The football league system of the German Democratic Republic (shortened: GDR, German: Deutsche Demokratische Republik or DDR) existed from the creation of the DDR-Oberliga in 1949 until shortly after German reunification in 1990.
From 1949 until 1991 East Germany had its own football league system. It had its own nationwide league called Oberliga which existed throughout the whole GDR history. Since 1954 the DDR-Oberliga consisted of 14 teams; the two worst-placed teams were relegated to the Liga, which was introduced in 1950. Following the dissolution of the five federal states the five old Landesliga divisions were replaced by 15 new Bezirksliga divisions as the third level of the league system. By 1955 however, there was another change in the league system as the 2nd DDR-Liga was created as a level between the DDR-Liga and the Bezirksligen.
In 1962, the DDR-Liga was once more divided into two divisions and a year later the 2nd DDR-Liga was abandoned. In 1971 the DDR-Liga was divided into five Divisions, and for that reason was now similar to the Landesliga of the 1940s. The five division champions played a qualification round to determine which clubs would promote to the Oberliga. From 1984 to 1991, the Liga consisted of two divisions again, whose champions were directly promoted to the Oberliga. Below the two DDR-Liga divisions were the fifteen Bezirksligen whose champions had to play a promotional round to determine the six clubs that would move up to the 2nd Division.
Below the Bezirksliga there were (descending) Bezirksklasse, Kreisliga and, at the lowest level, several Kreisklasse divisions, as they actually are today.
The 1989-90 season was the last "true" season of DDR football. The league system presented here had been in use since 1984, when the DDR-Liga was reduced from five to two divisions.
Source:"East German football leagues". Das deutsche Fussball Archiv. Retrieved 2008-02-16.
All leagues at the same level run parallel.
Leagues below the Bezirksliga not shown.
The boundary between the two 2nd Divisions was geographically not fixed, teams promoted from the Bezirksligen in the central part of East Germany could end up in either league. The allocation of the Bezirksligen to the 2nd Division shown here is therefore a guide only.
Bezirksliga Karl-Marx-Stadt changed its name to Bezirksliga Chemnitz on 21 June 1990.
The 1989-90 season was the last before the reunification of Germany in October 1990. One more season was played after that before the two league systems were integrated. The 1990-91 season however already saw changes with the introduction of Verbands- and Landesligen in all areas except Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and East Berlin as the third tier between 2nd Division and Bezirksligen. Also, the DDR-Oberliga was renamed NOFV-Oberliga.
The 1990-91 league system as such existed for this one season only, it was the transition stage between the East German and the West German football league system to form the united German football league system.
Source:"East German football leagues". Das deutsche Fussball Archiv. Retrieved 2008-02-16.
All leagues on the same level run parallel.
Leagues below the Bezirksligen not shown.
Source:"East German football leagues". Das deutsche Fussball Archiv. Retrieved 2008-03-08.
Club names and affiliations
The clubs in the East German league system were very similar to clubs in other eastern European communist countries and therefore very different from the rest of Europe. "Free", uncontrolled formation of sports or football clubs was not possible, as the DFV controlled everything. Players on elite level did not necessarily have a free choice of club either and if they wanted to play in the national team they usually had to join one of the big clubs, a fact after all quite similar to the West.
Football clubs in the former GDR could be classified in four simple categories, identifiable by their names, these being:
The clubs of the interior ministry with strong connection to the secret police. Erich Mielke, head of the Stasi was the patron of all Dynamo clubs and especially of Dynamo Berlin, resulting in very favorable results for those clubs. Especially in the last fifteen years of the GDR, the Dynamo clubs dominated the league completely.
BFC Dynamo (until January 1966 SC Dynamo Berlin)
Dynamo Dresden
The clubs of the ministry of defence, usually called ASV Vorwärts. The army club Vorwärts Berlin dominated the league in the 1960s, but with the rise in power of the Stasi and the decline of the army, the club was forced to leave Berlin for Frankfurt (Oder) to make room for Dynamo Berlin.FC Vorwärts Frankfurt/Oder (until summer 1971 FC Vorwärts Berlin)
A handful of clubs were established as separate football clubs from December 1965 to January 1966 to improve the level of play and concentrate the best players, those being:
1. FC Magdeburg, continued to receive support from the "VEB Schwermaschinenbau-Kombinat Ernst Thälmann" (SKET)
F.C. Hansa Rostock
FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt
FC Carl Zeiss Jena, continued to receive close support from Carl Zeiss optics factories
FC Karl Marx Stadt
1. FC Lokomotive Leipzig, despite its name, the club was not affiliated with the Deutsche Reichsbahn
1. FC Union Berlin
FC Chemie Halle, despite its name, the club was not affiliated with the chemical industry
Apart from those eight, the BFC Dynamo and Vorwärts Berlin also nominally became independent football clubs but in practice they remained under the influence of their ministries. An eleventh club, SG Dynamo Dresden was granted the same privileges in regards of player drafting but did not become an autonomous football club.
Short for the Betriebssportgemeinschaft, those were the sport clubs sponsored by East German government-owned companies. By far the most numerous, they were the basis of sports in the GDR. However, they received the lowest priority in the sports system. Generally, athletes were company employees and the sports teams were company sponsored. Due to the different industries' varying ability to create a "profit", the BSG's varied greatly in financial wealth and sporting success. Wismut and Chemie were the two dominant branches in the ranks of the BSG's. The BSG's themselves subdivide in different industries, again easily distinguishable by their names:
Aktivist = Mining industry: Aktivist Brieske-Senftenberg
Aufbau = Building industry: Aufbau Krumhermersdorf
Chemie = Chemical industry: Chemie Leipzig
Einheit = Civil administration: Einheit Pankow
Empor = Trade & Commerce: Empor Neuruppin, Empor Halle
Energie = Energy providers: Energie Cottbus
Fortschritt = Textile industry: Fortschritt Bischofswerda
Lokomotive = State railway (the Deutsche Reichsbahn): Lok Stendal, Lokomotive Halberstadt
Motor = Automotive industry: Motor Babelsberg, Motor Karl Marx Stadt
Post = Postal service: Post Neubrandenburg
Rotation = Print industry: Rotation Babelsberg
Stahl = Steel industry: Stahl Brandenburg, Stahl Eisenhüttenstadt
Traktor = Agriculture: Traktor Groß Lindow
Turbine = Energy providers: Turbine Potsdam, Turbine Markranstädt
Wismut = Mining industry, specifically uranium mining: Wismut Aue, Wismut Plauen
Some industrial branches were particularly unsuccessful due to low funding, an example is agriculture which did not have a club in the first or second division again after 1978 when Traktor Groß Lindow got relegated.
Some clubs remained outside those categories, at least by name, belonging to well-known East German companies and carrying their names, like Sachsenring Zwickau.
