The 1952–54 FDGB-Pokal was the third competition for the national cup title in

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

East Germany East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...

. The competition started with 84 teams from the third-tier Bezirksliga and fourth-tier Bezirksklasse competitions of the 15

Bezirke The German term (; pl. ; derived from , "circle") translated as "district" can refer to the following types of administrative divisions: * , a subdivision of a city in the sense of a borough (e.g. in Berlin, Hamburg or Vienna), often agai ...

. After two qualifying rounds the First Round was played with 64 teams on 7 June 1953. These 64 teams were the 21 remaining teams from the qualifying rounds, 26 teams from the second-tier

DDR-Liga The DDR-Liga (English: GDR League or ''East German League'') was, prior to German reunification in 1990, the second level of football competition in the DDR (Deutsche Demokratische Republik or German Democratic Republic, commonly East Germany), bei ...

and 17 teams from the 1952–53 DDR-Oberliga. The matches for the second round were drawn, but not played due to the events around the

uprising of 1953 in East Germany The East German uprising of 1953 ( ) was an uprising that occurred over the course of two days in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) from 16 to 17 June 1953. It began with strike action by construction workers in East Berlin on 16 June ...

, even though officially the summer holidays were given as the reason for an indefinite postponement. In the spring of 1954, the Second Round teams were drawn again, and the competition resumed with the matches on 25 April 1954. By the Third Round, 13 of the Oberliga teams had been eliminated, but two Bezirksliga sides were still in the competition: BSG Chemie Apolda and Aktivist Welzow. While they were eliminated in this round, three second-tier teams reached the quarterfinals: Empor Wurzen-West, BSG Chemie Zeitz and

Vorwärts Berlin 1. Fußballclub Frankfurt (Oder) E. V. e. V., commonly known as 1. FC Frankfurt, is a German football club based in Frankfurt (Oder), Brandenburg. The club was founded as the army club SV VP Vorwärts Leipzig in Leipzig in East Germany in 1951. ...

. Vorwärts, who just had secured promotion to the Oberliga, and Oberliga side Motor Zwickau eventually reached the final.

First qualifying round

Forfeit, Jena withdrew

Replay

Second qualifying round

Forfeit, Torgelow withdrew.

First round

(played on 7 June 1953) Originally 4-0, but as Weißenfels had fielded an ineligible player the result was annulled.
Thale filed a protest, because two of their players were away on national team duty. The match was replayed and ended in a 1-3 defeat for Thale again.

Replays

(played on 10 June 1953) Forfeit, Lauscha withdrew.

Second round

All matches of the second round were postponed, officially due to the summer holidays. The actual reason were the events surrounding the

. The Second Round was redrawn and played in 1954.

Original draw

New matches

(played on 25 April 1954)

Third round

(played on 16/19 May 1954)

Quarterfinals

(played on 23 May 1954)

Semifinals

(played on 2 June 1954)

Final

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:1952-54 Fdgb-Pokal FDGB-Pokal seasons

East East is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fact that ea ...

1952–53 in East German football 1953–54 in East German football