![Bundesarchiv Bild 183-1990-0602-009, 1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e7/Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-1990-0602-009%2C_1._FC_Dynamo_Dresden_-_PSV_Schwerin_2-1.jpg)
The FDGB-Pokal (Freier Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund Pokal or
Free German Trade Union Federation
The Free German Trade Union Federation (german: Freier Deutsche Gewerkschaftsbund or ''FDGB'') was the sole national trade union centre of the German Democratic Republic (GDR or East Germany) which existed from 1946 and 1990. As a mass organisat ...
Cup) was an elimination football tournament held annually 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 ...
. It was the second most important national title in East German football after 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 ...
championship. The founder of the competition was East Germany's major trade union.
History
The inaugural FDGB-Pokal (generally referred to in English as the East German Cup) was contested in 1949, four years before the initial
DFB-Pokal
The DFB-Pokal ( is a German knockout football cup competition held annually by the German Football Association (DFB). Sixty-four teams participate in the competition, including all clubs from the Bundesliga and the 2. Bundesliga. It is considere ...
was played in the western half of the country. The first national cup competition had been the
Tschammerpokal
The DFB-Pokal ( is a German knockout football cup competition held annually by the German Football Association (DFB). Sixty-four teams participate in the competition, including all clubs from the Bundesliga and the 2. Bundesliga. It is considered ...
introduced in 1935.
Each football club which participated in the East German football league system was entitled to enter the tournament. Clubs from the lower leagues played in regional qualification rounds, with the winners joining the teams of 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 ...
and
DDR-Liga
The DDR-Liga (English: GDR League or ''East German League'') was, prior to German reunification in 1990, the second level of football competition in the DDR (Deutsche Demokratische Republik or German Democratic Republic, commonly East Germany), bei ...
in the main round of the tournament of the following year. Each elimination was determined by a single game held on the ground of one of the two participating teams.
Until the mid-1980s the field of competition was made up of as many as sixty teams playing in five rounds due to the large number of eligible clubs in the country. Beginning in 1975, the final was held each year in the
Stadion der Weltjugend
Stadion der Weltjugend was a multi-use stadium in the locality of Mitte in the eponymous borough of Mitte in Berlin, Germany. It was inaguruated on 20 May 1950 by the First Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party, Walter Ulbricht for the first ...
in Berlin and drew anywhere from 30,000 to 55,000 spectators. The last cup final, played in 1991 after the fall of the
Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall (german: Berliner Mauer, ) was a guarded concrete barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and East Germany (GDR). Construction of the Berlin Wall was commenced by the government ...
, was a 1–0 victory by
F.C. Hansa Rostock
FC Hansa Rostock () is a German association football club based in the city of Rostock, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. The club is also called as "the cog" because of its club crest. They have emerged as one of the most successful clubs from the forme ...
over
Eisenhüttenstädter FC Stahl
Eisenhüttenstädter FC Stahl was a German association football club based in Eisenhüttenstadt in Brandenburg. The club dissolved in 2016 and merged into FC Eisenhüttenstadt. FC Eisenhüttenstadt plays in the sixth tier Brandenburg-Liga as of ...
, which drew a crowd of only 4,800.
The most successful side in 42 years of competition was
1. FC Magdeburg which celebrated seven FDGB-Pokal wins (including those as SC Aufbau Magdeburg before 1965); one of those wins ultimately led to victory in the
UEFA Cup Winners' Cup 1973–74.
The only winners of the competition to reach the final of the
DFB-Pokal
The DFB-Pokal ( is a German knockout football cup competition held annually by the German Football Association (DFB). Sixty-four teams participate in the competition, including all clubs from the Bundesliga and the 2. Bundesliga. It is considere ...
since the re-unification of the country are
1. FC Union Berlin, who appeared in the 2001 German Cup final, but lost 0–2 to
Schalke
Fußballclub Gelsenkirchen-Schalke 04 e. V., commonly known as FC Schalke 04 (), Schalke 04 (), or abbreviated as S04 (), is a professional German football and multi-sports club originally from the Schalke district of Gelsenkirchen, North Rh ...
. To date, the only other former East German club to appear in the German Cup final is
FC Energie Cottbus
FC Energie Cottbus (Lower Sorbian: ''Energija Chóśebuz'') is a German football club based in Cottbus, Brandenburg. It was founded in 1963 as SC Cottbus in what was East Germany. After the reunification of Germany, Energie played six seasons in ...
.
Finals
![Bundesarchiv Bild 183-N0414-0008, Leipzig, FDGB-Pokal, Endspiel, SG Dynamo Dresden - FC Carl Zeiss Jena 1-3](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/af/Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-N0414-0008%2C_Leipzig%2C_FDGB-Pokal%2C_Endspiel%2C_SG_Dynamo_Dresden_-_FC_Carl_Zeiss_Jena_1-3.jpg)
Notes:
*
1 Sports clubs
A sports club or sporting club, sometimes an athletics club or sports society or sports association, is a group of people formed for the purpose of playing sports.
Sports clubs range from organisations whose members play together, unpaid, and ...
(SC) were introduced in the East German sports system in 1954. The introduction of designated sports clubs was followed by major changes in East German football. Several teams were relocated, transferred and renamed between the second and the third round of the
1954-55 FDGB-Pokal (
de). The team of SG Dynamo Dresden was relocated to Berlin and continued as part of sports club SC Dynamo Berlin.
SG Dynamo Berlin was then subsequently renamed SG Dynamo Berlin-Mitte. The team of
BSG Empor Lauter
BSG may refer to:
Places
* Bata Airport (IATA airport code: BSG), the second largest airport in Equatorial Guinea
* Besitang station (rail station code BSG), North Sumatra, Sumatra Island, Indonesia; see List of railway stations in Indonesia
* Bi ...
was relocated to Rostock and continued as part of sports club
SC Empor Rostock
FC Hansa Rostock () is a German association football club based in the city of Rostock, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. The club is also called as "the cog" because of its club crest. They have emerged as one of the most successful clubs from the forme ...
. The team of
BSG Wismut Aue was transferred to sports club
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, ...
. The football department of
BSG Aktivist Brieske-Ost
BSG may refer to:
Places
* Bata Airport (IATA airport code: BSG), the second largest airport in Equatorial Guinea
* Besitang station (rail station code BSG), North Sumatra, Sumatra Island, Indonesia; see List of railway stations in Indonesia
* Bi ...
was transferred to sports club
SC Aktivist Brieske-Senftenberg.
Performances
Performance by club
The performance of various clubs is shown in the following table:
''Clubs are named by the last name they used before the
German reunification
German reunification (german: link=no, Deutsche Wiedervereinigung) was the process of re-establishing Germany as a united and fully sovereign state, which took place between 2 May 1989 and 15 March 1991. The day of 3 October 1990 when the Ge ...
.''
Notes:
*
1 Played as SV Deutsche Volkspolizei Dresden until the funding of SG Dynamo Dresden in 1953.
*
2 Played as part of sports club
SC Aufbau Magdeburg (later SC Magdenburg) until the founding of 1. FC Magdeburg in 1965.
*
3 Also known as VfB Leipzig and SC Leipzig.
*
4 Also known as SC Motor Jena.
*
5 Also known as SG Planitz, ZSG Horch Zwickau, BSG Motor Zwickau and BSG Sachsenring Zwickau.
*
6 Played as part of sports club
SC Dynamo Berlin
The Sports Club Dynamo Berlin was an East German sports club that existed from 1954 to 1991. It was the largest sports club of SV Dynamo, the sports association of the security agencies. The club was disbanded after German reunification and even ...
until the founding of BFC Dynamo in 1966.
*
7 Played in
East Berlin
East Berlin was the ''de facto'' capital city of East Germany from 1949 to 1990. Formally, it was the Allied occupation zones in Germany, Soviet sector of Berlin, established in 1945. The American, British, and French sectors were known as ...
as ZSK Vorwärts Berlin, ASK Vorwärts Berlin and FC Vorwärts Berlin. The team was relocated to
Frankfurt an der Oder
Frankfurt (Oder), also known as Frankfurt an der Oder (), is a city in the German state of Brandenburg. It has around 57,000 inhabitants, is one of the easternmost cities in Germany, the fourth-largest city in Brandenburg, and the largest German ...
in
Bezirk Frankfurt
The Bezirk Frankfurt, also Bezirk Frankfurt (Oder), was a district (''Bezirk'') of East Germany. The administrative seat and the main town was Frankfurt (Oder).
History
The district was established, with the other 13, on 25 July 1952, substituting ...
in 1971.
*
8 Also known as SG Freiimfelde Halle and Hallescher FC Chemie.
*
9 Also known as SC Empor Rostock.
*
10 Also known as SG Aue, BSG Pneumatik Aue, BSG Zentra Wismut Aue. From 1954 to 1963 the team was known as SC Wismut
Karl-Marx-Stadt
Chemnitz (; from 1953 to 1990: Karl-Marx-Stadt , ) is the third-largest city in the Germany, German States of Germany, state of Saxony after Leipzig and Dresden. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 28th largest city of Germany as ...
, but continued to play in
Aue
Aue may refer to:
* Aue (toponymy), a frequent element in German toponymy meaning "wetland; river island; river"
Places
* Aue, Saxony, a mining town in Saxony, Germany
* Aue (Samtgemeinde), a collective municipality in Uelzen District, Lower Sax ...
. After
German reunification
German reunification (german: link=no, Deutsche Wiedervereinigung) was the process of re-establishing Germany as a united and fully sovereign state, which took place between 2 May 1989 and 15 March 1991. The day of 3 October 1990 when the Ge ...
in 1990, the club was renamed FC Wismut Aue before taking on its current name,
FC Erzgebirge Aue
Fußball Club Erzgebirge Aue e.V., commonly known as simply FC Erzgebirge Aue or Erzgebirge Aue (), is a Football in Germany, German football club based in Aue-Bad Schlema, Saxony. The former East German side was a founding member of the 3. ...
in 1993.
*
11 Both clubs
1. FC Lokomotive Leipzig and
BSG Chemie Leipzig claim the honors of SC Lokomotive Leipzig.
*
12 Also known as SG Eisenhüttenwerk Thale and BSG Eisenhüttenwerk Thale (BSG EHW Thale).
*
13 Also known as BSG Sachsenverlag Dresden, BSG Rotation Dresden and SC Einheit Dresden.
*
14 Also known as FC Sachsen Leipzig.
*
15 Also known as SG Fortuna Erfurt, BSG KWU Erfurt, BSG Turbine Erfurt and SC Turbine Erfurt. In 1966, the football departments of SC Turbine Erfurt and BSG Optima Erfurt were merged under the name
FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt
FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt is a German association football club based in Erfurt, Thuringia.
History Foundation to World War II
The club has roots that go back to a cricket club founded in 1895. As they broadened their interests they came to be calle ...
.
*
16 Also known as SG Zeitz and BSG Hydrierwerk Zeitz .
*
17 Also known as BSG Gera-Süd and BSG Mechanik Gera.
*
18 The football department of BSG Stahl Eisenhüttenstadt was reorganized as football club Eisenhüttenstädter FC Stahl on 3 May 1990 and thus reached the semi-finals of the 1990-91 NOFV-Pokal as Eisenhüttenstädter FC Stahl.
*
19 Also known as SG Wurzen and BSG Empor Wurzen West. Reached the semi-finals in 1952 and 1954 under the name BSG Wurzen West.
*
20 Also known as SG Märkische Volksstimme Babelsberg, BSG Rotation Babelsberg and BSG DEFA Babelsberg. Reached the semi-final in 1950 under the name BSG Märkische Volksstimme Babelsberg.
Performance by city or town
See also
*
List of East German football champions
The East German football champions were the annual winners of the DDR-Oberliga.
History
The 1948 and 1949 East German Champions were determined in a single elimination tournament of three rounds. A nationwide football league, the DDR-Oberliga, w ...
*
DFV-Supercup
The DFV-Supercup (also known as ''Pokal des Deutschen Sportechos'') was the super cup of East German football, played between the winners of the DDR-Oberliga and the FDGB-Pokal.
History
It was originally planned to start in 1988, but was postpo ...
References
External links
East Germany - List of Cup finalsat
RSSSF
The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation (RSSSF) is an international organization dedicated to collecting statistics about association football. The foundation aims to build an exhaustive archive of football-related information from around the ...
{{German football cup competitions
Defunct football cup competitions in Germany
Football competitions in East Germany
Recurring sporting events established in 1949
Recurring sporting events disestablished in 1991
1949 establishments in East Germany
1991 disestablishments in Germany