The Viktoria, formerly spelled ''Victoria'', is a German

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

trophy which was awarded to the

German champions The German football champions are the annual winners of the highest Football in Germany, association football competition in Germany. The history of the German football championship is complex and reflects the turbulent history of the country thr ...

from

1903 Events January * January 1 – Edward VII is proclaimed Emperor of India. * January 19 – The first west–east transatlantic radio broadcast is made from the United States to England (the first east–west broadcast having been ...

1944 Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January 2 – WWII: ** Free French General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny is appointed to command French Army B, part of the Sixth United States Army Group in Nor ...

. It is modelled on Victoria, the Roman goddess of victory, winged and flinging a wreath. Thus it is the smaller reproduction of a life size sculpture to be found in Berlin's Old National Gallery.

History

The ''Victoria'' was awarded to the

German Football Association The German Football Association (german: Deutscher Fußball-Bund ; DFB ) is the governing body of football in Germany. A founding member of both FIFA and UEFA, the DFB has jurisdiction for the German football league system and is in charge of t ...

, the ''DFB'', in 1900 to commemorate Germany's participation in the

1900 Summer Olympics The 1900 Summer Olympics (french: Jeux olympiques d'été de 1900, link=no), today officially known as the Games of the II Olympiad () and also known as Paris 1900, were an international multi-sport event that took place in Paris, France, from 1 ...

which were held alongside the 1900 World Fair in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

.Die "Viktoria"
''DFB'' website – The "Viktoria", accessed: 28 December 2015 Originally it was meant as a trophy for both the German association football and

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

champions but it was first awarded to the inaugural German football champions VfB Leipzig on 31 May 1903. After 1903 it was annually given to the German champions except during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

when the competition was halted. The last club to receive the trophy was Dresdner SC in 1944 after which it went missing in the final stages of 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 ...

. In post-Second World War Germany a new trophy had to be commissioned to replace the missing ''Victoria'', the ''

Meisterschale The ''Meisterschale'' ("champions' bowl"), colloquially referred to as the ''Salatschüssel'' (salad bowl, despite of the fact that it more closely resembles a giant plate), is a German association football trophy which has been awarded to the G ...

'', when the German championship resumed in

1948 Events January * January 1 ** The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is inaugurated. ** The Constitution of New Jersey (later subject to amendment) goes into effect. ** The railways of Britain are nationalized, to form British ...

, which was available from

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 ...

onwards. The trophy resurfaced after 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 ...

, with its whereabouts in the time between remaining obscured, with theories ranging from the trophy being kept by the

East German 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 ...

government to it being hidden in a cellar 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 ...

, and was kept at the ''DFB'' headquarters in

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

until it was relocated to the new German football museum in

Dortmund Dortmund (; Westphalian nds, Düörpm ; la, Tremonia) is the third-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne and Düsseldorf, and the eighth-largest city of Germany, with a population of 588,250 inhabitants as of 2021. It is the la ...

in 2015.POKALE AUF REISEN: VIKTORIA UND CO. WANDERN INS FUSSBALLMUSEUM
''DFB'' website, accessed: 28 December 2015

References

External links

''DFB'' website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Viktoria European football trophies and awards German football trophies and awards German football championship Sports trophies and awards