The Gauliga Berlin-Brandenburg was the highest

football 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 ...

league in the provinces of

Brandenburg Brandenburg (; nds, Brannenborg; dsb, Bramborska ) is a states of Germany, state in the northeast of Germany bordering the states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony, as well as the country of Poland. With an ar ...

and

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 ...

in the

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

state of

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...

from 1933 to 1945. Shortly after the formation of the league, the

Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...

reorganised the administrative regions in Germany, and the ''

Gaue ''Gau'' (German , nl, gouw , fy, gea or ''goa'' ) is a Germanic term for a region within a country, often a former or current province. It was used in the Middle Ages, when it can be seen as roughly corresponding to an English shire. The adm ...

'' ''

'' and ''

'' replaced the Prussian provinces.

Overview

The league was introduced by the

Nazi Sports Office The National Socialist League of the Reich for Physical Exercise (german: Nationalsozialistischer Reichsbund für Leibesübungen, abbreviated NSRL) was the umbrella organization for sports and physical education in Nazi Germany. The NSRL was kn ...

in 1933, after the Nazi take over of power in Germany. It replaced the '' Oberliga'' as the highest level of play in German football competitions. The ''Gauliga Berlin-Brandenburg'' was established with twelve clubs, ten from Berlin and two from Brandenburg. The Gauliga replaced as such the ''

Oberliga Berlin-Brandenburg The Oberliga Berlin-Brandenburg, also known as the VBB-Oberliga, was the highest association football competition in the Prussian Province of Brandenburg, including Berlin, from 1923 to 1933. The competition was disbanded in 1933 with the rise o ...

'', the highest league in the region until then. The clubs from the Berlin/Brandenburg region were not particularly successful in the era from 1933 to 1945. No club reached a German championship or cup final. After

Hertha BSC Berlin Hertha, Berliner Sport-Club e. V., commonly known as Hertha BSC (), and sometimes referred to as Hertha Berlin, Hertha BSC Berlin, or simply Hertha, is a German professional football club based in the locality of Westend of the borough of Charlo ...

having played in a record six successive championship finals from 1926 to 1931, this unsuccessful run was a definite decline for the football in Berlin. In its first season, the league had twelve clubs, playing each other once at home and once away. The league winner qualified for the German championship while the bottom three teams were relegated. The season after, the league was reduced to eleven teams. In 1935–36, it operated with ten clubs and only the bottom two teams being relegated. This modus remained in place until 1939. In 1939–40, the league played in two separate groups of six teams with a home-and-away final at the end to determine the Berlin-Brandenburg champion. The 1940–41 season was played as a single division again, now with twelve clubs and the bottom four being relegated. The year after, it returned to the ten-and-two format of the pre-war days. This system remained in place for the 1942–43 and 1943–44 seasons. For its last season, 1944–45, it expanded to eleven clubs. The imminent collapse of

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

in 1945 gravely affected all ''Gauligas'' and football in the Berlin-Brandenburg region ceased in early 1945 with most clubs having played 13 of their 20-season games and the

Berliner SV 92 Berliner SV 1892 is a German association football club from the district of Wilmersdorf, Berlin. ''BSV'' is one of the country's oldest clubs and was a founding member of the DFB (German Football Association) in 1900. The club also operates a r ...

leading the field.

Aftermath

With the end of the Nazi era, the ''Gauligas'' ceased to exist. Berlin came under joint

allied An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...

control, while Brandenburg was part of the

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

occupation zone Germany was already de facto military occupation, occupied by the Allies of World War II, Allies from the real German Instrument of Surrender, fall of Nazi Germany in World War II on 8 May 1945 to the establishment of the East Germany on 7 Octo ...

. In Berlin, the Oberliga Berlin was formed as the new highest football league, in 1945. It still included then clubs from the eastern sector of the city, which was under Soviet control. In Brandenburg, like most of Germany, football took longer to reestablish itself and the regions clubs eventually became part of the new

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 ...

Founding members of the league

The twelve founding members and their positions in the 1932-33 ''Oberliga Berlin-Brandenburg'' season were: *

BFC Viktoria 89 Berliner Fußball-Club Viktoria 1889 was a German sports club based in the Tempelhof district of Berlin. Football, rugby, and cricket came to continental Europe in the late 19th century, and these "English games" became immediately popular in m ...

, ''winner Group A'' *

, ''winner Group B'' *

Tennis Borussia Berlin Tennis Borussia Berlin is a German football club based in the locality of Westend in Berlin. History The team was founded in 1902 as ''Berliner Tennis- und Ping-Pong-Gesellschaft Borussia'' taking its name from its origins as a tennis and t ...

, ''2nd Group A'' * Blau-Weiß 90 Berlin, ''5th Group A'' *

, ''5th Group B'' * SC Minerva 93 Berlin, ''3rd Group B'' * Union 06 Oberschöneweide, ''6th Group A'' *

Spandauer SV Spandauer SV was a German football club from Berlin. History Early years The capital city was one of the earliest centres of German football and was home to 1. Spandauer Fußballklub Triton, formed on 24 May 1894, and Sportclub Germania S ...

, ''3rd Group A'' *

VfB Pankow VfB Einheit zu Pankow is a German association football club from the Pankow locality of Berlin. History Founded in 1893 as VfB Pankow, the club's initial interests were in cricket and tennis. Within a few years English expatriates introduced ...

, ''2nd Group B'' * BV Luckenwalde, ''4th Group B'' * SC Wacker 04 Tegel, ''4th Group A'' *

SV Cottbus-Süd SV, Sv, sv, etc. may refer to: Places and language * El Salvador, ISO 3166-1 country code SV * South Vietnam, an extinct state * Svalbard, Norway, FIPS country code SV * Swedish language, ISO 639-1 language code sv * Silicon Valley, a region in n ...

, ''club played in the

Niederlausitz Lower Lusatia (; ; ; szl, Dolnŏ Łużyca; ; ) is a historical region in Central Europe, stretching from the southeast of the Germany, German state of Brandenburg to the southwest of Lubusz Voivodeship in Poland. Like adjacent Upper Lusatia i ...

championship''

Winners and runners-up of the league

The winners and runners-up of the league:

Placings in the league 1933-44

The complete list of all clubs participating in the league: * ¹ SV Bewag renamed to SV Elektra in 1938. * ² SV 03 Nowawes renamed to SpVgg Potsdam.

References

Sources

* ''Die deutschen Gauligen 1933-45 - Heft 1-3'' Tables of the Gauligas 1933–45, publisher: DSFS * ''Kicker Almanach'', The yearbook on German football from Bundesliga to Oberliga, since 1937, published by the Kicker Sports Magazine

External links

*
The Gauligas
''Das Deutsche Fussball Archiv''

at RSSSF.com {{Football in Brandenburg Gauliga Football competitions in Berlin Football competitions in Brandenburg Sports leagues established in 1933 1933 establishments in Germany 1945 disestablishments in Germany Sports leagues disestablished in 1945