgebirge Aue (), is a German football club based in Aue-Bad Schlema, Saxony. The former East German side was a founding member of the 3. Liga in 2008–09, ...

Oberliga Nord

The 1955–56 season saw two new clubs in the league,

VfR Neumünster VfR Neumünster is a German association football club based in Neumünster, Schleswig-Holstein. The club was established on 3 March 1910 as FV Neumünster by members of FC Germania 1907 Neumünster and FC Viktoria 1909 Neumünster. In 1924, FV w ...

and

Eintracht Nordhorn Eintracht Nordhorn was a German association football club from the city of Nordhorn, Lower Saxony. The club was founded in 1945 as ''Sportverein Nordhorn'' and adopted the name ''Eintracht Nordhorn'' in 1947. A separate football club known as ' ...

, both promoted from the Amateurliga. The league's top scorer was

Uwe Seeler Uwe Seeler (; 5 November 1936 – 21 July 2022) was a German footballer and football official. As a striker, he was a prolific scorer for Hamburger SV and also made 72 appearances for the West Germany national team. Widely regarded as one of t ...

of Hamburger SV with 32 goals, the highest total for any scorer in the five Oberligas in 1955–56.

Oberliga Berlin

The 1955–56 season saw two new clubs in the league,

Tasmania 1900 Berlin SC Tasmania 1900 Berlin was a German football club based in the Berlin district of Neukölln. History The club was founded as ''Rixdorfer TuFC Tasmania 1900'' on 2 June 1900. It is believed the founders of the club were about to migrate to ...

and

Hertha Zehlendorf The Hertha Zehlendorf is a German football club from the suburb of Zehlendorf in Berlin. The club is one of the largest football clubs in the country and has a strong youth department which has won two national youth championships. The depar ...

, both promoted from the

Amateurliga Berlin The Amateur-Oberliga Berlin was the second tier of the German football league system in the city of West Berlin in Germany from 1947 until the formation of the Bundesliga in 1963, operating under the name of Amateurliga Berlin. After 1963, it was ...

. The league's top scorer was Manfred Dommasch of Hertha Zehlendorf with 18 goals.

Oberliga West

The 1955–56 season saw two new clubs in the league,

Sportfreunde Hamborn The Sportfreunde Hamborn 07 are a German association football club based in Hamborn, a district in the north of Duisburg. History The club has its origin in 1903, when the ''Ballspiel-Club Hamborn'' was founded, which merged four years later w ...

and

Wuppertaler SV Wuppertaler SV is a German association football club located in Wuppertal, North Rhine-Westphalia. The city was founded in 1929 out of the union of a number of smaller towns including Elberfeld, Barmen, Vohwinkel, Cronenberg and Ronsdorf – e ...

, both promoted from the

2. Oberliga West The (English: 2nd Premier League West) was the second-highest level of the German football league system in the west of Germany from 1949 until the formation of the Bundesliga in 1963. It covered the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most popu ...

. The league's top scorer was

Alfred Niepieklo Alfred Niepieklo (11 June 1927 — 2 April 2014) was a German footballer who played as a forward. Niepieklo played for Borussia Dortmund Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, commonly known as Borussia Dortmund (), BVB (), or simply ...

of Borussia Dortmund with 24 goals.

Oberliga Südwest

The 1955–56 season saw two new clubs in the league,

FV Speyer FV Speyer was a German association football club from the town of Speyer, Rhineland-Palatinate. The club's greatest success has been promotion to the tier one Oberliga Südwest in 1952 and 1956, spending seven seasons at this level. In the Bun ...

and

Sportfreunde Saarbrücken Sportfreunde (''English: Sport friends'') is the name of a number of German sports clubs an may refer to: Association football * Sportfreunde Baumberg * Vereinigte Breslauer Sportfreunde * Sportfreunde Eisbachtal * Sportfreunde Köllerbach * Sp ...

, both promoted from the

2. Oberliga Südwest The (English: 2nd Premier league Southwest) was the second-highest level of the German football league system in the southwest of Germany from 1951 until the formation of the Bundesliga in 1963. It covered the two states of Rhineland-Palatinate a ...

. The league's top scorer was Horst Schmutzler of TuS Neuendorf with 30 goals.

Oberliga Süd

The 1955–56 season saw two new clubs in the league,

TSV 1860 München A tab-separated values (TSV) file is a simple text format for storing data in a tabular structure, e.g., a database table or spreadsheet data, and a way of exchanging information between databases. Each record in the table is one line of the text ...

and

Viktoria Aschaffenburg SV Viktoria 01 Aschaffenburg is a German football club based in Aschaffenburg, Bavaria. Even though Aschaffenburg is located in Bavaria, Viktoria Aschaffenburg historically played its football in the Hessenliga (V) and the associated Hessian le ...

, both promoted from the

2. Oberliga Süd The 2. Oberliga Süd was the second-highest level of the German football league system in the south of Germany from 1950 until the formation of the Bundesliga in 1963. It covered the three states of Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg and Hesse. Overvi ...

. The league's top scorer was Ernst-Otto Meyer of VfR Mannheim with 30 goals, six less than the previous season when he also finished as the league's top scorer.

German championship

The 1956 German football championship was contested by the nine qualified Oberliga teams and won by

, defeating

Karlsruher SC Karlsruher SC is a German association football club, based in Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg that currently plays in the 2. Bundesliga, the second tier of German football. Domestically, the club was crowned German champion in 1909, and won the D ...

in the final. The runners-up of the Oberligas, except Berlin, played pre-qualifying matches to determine which three of the four would go on to the group stage. The remaining eight clubs then played a home-and-away round of matches in two groups of four. The two group winners then advanced to the final.Das Finale der Deutschen Meisterschaft 1955/1956

Fussballdaten.de fussballdaten.de is a German-language website that predominantly collects comprehensive statistics on the top five tiers of German football. The website offers statistics on every Bundesliga, 2. Bundesliga and 3. Liga The 3. Liga is a pr ...

, accessed: 16 December 2015

Qualifying

First round

Second round

:Replay

Group 1

Group 2

Final

References

Sources

* ''30 Jahre Bundesliga'' 30th anniversary special, publisher: ''

kicker Sportmagazin ''Kicker'' (stylized in all lowercase) is Germany's leading sports magazine, focused primarily on football. The magazine was founded in 1920 by German football pioneer Walther Bensemann and is published twice weekly, usually Monday and Thursday ...

'', published: 1993 * ''kicker-Almanach 1990'' Yearbook of German football, publisher: ''kicker Sportmagazin'', published: 1989, * ''DSFS Liga-Chronik seit 1945'' publisher: DSFS, published: 2005 * ''100 Jahre Süddeutscher Fußball-Verband'' 100 Years of the Southern German Football Federation, publisher: SFV, published: 1997

External links

The Oberligas on Fussballdaten.de
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oberliga, 1955-56 1955-56 1 Ger 1955 in Saar