Oberliga Süd (1945–63)


The Oberliga Süd was the southernmost of the five Oberligen, the regional leagues forming the top level of association football in West Germany from 1945 until the formation of the Bundesliga in 1963. Oberliga Süd covered the southern three German states of Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg and Hesse.

Overview

The league was introduced as the highest level of football in the US occupation zone in 1945 to replace the disbanded Gauligen. It played its first round on 4 November 1945 and continued on throughout winter. No less than 16 clubs were elected into the new league, a novelty in German football and quite an achievement in the early post-war conditions. At this stage, clubs from the south-western parts of Baden and Württemberg were not eligible to compete in it as they were based in the French occupation zone and had to play in the Oberliga Südwest, where they remained until 1950, when the separation of South and Southwest was made final. Play in the southern parts of Germany went underway almost straight after the end of the war while the north and east still had to wait some more years. One reason for this was the fact that the less industrial, more agricultural south had sustained much less damage to infrastructure. But there was another specific advantage. The authorities in the U.S. zone encouraged the relaunch of competitive sports on a regional basis much earlier than this happened in the other zones. Regional football associations were not tolerated anywhere before 1948. The Oberliga Süd, however, was licensed to a group of private persons, thus being a sort of "independent" league during its first five seasons. It did not join the South German F.A. until 1950.
The clubs in the Oberliga Süd had been in the following Gauligen:
In addition to the Oberliga Süd, four other Oberligas were formed in Germany in the 1940s.
Set below the Oberliga were originally the Landesligas of Hessen, Bayern, Württemberg and Nordbaden, from 1950 also Südbaden. From 1950 the 2. Oberliga Süd was formed as an intermediate between Oberliga and Landesligas.
With the reintroduction of the German championship in 1948, the winner and runners-up of the Oberliga Süd went on to the finals tournament with the other Oberliga champions. In 16 attempts the Oberliga Süd managed to win it six times.
In 1950, the southern group of the Oberliga Südwest was disbanded and its clubs joined the Southern German Football Association. The SSV Reutlingen and the FC Singen 04 joined the Oberliga Süd, SV Tübingen, Freiburger FC and Vfl Konstanz were integrated into the new 2nd Oberliga Süd and the other eleven clubs were relegated to the Amateurliga.
The Oberliga Süd had quite a few permanent clubs. The VfB Stuttgart, 1. FC Nürnberg, Eintracht Frankfurt, Kickers Offenbach, VfR Mannheim and 1. FC Schweinfurt 05 played all of the 18 possible seasons in the league. The Karlsruher SC was also present for all 18 seasons but only by counting in both halves of the merger club.

Founding members of the Oberliga Süd

In order of finish:
Of those clubs, the Karlsruher FV was reformed and the Phönix Karlsruhe is now the Karlsruher SC.

Disbanding of the Oberliga

With the introduction of the Bundesliga, five teams from the Oberliga Süd were admitted to the new Bundesliga. The remaining clubs went to the new Regionalliga Süd, one of five new second divisions.
The teams admitted to the Bundesliga were:
The 3rd placed team of the 1963 season, the FC Bayern Munich was not admitted as the German Football Association did not want two teams from the same city in the league and TSV 1860 Munich had qualified in a higher position.
The following teams from the Oberliga went to the new Regionalliga:
The qualifying system for the new league was fairly complex. The league placings of the clubs playing in the Oberligen for the last ten seasons were taken into consideration, whereby results from 1952 to 1955 counted once, results from 1955 to 1959 counted double and results from 1959 to 1963 triple. A first-place finish was awarded 16 points, a sixteenth place one point. Appearances in the German championship or DFB-Pokal finals were also rewarded with points. The five Oberliga champions of the 1962–63 season were granted direct access to the Bundesliga. All up, 46 clubs applied for the 16 available Bundesliga slots.
Following this system, by 11 January 1963, the DFB announced nine fixed clubs for the new league and reduced the clubs eligible for the remaining seven places to 20. Clubs within the same Oberliga that were separated by less than 50 points were considered on equal rank and the 1962-63 placing was used to determine the qualified team.
Of the thirteen clubs from this league applying, the 1. FC Nürnberg and Eintracht Frankfurt qualified early. Karlsruher SC and VfB Stuttgart held third and fourth place in the overall points ranking. Kickers Offenbach and FC Bayern Munich missed out to TSV 1860 Munich due to the latter winning the league in 1962–63 even though 1860 were 153 points behind Offenbach and 59 behind FC Bayern.
Points table:
RankClubPoints 1952 to 1963Place in 1962–63
11. FC Nürnberg 14472
2Eintracht Frankfurt 14204
3Karlsruher SC 24195
4VfB Stuttgart 24086
5Kickers Offenbach 23827
6FC Bayern Munich 22883
7TSV 1860 Munich 22291
8VfR Mannheim 322712
9SpVgg Fürth 32249
101. FC Schweinfurt 05 318511
11FC Bayern Hof 39013
12TSV Schwaben Augsburg 36115
13KSV Hessen Kassel 33610

The winners and runners-up of the Oberliga Süd:
SeasonWinnerRunner-Up
1945–46VfB Stuttgart1. FC Nürnberg
1946–471. FC NürnbergSV Waldhof Mannheim
1947–481. FC NürnbergTSV 1860 Munich
1948–49Kickers OffenbachVfR Mannheim
1949–50SpVgg FürthVfB Stuttgart
1950–511. FC NürnbergSpVgg Fürth
1951–52VfB Stuttgart1. FC Nürnberg
1952–53Eintracht FrankfurtVfB Stuttgart
1953–54VfB StuttgartEintracht Frankfurt
1954–55Kickers OffenbachSSV Reutlingen
1955–56Karlsruher SCVfB Stuttgart
1956–571. FC NürnbergKickers Offenbach
1957–58Karlsruher SC1. FC Nürnberg
1958–59Eintracht FrankfurtKickers Offenbach
1959–60Karlsruher SCKickers Offenbach
1960–611. FC NürnbergEintracht Frankfurt
1961–621. FC NürnbergEintracht Frankfurt
1962–63TSV 1860 Munich1. FC Nürnberg

The final placings and all-time table of the Oberliga Süd:
Club464748495051525354555657585960616263SGGFGAPoints
1. FC Nürnberg2111181294971236112185601348754739
Kickers Offenbach12591310363142522447185601236848684
VfB Stuttgart1656241211324957756185601165824661
Eintracht Frankfurt1131013148412465314224185601117809661
FC Bayern Munich611431398791610743833175301060922554
VfR Mannheim14128241251310103710810910121856010221066546
SpVgg Fürth1310151263111113647111112917530920899528
1. FC Schweinfurt 05791310127145838128101214141118560854953524
TSV 1860 Munich94249613151666567115470908815507
FSV Frankfurt1014712557117691113119121517530812907506
Karlsruher SC4551319139511330727524401
SV Waldhof Mannheim42656141081516131612380646704369
Stuttgarter Kickers373816121414121414161613406774795360
BC Augsburg8171410161012711131215111614432737983353
TSV Schwaben Augsburg5811711131581215131512380600711347
Viktoria Aschaffenburg15171112165811141510316504720264
SSV Reutlingen *182151412858149274470598243
TSG Ulm 18461312151613141588256390508212
VfB Mühlburg149739*5162309248166
SSV Jahn Regensburg1561410915167210281509164
VfL Neckarau161611164140242344111
FC Bayern Hof13106134120181262105
KSV Hessen Kassel13151039014019870
Phönix Karlsruhe152026810018542
Karlsruher FV16192688119640
1. FC Bamberg18138447528
SV Darmstadt 9815134548625
FC Singen 04 *171345611222
Rot-Weiß Frankfurt18138509922
FC Wacker München19138418921
Freiburger FC *16130436620
1. Rödelheimer FC 0216130407317
Sportfreunde Stuttgart201383010014

The league's top scorers:
YearPlayerClubGoals
1945–46Robert SchlienzVfB Stuttgart45
1946–47Hans Pöschl1. FC Nürnberg41
1947–48Robert SchlienzVfB Stuttgart31
1948–49Otto ThannerTSV 1860 Munich19
1948–49Georg HerboldSV Waldhof Mannheim19
1948–49Emil MaierKickers Offenbach19
1949–50Horst SchadeSpVgg Fürth21
1950–51Max Morlock1. FC Nürnberg28
1951–52Max Morlock1. FC Nürnberg26
1952–53Horst SchadeSpVgg Fürth22
1953–54Helmut PreisendörferKickers Offenbach22
1954–55Ernst-Otto MeyerVfR Mannheim36
1955–56Ernst-Otto MeyerVfR Mannheim30
1956–57Heinz BeckKarlsruher SC34
1957–58Siegfried GastKickers Offenbach20
1958–59Ernst-Otto MeyerVfR Mannheim27
1959–60Heinz Strehl1. FC Nürnberg30
1960–61Rudolf BrunnenmeierTSV 1860 Munich23
1960–61Erwin SteinEintracht Frankfurt23
1961–62Lothar SchämerEintracht Frankfurt26
1962–63Rudolf BrunnenmeierTSV 1860 Munich24
1962–63Kurt Haseneder1. FC Nürnberg24
1962–63Rainer OhlhauserFC Bayern Munich24