The German Indoor Championships or officially the West German Indoor Championships was a men's and women's international open tennis tournament founded in 1911 as the German Covered Court Championships or German International Covered Court Championships and first played on indoor wood courts at the Bremen Tennis Club. The tournament was mainly held in

Bremen Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (german: Stadtgemeinde Bremen, ), is the capital of the German state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (''Freie Hansestadt Bremen''), a two-city-state consis ...

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 ...

, but was also played at other locations for the duration of its run. In 1981 the championships were last held in

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...

then it was discontinued.

History

In 1911 German indoor championships were established at the Bremen Tennis Club, Bremen, Germany. In 1955 the tournament was rebranded as the West German Covered Court Championships. or West German International Covered Court Championships In 1966 the tournaments name was changed again to the West German Indoor Championships. The championships were mainly played Bremen Tennis Club (f.1896),

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

which had built an indoor facility for staging this tournament. The championships continued to be held in Bremen until 1939. In 1940 the event moved to Hamburg until 1941. From 1942 till tournament was not held due to World War Two and the rebuilding of Germany under the

Marshall Plan The Marshall Plan (officially the European Recovery Program, ERP) was an American initiative enacted in 1948 to provide foreign aid to Western Europe. The United States transferred over $13 billion (equivalent of about $ in ) in economic re ...

. In 1955 the tournament was revived under a new title as the West German Covered Court Championships and, moved to

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...

it remained there until 1961. In 1962 the championships were moved back to Bremen then they alternated between Cologne and the former until 1969. In 1970 the event moved to

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

for one edition only, before returning to Bremen till 1979. In 1980 the German Indoor Championships were moved to

and remained there until 1981 when they were abolished.Barrett and Tingay (1982) p.119.

Surface

The championships were played almost exclusively of indoor wood courts from inception until 1973 at all locations. The tournament then continued to played on indoor hard courts and indoor carpet courts until 1981.

Finals

Men's singles

(incomplete roll)

Women' singles

(incomplete roll)

References

{{reflist Carpet court tennis tournaments Wood court tennis tournaments Hard court tennis tournaments Defunct tennis tournaments in Germany