Women's football in Germany is quickly becoming very popular in Germany largely due to the success of the women's national team.

History

Women in Germany have been playing football since the turn of the 18th century, but women playing sports were frowned upon by the general population and citizens. The "Sports Girl" did not come into fashion until the 1920s when women started to form their own clubs.

Lotte Specht Lotte Specht (15 October 1911 – 10 February 2002) was a German football player. In 1930, she founded 1. Deutscher Damenfußballclub (1. DDFC) the first women's football team in Germany. Literature * ''Lotte Specht.'' In: Ronny Galczynski: ...

was one of the first female to form a women's only football club. Christa Kleinhans was another pioneer of women's football in Germany. In 1955 the

German Football Association The German Football Association ( ; DFB ) is the governing body of Association football, football, futsal, and beach soccer in Germany. A founding member of both FIFA and UEFA, the DFB has jurisdiction for the German football league system and ...

declared that they would not permit women into the association stating that women were frail and unable to perform in the sport without injuring themselves. During the 1960s there was discussion about setting up a Woman's Football Association, but it never panned out. The DFB finally officially allowed women players on October 30, 1970, but there were modifications to the rules. Firstly, women were only allowed to play in warm weather. Secondly,

football boots Football boots, also referred to as cleats or soccer shoes in North America, are specialized footwear designed for use in association football. Those designed for grass pitches have studs on the outsole to aid grip. Modern football boots are ...

with studs were banned and the ball was smaller and lighter. Lastly, the length of a match was reduced to seventy minutes. In 1971 a women's league was formed, with many other leagues established during the following years. On September 8, 1974, the first women's champion in football was awarded to

TuS Wörrstadt TuS Wörrstadt is a German women's football multi-sports club based in Wörrstadt, Rhineland-Palatinate. The club was founded in 1847 and is most famous for its women's football department which won the first national championship in 1974. Recent ...

. The first women's

DFB Cup The DFB-Pokal (), also known as the German Cup in English language, English, is a German knockout Association football, football cup competition held annually by the German Football Association (DFB). Sixty-four teams participate in the competiti ...

was held in 1981 with

SSG 09 Bergisch Gladbach SV Bergisch Gladbach 09 is a German association football club from the city of Bergisch Gladbach in North Rhine-Westphalia. History The club was established in 1909 as ''Fußball Club Bergisch Gladbach'' and was joined that same year by the ...

defeating TuS Wörrstadt 5–0 in the final match in front of 35,000 spectators. The women's national team (coached by Gero Bisanz) played its first game (as West Germany) on November 10, 1982, against

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

. Germany won the match 5–1. Two players who scored in the game would eventually become coaches for the national team. In 1989

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

hosted the

1989 European Competition for Women's Football The 1989 European Competition for Women's Football took place in West Germany. It was won by Germany women's national football team, the hosts in a final against defending champions Norway women's national football team, Norway. Again, the compet ...

. The German team beat the

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

team on a penalty shoot-off. This was the first women's football game broadcast live in Germany. On July 2, 1989, the German team beat the favored Norwegian team 4–1 in front of 23,000 spectators. This was an attendance record for a German women's team that would last until May 24, 2008, when 27,460 spectators watched 1. FFC Frankfurt defeat

Umeå IK Umeå IK () is a women's professional association football club based in the city of Umeå, in northern Sweden, and currently playing Damallsvenskan, the first tier of women's football in Sweden. They were one of the most successful football cl ...

3–2 in the

UEFA Women's Cup The UEFA Women's Champions League, previously called the UEFA Women's Cup (2001–2009), is a European women's association football competition. It involves the top club teams from countries affiliated with the European governing body UEFA. T ...

National competition

As a result of the national team's success in the 1989 European Competition, in 1990 the DFB founded the first women's

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany and the highest level of the German football league system. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams ...

with twenty teams divided into two groups, a Northern Conference and a Southern Conference. The Bundesliga was reduced to a single league of twelve teams in 1997. However, with the growing strength of

Regionalliga A (, plural ) is a regional league in numerous Sports governing body, sports governing bodies in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, usually located in the upper or middle tiers of the sports leagues. The term is often associated with the Germa ...

compared to the Bundesliga, the DFB founded Second Bundesliga in 2004. The Second Bundesliga contained twenty-four teams divided into two groups. Source: *All leagues on same level run parallel.

National team

The Germany women's national football team, organised by the DFB, are the only women's team ever to have successfully defended the

FIFA Women's World Cup The FIFA Women's World Cup is an international association football competition contested by the senior list of women's national association football teams, women's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internationale de Footb ...

, winning in

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

under coach

Tina Theune-Meyer Christina Theune (formerly Theune-Meyer; born 4 November 1953) is a German former football manager, and the former national coach of the German women's national team. Biography Theune was born into a sporting family. Her father was a track and ...

and

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

under

Silvia Neid Silvia Edith Maria Neid (born 2 May 1964) is a German former professional football player and manager. She is one of the most successful players in German women's football, having won seven national championships and six DFB-Pokal trophies. Betwe ...

. They also won eight

UEFA Women's Championship The UEFA European Women's Championship, also called the UEFA Women's Euro, held every four years and one year after the men's UEFA European Championship first held in 1984, is the main competition in women's association football between nationa ...

s (

1989 1989 was a turning point in political history with the "Revolutions of 1989" which ended communism in Eastern Bloc of Europe, starting in Poland and Hungary, with experiments in power-sharing coming to a head with the opening of the Berlin W ...

1991 It was the final year of the Cold War, which had begun in 1947. During the year, the Soviet Union Dissolution of the Soviet Union, collapsed, leaving Post-soviet states, fifteen sovereign republics and the Commonwealth of Independent State ...

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 ...

1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

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 ...

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

Women's Honours

Major competitions

* Champions (2):

* Runners-up (1):

* Fourth place (2):

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 ...

* Champions (8):

* Runners-up (1):

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 ...

* Fourth place (1):

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 ...

Summer Olympic Games The Summer Olympic Games, also known as the Summer Olympics or the Games of the Olympiad, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The 1896 Summer Olympics, inaugural Games took place in 1896 in Athens, ...

* Gold Medal (1):

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 ...

* Bronze Medal (3):

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

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 ...

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

References