The Introduction of the Bundesliga was the long-debated step of establishing a top-level association football league in Germany in 1963. The new league, the
Bundesliga
The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...
, played its first season in
1963–64 and continues to be the highest league in the country. Its introduction reduced the number of first division teams in Germany from 74 to 16 and finally eliminated the problem of the top-teams having to play uncompetitive teams in regional leagues.
While the league was only finally introduced in 1963, plans and suggestions for a national league date back as far as the early 1930s, when a
Reichsliga
The Reichsliga (, ''Reich League'') was a proposed nationwide German association football league. First suggested in 1932 by German Football Association (DFB) president Felix Linnemann, the ''Reichsliga'' was essentially a forerunner of the ''B ...
was proposed. The process of forming such a league went hand-in-hand with the discussion over professionalism in German football. While a limited form of professionalism was approved in 1932 it was, because of the rise of the Nazis to power in 1933, not implemented until after the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
.
History
The Reichsliga before 1933
Germany introduced a
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 ...
in 1903 which, for the first 60 years, was played in a knockout format, whereby the top clubs of the regional football championships would qualify for the finals. The season annually culminated in a final, of which