The German men's national ice hockey team is the national

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

team of

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

and is controlled by the

German Ice Hockey Federation The German Ice Hockey Federation (), commonly abbreviated as DEB, is the governing federation of German ice hockey associations. It was established on 16 June 1963 in Krefeld. Until 1990 it served only the old West Germany, Federal Republic of Ge ...

. It first participated in serious international competition at the 1911 European Hockey Championship. When Germany was split after

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, a separate

East Germany national ice hockey team The East Germany, East German national men's ice hockey team was a national ice hockey representing the German Democratic Republic (GDR). The first international game was played in East Berlin on 28 January 1951, losing 3–8 to Poland men's na ...

existed until 1990. By 1991, the West and East German teams and players were merged into the United German team. The team's head coach is

Harold Kreis Harold Kreis (born January 19, 1959) is a Germans, German-Canadian ice hockey coach and a former professional player. He is a member of the German ice hockey hall of fame. Playing career Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, Kreis played junior i ...

. Germany has won several medals at the

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game ...

, including three silver medals in

1930 Events January * January 15 – The Moon moves into its nearest point to Earth, called perigee, at the same time as its fullest phase of the Lunar Cycle. This is the closest moon distance at in recent history, and the next one will be on J ...

1953 Events January * January 6 – The Asian Socialist Conference opens in Rangoon, Burma. * January 12 – Estonian émigrés found a Estonian government-in-exile, government-in-exile in Oslo. * January 14 ** Marshal Josip Broz Tito ...

and

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

, as well as a silver medal at the

2018 Winter Olympics The 2018 Winter Olympics (), officially the XXIII Olympic Winter Games (; ) and also known as PyeongChang 2018 (), were an international winter multi-sport event held between 9 and 25 February 2018 in Pyeongchang County, South Ko ...

, the team's biggest success in the 21st century.

History

West Germany

The West German team's greatest success came in 1976 at the

Winter Olympics The Winter Olympic Games (), also known as the Winter Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were held i ...

, when the team went 2–3–0 and won the bronze medal. The Swedish and Canadian teams, traditionally two hockey powerhouses, had boycotted the 1976 Games in protest of the amateur rules that allowed

Eastern Bloc The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc (Combloc), the Socialist Bloc, the Workers Bloc, and the Soviet Bloc, was an unofficial coalition of communist states of Central and Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America that were a ...

countries to send their best players while keeping Western nations from doing the same. West Germany's wins in the 1976 Games came against the United States (4–1) and

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

(7–4). In 1980, the team did not do as well and only won one game in the preliminary round, which kept them from advancing. They finished 10th out of 12. In 1984, the team was invited to the

Canada Cup The Canada Cup () was an invitational international ice hockey tournament held on five occasions between 1976 and 1991. The brainchild of Toronto lawyer Alan Eagleson, the tournament was created to meet demand for a true world championship that a ...

. By 1991, the reunification of East and West Germany meant the inclusion of players from the former

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 ...

Post-unification

The team is not considered to be as elite as

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

, the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

or the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

; they are ranked 9th in the world (2022) by the

IIHF The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF; ; ) is a worldwide governing body for ice hockey. It is based in Zurich, Switzerland, and has 84 member countries. The IIHF maintains the IIHF World Ranking based on international ice hockey tourn ...

. Since re-unification, their best recent results include finishing 6th place at the 2003 World Championships where they lost a close quarter-final match in overtime to Canada, and 4th at the 2010 World Championships where they lost to Sweden in the bronze medal game. Previously, they finished third in the European Group and qualified for the quarter-finals at the 1996 World Cup after a surprising 7–1 victory against the Czech Republic. In the

1992 Olympics 1992 Olympics may refer to: *1992 Summer Olympics, which were held in Barcelona, Spain *1992 Winter Olympics The 1992 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XVI Olympic Winter Games () and commonly known as Albertville '92 (Franco-Provença ...

, they lost to Canada 4–3 in an overtime shoot-out in the quarter-finals. Germany has never won an international competition, and their most recent medal was

silver Silver is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag () and atomic number 47. A soft, whitish-gray, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal. ...

in the 2018 Olympic Winter Games, when they lost to the Olympic Athletes From Russia 4–3 in overtime. It was the first time that Germany had reached the Gold Medal Game at the Winter Olympics. This was their best result, tied with a silver medal at the 1930 World Championships. There are 25,934 registered players in Germany (0.03% of its population). Team Germany finished in 4th place at the

2010 IIHF World Championship The 2010 IIHF World Championship was the 74th IIHF World Championship, an annual international ice hockey tournament. It took place between 7 and 23 May 2010 in Germany. The games were played in the Lanxess Arena in Cologne, SAP Arena in Mannh ...

, their best placement since 1953. File:1993 IIHF World Championship FIN-GER.jpg,

and Germany in 1993 World Championships File:Deutsche-nationalmannschaft-wm-2005-20050509007.jpg, The German national team at the 2005 World Championship

Competition results

Olympic Games

World Championship

European Championship

*1912 Championship was later annulled because Austria was not a member of the IIHF at the time of the competition.

World Cup of Hockey

1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

– lost in quarterfinals *

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

– lost in quarterfinals *

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

– Won (as part of Team Europe)

Canada Cup

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeas ...

– Finished in 6th place

Other tournaments

Deutschland Cup The Deutschland Cup is an in-season international ice hockey tournament hosted by the German Ice Hockey Federation which has been contested in most years since 1987. Early years (1987–1997) In 1987, the German Ice Hockey Federation created the ...

: Gold medal (

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

) *

Nissan Cup Nissan Cup () was an ice hockey tournament for men's national teams, which was played in Switzerland between 1988 Nissan Cup, 1988-1994 Nissan Cup (November), 1994. Originally played in November, the tournament was later moved to February, and fin ...

: Gold medal (

1993 The United Nations General Assembly, General Assembly of the United Nations designated 1993 as: * International Year for the World's Indigenous People The year 1993 in the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands had only 364 days, since its ...

)

Team

Current roster

Roster for the

2025 IIHF World Championship The 2025 IIHF World Championship was co-hosted by Stockholm, Sweden, and Herning, Denmark, from 9 to 25 May 2025. This decision regarding Sweden was made at the 2018 semi-annual International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) congress in Malta, and w ...

. Head coach:

Retired numbers

* 20 –

Robert Dietrich Robert Dietrich (25 July 1986 – 7 September 2011) was a professional ice hockey defenceman. He was killed in the 2011 Lokomotiv Yaroslavl plane crash, in which all players and coaches on board the plane from the club perished. Playing career D ...

80 - Robert Müller

Notable players

Leon Draisaitl Leon Tim Draisaitl (; born 27 October 1995) is a German professional ice hockey forward and alternate captain for the Edmonton Oilers of the National Hockey League (NHL). In 2020, Draisaitl became the first German player to win the Art Ross Tro ...

Rudi Ball Rudolf Victor "Rudi" Ball (June 22, 1911 – September 19, 1975) was a German ice hockey player. He played for the German national team at several international tournaments, including the 1936 Winter Olympics, where he was notably one of ...

Christian Ehrhoff Christian Ehrhoff (born 6 July 1982) is a German professional ice hockey defenceman for Krefeld Pinguine of the German DEL2. In 2018, he won silver at the 2018 Winter Olympics, Winter Olympics. He played more than 800 games in the National Hocke ...

Karl Friesen Karl Heinz Friesen (born June 30, 1958) is a Canadian-born German former professional ice hockey goaltender. Friesen spent most of his career in Germany, playing in the Eishockey-Bundesliga and Deutsche Eishockey Liga, but he also played four game ...

Marcel Goc Marcel Goc (; born 24 August 1983) is a German former professional ice hockey player. Goc's father Josef played hockey in his native Czechoslovakia, he has two brothers who also play professional hockey. His older brother Sascha has played for ...

Thomas Greiss Thomas Greiss (born 29 January 1986) is a German professional ice hockey goaltender who currently plays for Löwen Frankfurt of the Deutsche Eishockey Liga. Selected 94th overall in the third round of the 2004 NHL Entry Draft by the San Jose Sh ...

Philipp Grubauer Philipp Grubauer (born 25 November 1991) is a German professional ice hockey goaltender for the Seattle Kraken of the National Hockey League (NHL). He was drafted by the Washington Capitals in the fourth round, 112th overall, at the 2010 NHL ent ...

Jochen Hecht Jochen Thomas Hecht (German: International Phonetic Alphabet, /hɛçt/) (born 21 June 1977) is a German ice hockey coach and a former professional ice hockey player. He has been serving as assistant coach for Adler Mannheim since March 2022. Hec ...

Dieter Hegen Dieter Hegen (born April 29, 1962 in Kaufbeuren, West Germany) is a retired professional ice hockey player who played in the Eishockey-Bundesliga and its replacement the Deutsche Eishockey Liga. He was inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame in 2010. ...

Gustav Jaenecke Gustav Jaenecke (22 May 1908 – 30 May 1985) or Jänecke was a German ice hockey player who competed in the 1928 Winter Olympics, in the 1932 Winter Olympics, and in the 1936 Winter Olympics, and tennis player who played in three Internat ...

* Udo Kießling *

Ralph Krueger Ralph Krueger (born 31 August 1959) is a Canadian-born German professional ice hockey coach and former player. He is the former head coach of the Edmonton Oilers and Buffalo Sabres of the National Hockey League (NHL), and former chairman of Sout ...

*Patrick Reimer *

Olaf Kölzig Olaf Kölzig (born 6 April 1970) is a South African-born Germans, German professional ice hockey goaltender and current goaltender coach and player development coach for the Washington Capitals of the National Hockey League (NHL). With the exce ...

Erich Kühnhackl Erich Kühnhackl (born 17 October 1950) is a German former professional ice hockey player, born and raised in Czechoslovakia. He is one of the all-time greats of German ice hockey and was named Germany's ice hockey player of the 20th century in ...

* Uwe Krupp (also former head coach) * Robert Müller * Helmut de Raaf * Hans Rampf * Dennis Seidenberg * Alois Schloder *

Marco Sturm Marco Johann Sturm (born September 8, 1978) is a German professional ice hockey coach and former player who is the List of NHL head coaches, head coach for the Boston Bruins of the National Hockey League (NHL). As a Forward (ice hockey), forward, ...

(also former head coach) * Xaver Unsinn (also former head coach)

Notable executives

Heinz Henschel Heinz Henschel (27 January 1920 – 21 October 2006) was a German ice hockey player, sports administrator, and banker. He played for 24 seasons and won two German championships as a member of the Berliner Schlittschuhclub. He later became a ban ...

, president of the German Ice Sport Federation *

Wolf-Dieter Montag Wolf-Dieter Montag (10 December 1924 – 21 July 2018) was a German physician, sports medicine specialist, mountain rescue doctor, and international sports administrator. His medical career spanned 50 years in his native Bavaria, and included b ...

, team physician * Roman Neumayer, sport director for the

Uniform evolution

File:West Germany national ice hockey team jerseys 1988 (WOG).png, (West Germany) 1988 Olympic jerseys File:Germany national ice hockey team jerseys 1992.png, 1992 Olympic jerseys File:Germany national ice hockey team jerseys 1994 (WOG).png, 1994 Olympic jersey File:Germany national ice hockey team jerseys 1998 Olympics.png, 1998 Olympic jerseys File:Germany national ice hockey team jerseys 1999-2000.png, 1999-2000 IIHF jerseys File:Germany national hockey team jerseys.png, former IIHF jerseys File:Germany national hockey team jerseys 2014.png, 2014–2017 IIHF jerseys File:Germany national ice hockey team jerseys 2018 (WOG).png, 2018 Olympic jerseys File:Germany national ice hockey team jerseys 2018 IHWC.png, 2018–2021 IIHF jerseys File:Germany national ice hockey team jerseys 2022 (WOG).png, 2022 Olympic jerseys File:Germany national ice hockey team jerseys 2022 IHWC.png, 2022– IIHF jerseys

All-time record

References

External links

*
IIHF profileNational Teams of Ice Hockey
{{DEFAULTSORT:Germany Men's National Ice Hockey Team Ice hockey teams in Germany National ice hockey teams in Europe Men's national ice hockey teams