The East German football champions were the annual winners of the DDR-Oberliga.

History

The 1948 and

1949 Events January * January 1 – A United Nations-sponsored ceasefire brings an end to the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947. The war results in a stalemate and the division of Kashmir, which still continues as of 2022. * January 2 – Luis ...

East German Champions were determined in a single elimination tournament of three rounds. A nationwide football league, the DDR-Oberliga, was established for the 1949–50 season. The Oberliga was dissolved after the 1990–91 season. The 1954–55 season was a transitional season and neither was a championship awarded nor were clubs relegated. Due to the transition from a fall-spring to a spring-fall schedule starting with 1956, teams only met each other once from August to December 1955. In the 1961–62 season the DDR-Oberliga returned from a spring-fall to fall-spring schedule, the teams thus met each other three times. The third meeting was held on neutral ground.

Champions

The performance of various clubs is shown in the following table:

Performances

Performance by club

''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 part of

sports club 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 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. * ² Played as SV Deutsche Volkspolizei Dresden until the founding of SG Dynamo Dresden in 1953. * ³ In 1953, the club was picked up from

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

and moved to

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 ...

to play as ZSK Vorwärts Berlin, later known as ASK Vorwärts Berlin and after that FC Vorwärts Berlin. In 1971, the club was picked up and moved again, this time from the capital 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 ...

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 ...

. The team was known as FC Vorwärts Frankfurt. * ⁴ Also known as BSG Motor Jena and SC Motor Jena. * ⁵ Also known as SG Aue, BSG Pneumatik Aue, Zentra Wismut Aue, BSG Wismut Aue and SC Wismut Karl-Marx-Stadt. In 1954, the football department of BSG Wismut Aue was delegated to sports club SC Wismut Karl-Marx-Stadt in

Chemnitz Chemnitz (; from 1953 to 1990: Karl-Marx-Stadt , ) is the third-largest city in the German state of Saxony after Leipzig and Dresden. It is the 28th largest city of Germany as well as the fourth largest city in the area of former East Germany a ...

. In 1963, SC Wismut Karl-Marx Stadt merged with SC Motor Karl-Marx-Stadt to form SC Karl-Marx-Stadt, and the football department of SC Wismut Karl-Marx-Stadt was moved back to

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 ...

and re-attached to BSG Wismut Aue. After

in 1990, the club was renamed FC Wismut Aue before taking on its current form,

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. * ⁶ 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 ...

. * ⁷ Also known as SC Lokomotive Leipzig (not to be confused with 1. FC Lokomotive Leipzig) and

FC Sachsen Leipzig FC Sachsen Leipzig was a German football club from the Leutzsch district of Leipzig, Saxony. The club continued the traditions of BSG Chemie Leipzig. The club officially dissolved in 2011. Although several successor sides were established, onl ...

. * ⁸ Also known as SG Planitz, ZSG Horch Zwickau and BSG Motor Zwickau. * ⁹ Also known as ZSG Union Halle. * ¹⁰ Also known as SC Empor Rostock. * ¹¹ Also known as SC Rotation Leipzig and SC Leipzig (not to be confused with SC Lokomotive Leipzig). * ¹² Also known as SG Freiimfelde Halle. * ¹³ Also known as Sportgemeinde Grube Marga , BSG Franz Mehring Grube, BSG Aktivist Ost Brieske and SC Aktivist Brieske-Senftenberg. * ¹⁴ Also known as BSG Waggonbau Dessau and BSG Waggonfabrik Dessau.

Performance by city

References

{{Football in East Germany DDR-Oberliga Football in East Germany