Gauliga Niedersachsen

Gauliga Niedersachsen

The league was introduced by the Nazi Sports Office in 1933, after the Nazi takeover of power in Germany. It replaced the Oberliga Südhannover/Braunschweig and Oberliga Weser/Jade as the highest level of play of the regional football competitions.

The leagues success on national scale was moderate. The surprising victory of Hannover 96 in the 1938 championship over the all-dominating FC Schalke 04 with a 4-3 overtime win in the replay final remained the only triumph for the region.

In its first season, the league had ten clubs, playing each other once at home and once away. The league champion then qualified for the German championship. The bottom two teams were relegated. The season after, the league was upsized to eleven teams due to the integration of Viktoria Wilhelmsburg, the club coming across from the Gauliga Nordmark. The 1934-35 and 1935-36 seasons were therefore played with eleven teams and three relegation spots. From 1936, the league returned to ten clubs.

Due to the outbreak of World War II in 1939, the league was split into two regional groups of six clubs each. The two group champions then played a home-and-away final for the Gauliga championship. This modus remained for the 1940-41 season.

In its last season, 1941–42, the league remained divided into two regional groups but instead of a two team final, a championship-round of six teams was played. At the end of this season, the league was split into two separate Gauligas.

Gauliga Südhannover-Braunschweig

The territory of the new Gauliga Südhannover-Braunschweig was made up of the area of the Gau Southern Hanover-Brunswick and the Gau Eastern Hanover.

The league started with ten clubs in a single division in 1942. It remained at this strength for the 1943-44 season but lost one club, the Wehrmacht SV Celle, to the new Gauliga Osthannover.

Due to the arrival of the war on Germanys borders, the last season, 1944–45, was barely started. It was meant to operate in eight regional groups.

Gauliga Weser-Ems

The territory of the new Gauliga Weser-Ems was made up of the area of the Gau of the same name.

The league started out with ten clubs in a single division. The 1943-44 season was then played in three regional groups of uneven strength, with 23 clubs altogether and a three-team finals round.

The last season saw the same modus but 24 clubs. Play did not get under way very far, and most clubs only played two or three games before the league was dissolved.

Gauliga Osthannover

The league begun play as an offshoot of the Gauliga Südhannover-Braunschweig in 1943 in the area of the Gau Eastern Hanover with eight teams in a single division. The league only played one complete season.

In its second season, it was expanded to twelve teams in two groups of six. However, no club absolved more than two games before the effects of the war lead to the cancellation of the league.

Aftermath

With the end of the Nazi era, the Gauligas ceased to exist and the northern part of Germany found itself in the British occupation zone. Only the state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen was not part of this zone as it was awarded to the US forces as a port for their otherwise landlocked occupation zone in Southern Germany.

In the British zone and Bremen, top-level football did not resume straight away, unlike in Southern Germany, and only in 1947 was a new, highest league introduced, the Oberliga Nord, which covered the new states of Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein along with the recreated city-states of Hamburg and Bremen.

Founding members of the league

The ten founding members and their league positions in the Oberliga Südhannover/Braunschweig and Oberliga Weser/Jade in 1932-33 were:

Winners and runners-up of the league

The winners and runners-up of the league:

Placings in the league 1933-44

The complete list of all clubs participating in the league:

Gauliga Niedersachsen