2nd Fußball-Bundesliga

The 2. Bundesliga ( ; ) is the second division of professional football in Germany. It was implemented 11 years after the founding of the Fußball-Bundesliga as the new second division for professional football. The 2. Bundesliga is ranked below the Bundesliga and above the 3. Liga in the German football league system. All of the 2. Bundesliga clubs take part in the DFB-Pokal, the annual German Cup competition. A total of 127 clubs have competed in the 2. Bundesliga since its foundation.

The decision to establish the league as the second level of football in West Germany was made in May 1973. The league started operating in August 1974, then with two divisions of 20 clubs. It was reduced to a single division in 1981. From the 1991–92 season onwards clubs from the former East Germany started participating in the league, briefly expanding it to two divisions again. It returned to a single division format again at the end of that season and has had 18 clubs since 1994. Two clubs from the 2. Bundesliga are directly promoted to the Bundesliga, while a third promoted club is determined through the play-offs, from 1974 to 1991 and again since 2008. Between 1991 and 2008 the third-placed club in the league was directly promoted. The bottom clubs in the league are relegated to the third division; from 1974 to 1994, the Oberliga, from 1994 to 2008, the Regionalliga and since 2008, the 3. Liga. The number of relegated clubs has fluctuated over the years. Since 2008 two clubs are directly relegated while the third-last team has the opportunity to defend its league play in the play-offs against the third placed team of the 3. Liga.

1. FC Köln hold the record number of championships in the league having won their 5th on May 18, 2025. Bielefeld also holds the record for number of promotions from the 2. Bundesliga to the Bundesliga, with eight.

For the 2022–23 season an average of 22,224 spectators watched 2. Bundesliga matches, the highest of any non-top flight football league in the world.

History

Background

With the implementation of the Bundesliga in 1963, five Regionalliga were also founded as the 2nd highest playing level, South, Southwest, West, North and Berlin. The two top ranking teams from each Regionalliga at the end of a season were placed into groups to play against the relegation teams from the Bundesliga. With the transition from the former Oberliga to the newly created Bundesliga and Regionalliga, however, it became clear that the substructure of the Bundesliga was both sportingly and economically problematic and that relegation from the Bundesliga could easily ruin a club economically.

This situation was partly responsible for the Bundesliga scandal in 1971, in which, due to manipulations in point games in the relegation battle, Rot-Weiß Oberhausen and Arminia Bielefeld managed to remain in the Bundesliga. As a consequence of the scandal, the DFB-Bundestag in Frankfurt decided on 30 June 1973 to introduce a 2. Bundesliga, divided into a north and a south season, for the 1974–75 season, which should close the gap between professional and amateur areas.

Formation

The decision to establish the 2. Bundesliga as a fully professional league below the Bundesliga was made at the annual convention of the German Football Association, the ''DFB'', in Frankfurt on 30 June 1973. The league replaced the five Regionalligas that were at this level from 1963 to 1974. Each Regionalliga had a set quota of clubs that could qualify for the new league with the Regionalliga Süd receiving thirteen spots, the Regionalliga West twelve, the Regionalliga Nord and Regionalliga Südwest seven and the Regionalliga Berlin one. The qualified teams were established through a ranking that took the last five seasons of the Regionalliga into account.''DSFS Liga-Chronik seit 1945'' publisher: DSFS, published: 2005, pages C 3 & 4

The new 2. Bundesliga was split into a northern and a southern division with 20 clubs each. Each division had its champion directly promoted to the Bundesliga while the two runners-up would contest a two-leg play-off to determine the third promoted team. The bottom four clubs in each league were relegated, however, as the number of clubs relegated from the Bundesliga to each division could vary, so could the number of clubs in the league and therefore the number of teams relegated.

2. Bundesliga North and South 1974 to 1981

The first-ever game of the league was played on Friday, 2 August 1974 between 1. FC Saarbrücken and Darmstadt 98 and ended in a 1–0 win for Saarbrücken, with Nikolaus Semlitsch scoring the first-ever goal of the new league in the 18th minute of the game. The inaugural champions of the league were Hannover 96 in the north and Karlsruher SC in the south, both former Bundesliga clubs. The play-offs for the third Bundesliga spot were contested by FK Pirmasens and Bayer Uerdingen, with Uerdingen winning 6–0 at home after a four-all draw in the first leg. The three promoted teams however proved uncompetitive in the Bundesliga with Hannover and Uerdingen being relegated straight away again while Karlsruhe lasted for only two seasons.

The second season saw league championships for Tennis Borussia Berlin and 1. FC Saarbrücken, with Tennis Borussia lasting for only one season and ''1. FCS'' for two. The contest for the third promotion spot pitted two far bigger names of German football against each other, with Borussia Dortmund edging out 1. FC Nürnberg with two wins, ending Dortmund's four-year second division spell. The last round of the season in the south also saw an all-time goal scoring record per round when 55 goals were scored in ten games. The northern division incidentally set the second best mark when it scored 51 goals the day before.

In 1976–77 the league champions were FC St. Pauli and VfB Stuttgart while the third promotion spot went to 1860 Munich, having had to play a third game after Arminia Bielefeld and TSV 1860 each won their home games 4–0, with the decider ending 2–0 in favour of the southern team. Ottmar Hitzfeld set an all-time 2. Bundesliga record in May 1977 when he scored 6 goals in a league match for VfB Stuttgart against Jahn Regensburg. Bielefeld won promotion as the champions of the northern division in the following season, as did southern champion SV Darmstadt 98, entering the Bundesliga for the first time in its history. Third place went to 1. FC Nürnberg who overcame Rot-Weiss Essen with a 1–0 home win and a two–all draw away. For Nürnberg it ended a nine-year absence from the Bundesliga. Horst Hrubesch set an all-time record that season for goals in one season, 41 scored for Rot-Weiss Essen.

In 1978–79 direct promotion went to 1860 Munich and Bayer Leverkusen while the play-off was won, once more, by Bayer Uerdingen, which defeated SpVgg Bayreuth 2–1 at home after a draw away. In the north, two clubs were relegated from the league for financial reasons, Westfalia Herne, which had finished fifth and former Bundesliga side FC St. Pauli, which had come sixth. The following seasons saw 1. FC Nürnberg and Arminia Bielefeld clinch another promotion from the 2. Bundesliga, as did Karlsuher SC which overcame Rot-Weiss Essen by winning 5–1 at home after losing 3–1 away. Arminia Bielefeld set an all-time 2. Bundesliga record when it defeated Arminia Hannover 11–0 in May 1980, the biggest-ever win in the league.

The 1980–81 season, the seventh of the league, was also its last in this format. From 1981 it played as a single division of 20 teams after a decision taken on 7 June 1980, when, at a special convention of the ''DFB'', the introduction of the single division 2. Bundesliga was decided upon with a majority of 84 votes to 77. The northern division was unusually strong that season, having received all three relegated teams of the 1979–80 Bundesliga season, SV Werder Bremen, Eintracht Braunschweig and Hertha BSC, and playing with 22 teams. Bremen won the league while Braunschweig came second. Hertha missed out despite scoring 123 goals. In the south, the league was won by SV Darmstadt 98 for a second time while runners-up Kickers Offenbach lost out to Braunschweig in the play-offs. The reduction of the league to a single division meant 22 teams were relegated while no team was promoted to the 2. Bundesliga that season.

Single division era 1981 to 1991

The new single division league of 20 teams saw only a small change in modus. The top two in the league were promoted while the third placed team played the sixteenth placed Bundesliga side in a home-and-away play-off for one more spot in the Bundesliga. The bottom four in the league were relegated. The inaugural season saw FC Schalke 04 compete in the 2. Bundesliga for the first time, and win it. Second place went to Hertha BSC while third placed Kickers Offenbach missed out on promotion after losing both play-off games to Bayer Leverkusen. Fourth place went to 1860 Munich, one point behind Offenbach, but the club found itself relegated after the ''DFB'' refused it a license for the following season. This decision kept 17th placed SG Wattenscheid 09, the best-placed team on a relegation rank, in the league. The following season finally saw Kickers Offenbach win promotion from the 2. Bundesliga, behind champions SV Waldhof Mannheim who had never played in the Bundesliga before. Bayer Uerdingen, in third place, won promotion through the play-offs for a third time, this time overcoming the previous seasons 2. Bundesliga champions FC Schalke 04.

Schalke bounced back immediately, coming second behind Karlsruher SC in 1983–84. Third place went to MSV Duisburg wo were decisively beaten 0–5 by Bundesliga side Eintracht Frankfurt at home. At the other end, Rot-Weiss Essen, after having failed to win promotion to the Bundesliga through the play-offs twice from the 2. Bundesliga, was relegated to amateur football that season. 1. FC Nürnberg took out the championship of the single division 2. Bundesliga for the first time in 1985, with Hannover 96 coming second. Third placed 1. FC Saarbrücken also won promotion courtesy to a 2–0 home win over Arminia Bielefeld after a draw away. Kickers Offenbach, freshly relegated from the Bundesliga came only 19th in the 2. Bundesliga, suffered another relegation, as did another former Bundesliga side, FC St. Pauli, having returned to the league for the first time after having had its license revoked in 1979.

In 1985–86, three clubs from Berlin competed in the league, but none the following season, with Blau-Weiß 90 Berlin achieving its one and only promotion to the Bundesliga while Hertha BSC and Tennis Borussia were relegated to amateur football. The league champions were FC 08 Homburg, also promoted to the Bundesliga for the first time. Arguably one of the most famous play-off contests in 2. Bundesliga history however were the games between third placed Fortuna Köln and Borussia Dortmund. Köln won 2–0 at home, followed by a 3–1 for Dortmund, making a third game necessary as the away goal rule did not apply to the Bundesliga versus 2. Bundesliga play-offs at the time. This third game was won 8–0 by Borussia Dortmund in front of 50,000 in neutral Düsseldorf. In the relegation zone MSV Duisburg followed the two Berlin clubs into amateur football as a third former Bundesliga side that season.

Hannover 96 and Karlsruher SC won promotion once more in 1987 while third placed FC St. Pauli, freshly promoted from amateur football again, missed out by a goal in the play-offs against FC Homburg. At the bottom end Eintracht Braunschweig became another former Bundesliga side and champion to drop into the third division. FC St. Pauli ended a ten-year wait for Bundesliga return in 1988 when it finished runners-up to Stuttgarter Kickers who were promoted to the Bundesliga for the first time. Third placed SV Darmstadt 98 missed out on penalties in the deciding third game against SV Waldhof Mannheim after each side had won their home game by a goal. Arminia Bielefeld came a distant last and was relegated while 17th placed SpVgg Bayreuth was rescued when Rot-Weiß Oberhausen was refused a license.

Fortuna Düsseldorf won the league championship in 1988–89, with two clubs from the Saarland coming second and third, FC Homburg and 1. FC Saarbrücken. Saarbrücken however was unable to overcome Eintracht Frankfurt in the later club's second successful play-off defence of its Bundesliga place. SpVgg Bayreuth finished 17th again but was again spared from relegation when Kickers Offenbach was refused a license. Also relegated were Union Solingen after 14 consecutive seasons in the league. At the end of the season Spanish-born Joaquín Montañés retired from 2. Bundesliga football after 479 games for Alemannia Aachen in the league from 1974 to 1989, a record for any player with a single club in the league. In 1990 Hertha BSC completed its return from amateur football to the Bundesliga with a 2. Bundesliga title, followed up by SG Wattenscheid 09, who entered the Bundesliga for the first time. 1. FC Saarbrücken failed in the play-offs for a second consecutive time when it missed out to VfL Bochum, thereby ensuring a Bochum derby in the Bundesliga between VfL and Wattenscheid for the following season. In the relegation zone SpVgg Bayreuth failed to get reprieved for a third consecutive season and dropped into amateur football, as did Alemannia Aachen, a founding member of the 2. Bundesliga who had played all 16 seasons of the league until then.

The tenth season of the single division 2. Bundesliga was to be the last in its current format for a time as the German reunification in 1991 lead to changes to the league after this season. With FC Schalke 04 and MSV Duisburg two long-term Bundesliga teams finished at the top of the league. In third place Stuttgarter Kickers had to play FC St. Pauli three times to earn promotion, the first two contests having ended 1–1 while Stuttgart won the third 3–1. FC Schweinfurt 05 in last place became one of the worst clubs in the league history when it only won two games all season. Rot-Weiss Essen had its license revoked which allowed SV Darmstadt 98 to avoid relegation.

German reunification 1991–92

In the 1991–92 season, the league was expanded to 24 teams in two regional divisions, north and south, to accommodate six new East German clubs which joined the league that season. The East German clubs were spread very unevenly, with one going to the north and five to the south, caused by the geographic location of those clubs. Only the league champions were promoted to the Bundesliga that year, which were Bayer Uerdingen in the north and 1. FC Saarbrücken in the south. The bottom three in each division were relegated, three of which were from former East Germany. The other two were former Bundesliga clubs, Blau-Weiß 90 Berlin and 1860 Munich, with the later having played its first season back in the 2. Bundesliga after their license was revoked in 1982. At the end of this season the league returned to the single division format, but with still 24 clubs as its strength.

Single division era 1992 to present

The 1992–93 season was a momentous one, with 24 teams competing in a single league and each club playing 46 games. Three clubs were promoted directly, as would be the case from then on until 2008, with the play-offs having been abolished. SC Freiburg won the league and promotion for the first time. Behind it, MSV Duisburg made a return to the Bundesliga while third placed VfB Leipzig