The 1961–62 Oberliga was the seventeenth 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 ...

. 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 1962 German football championship which was won by 1. FC Köln. It was 1. FC Köln'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 ...

Hamburger SV Hamburger Sport-Verein e.V. (), commonly known as Hamburger SV () or Hamburg (), is a German sports club based in Hamburg, with its largest branch being its football section. Though the current HSV was founded in June 1919 from a merger of three ...

equaled the Oberliga start record set in 1952–53 by 1. FC Köln and repeated by

Hannover 96 Hannoverscher Sportverein von 1896, commonly referred to as Hannover 96 (), Hannover, HSV or simply 96, is a German professional football club based in the city of Hanover, Lower Saxony. They played in the Bundesliga for a total of 30 years betwe ...

the season after, winning its first eleven games, a mark never surpassed. A similar 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 footba ...

. The 1961–62 DDR-Oberliga was won by

ASK Vorwärts Berlin 1. FC Frankfurt is a German football club based in Frankfurt (Oder), Brandenburg. The club was founded as the army club SV VP Vorwärts Leipzig in Leipzig in East Germany in 1951. The club won six East German championships as ASK Vorwärts Berl ...

Oberliga Nord

The 1961–62 season saw two new clubs in the league,

Bremer SV Bremer SV is a German association football club, based in the city of Bremen, which was founded in 1906. The club play their home games at the Panzenberg Stadium and currently participate in the 4th tier Regionalliga Nord. History Bremer SV 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 scorers were

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 ...

(Hamburger SV) and Gerd Koll (Holstein Kiel) with 28 goals each.

Oberliga Berlin

The 1961–62 season saw one new club in the league, Union 06 Berlin, 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 scorers were Wolfgang Seeger (Tennis Borussia Berlin) and Lutz Steinert (Hertha BSC) with 18 goals each.

Oberliga West

The 1961–62 season saw two new clubs in the league,

Fortuna Düsseldorf Düsseldorfer Turn- und Sportverein Fortuna 1895 e.V., commonly known as Fortuna Düsseldorf (), is a German football club in Düsseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, which competes in the 2. Bundesliga. Founded in 1895, Fortuna entered the league ...

and

Schwarz-Weiß Essen Schwarz-Weiß Essen is a German association football club based in Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia. The side has its origins in the gymnastics club ''Essener Turnerbund'' founded in 1881. A football department was formed in January 1900 and this b ...

, 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 Manfred Rummel of Schwarz-Weiß Essen with 26 goals.

Oberliga Südwest

The 1961–62 season saw two new clubs in the league, BSC Oppau and

VfR Kaiserslautern VfR Kaiserslautern () is a German sports club in Kaiserslautern, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Creation VfR Kaiserslautern was created through several mergers. In 1893, MTV Kaiserslautern was formed. The football team split off and forme ...

, 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 Rudi Dörrenbächer of Borussia Neunkirchen with 37 goals, the highest total for any scorer in the five Oberligas in 1961–62.

Oberliga Süd

The 1961–62 season saw two new clubs in the league,

BC Augsburg BC Augsburg was a German football club based in Augsburg, Bavaria. The team was founded as Fußball-Club Allemannia Augsburg in 1907 and played as Ballspiel-Club Augsburg from 1921 to 1969. Facing imminent financial collapse, BC merged with the ...

and

Schwaben Augsburg TSV Schwaben Augsburg is a football in Germany, German football club which is part of a larger sports association whose origins go back to the 1847 formation of the gymnastics club Turnverein Augsburg. The association's football department was f ...

, 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 Lothar Schämer of Eintracht Frankfurt with 26 goals.

German championship

The 1962 German football championship was contested by the nine qualified Oberliga teams and won by 1. FC Köln, defeating 1. FC Nürnberg in the final. The runners-up of the Oberliga Nord and West played a pre-qualifying match. The remaining eight clubs then played a home-or-away round in two groups of four. The two group winners then advanced to the final.Das Finale der Deutschen Meisterschaft 1961/1962
Fussballdaten.de, accessed: 8 December 2015

Qualifying

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, 1961-62 1961-62 1 Ger