1941 German football championship

The 1941 German football championship, the 34th edition of the competition, was won by SK Rapid Wien, the club's sole German championship. Rapid, which had previously won twelve Austrian football championship between 1911 and 1938 as well as the 1938 German Cup, won the competition by defeating Schalke 04 4–3 in the final.[1][2][3] The final was held on 22 June 1941, the same day Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa.[4]

1941 German championship
Deutsche Fußballmeisterschaft
Replica of the Viktoria trophy
CountryGermany
Dates6 April – 22 June
Teams20
ChampionsRapid Wien
1st German title
Runners-upSchalke 04
Third placeDresdner SC
Fourth placeVfL Köln 99
Matches played56
Goals scored248 (4.43 per match)
Top goal scorer(s)Hermann Eppenhoff (15 goals)
← 1940
1942 →

Overview
The score board of the 1941 final

FC Schalke 04, having won five of the previous seven finals, being the defending champions and aiming for an unprecedented third consecutive German championship, were the favourites and led the final 3–0 after 57 minutes but Rapid scored four unanswered goals, the last three of them by Franz Binder, to win the championship.[5] It marked the second of three occasions of a club from Vienna (German: Wien) in the final, Rapid becoming the only one to win the competition while Admira Wien had made a losing appearance in the 1939 final and First Vienna FC would do the same in 1942.[1] Austrian clubs had played in the German league system from 1938, after the Anschluss, until the German surrender in 1945.[6]

Rapid's victory led to a number of conspiracy theories. On Schalke's side it was speculated that Rapid was allowed to win to award a national championship to a club from the Ostmark while, in Austria, the theory developed that Rapid players were punished after the final by being sent to the front line. Both theories were disproven when Rapid, in 2009, commissioned a study into the history of the club during the Nazi era and found no evidence for either.[7] Rapid continues to list both German titles, the 1941 championship and the 1938 cup win, in its honours.[8]

Schalke's Hermann Eppenhoff became the top scorer of the 1941 championship with 15 goals, the highest individual amount for any player in the history of the competition from 1903 to 1963.[9]

The twenty 1940–41 Gauliga champions, two more than in 1940 because of the addition of the Gauliga Elsaß and Gauliga Danzig-Westpreußen,[10] competed in a group stage with the four group winners advancing to the semi-finals. The two semi-final winners then contested the 1941 championship final. The groups were divided into two with four clubs and two with six clubs with the latter, in turn, subdivided into two groups of three teams each and a final of these group winners to determine the overall group champions.[11]

In the following season, the German championship was played with twenty five clubs. From there it gradually expanded further through a combination of territorial expansion of Nazi Germany and the sub-dividing of the Gauligas in later years, reaching a strength of thirty one in its last completed season, 1943–44.[10]

Qualified teams

The teams qualified through the 1940–41 Gauliga season:[11]

ClubQualified from
VfL NeckarauGauliga Baden
TSV 1860 MünchenGauliga Bayern
Tennis Borussia BerlinGauliga Berlin-Brandenburg
Preußen DanzigGauliga Danzig-Westpreußen
FC Mühlhausen 93Gauliga Elsaß
Borussia FuldaGauliga Hessen
SV JenaGauliga Mitte
VfL 99 KölnGauliga Mittelrhein
TuS Helene AltenessenGauliga Niederrhein
Hannover 96Gauliga Niedersachsen
Hamburger SVGauliga Nordmark
SK Rapid WienGauliga Ostmark
VfB KönigsbergGauliga Ostpreußen
LSV StettinGauliga Pommern
Dresdner SCGauliga Sachsen
Vorwärts-Rasensport GleiwitzGauliga Schlesien
NSTG PragGauliga Sudetenland
Kickers OffenbachGauliga Südwest
Schalke 04Gauliga Westfalen
Stuttgarter KickersGauliga Württemberg

Competition

Group 1

Group 1A

Group 1A was contested by the champions of the Gauligas Danzig-Westpreußen, Pommern and Schlesien:[11]

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GR Pts Qualification VRG LSV DAN
1 Vorwärts-Rasensport Gleiwitz 4 2 1 1 9 5 1.800 5 Advance to group final — 3–1 4–1
2 LSV Stettin 4 1 2 1 8 9 0.889 4 3–2 — 1–1
3 Preußen Danzig 4 0 3 1 5 8 0.625 3 0–0 3–3 —
Source: RSSSF
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal ratio.

Group 1B

Group 1B was contested by the champions of the Gauligas Brandenburg, Sachsen and Sudetenland:[11]

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GR Pts Qualification DRE TBB PRA
1 Dresdner SC 4 4 0 0 11 4 2.750 8 Advance to group final — 5–2 4–2
2 Tennis Borussia Berlin 4 1 1 2 5 7 0.714 3 0–1 — 3–1
3 NSTG Prag 4 0 1 3 3 8 0.375 1 0–1 0–0 —
Source: RSSSF
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal ratio.

Group 1 final
Team 1 Agg. Team 2 1st leg 2nd leg
Dresdner SC 6–0 Vorwärts-Rasensport Gleiwitz 3–0 3–0

Group 2

Group 2A

Group 2A was contested by the champions of the Gauligas Mitte, Nordmark and Ostpreußen:[11]

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GR Pts Qualification HSV SVJ KON
1 Hamburger SV 4 3 1 0 9 5 1.800 7 Advance to group final — 2–1 3–1
2 1. SV Jena 4 1 1 2 9 8 1.125 3 2–2 — 2–4
3 VfB Königsberg 4 1 0 3 6 11 0.545 2 1–2 0–4 —
Source: RSSSF
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal ratio.

Group 2B

Group 2B was contested by the champions of the Gauligas Hessen, Niedersachsen and Westfalen:[11]

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GR Pts Qualification S04 H96 FUL
1 Schalke 04 4 4 0 0 16 2 8.000 8 Advance to group final — 4–0 4–0
2 Hannover 96 4 1 0 3 10 15 0.667 2 1–6 — 6–1
3 Borussia Fulda 4 1 0 3 6 15 0.400 2 1–2 4–3 —
Source: RSSSF
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal ratio.

Group 2 final
Team 1 Agg. Team 2 1st leg 2nd leg
Schalke 04 3–1 Hamburger SV 3–0 0–1

Group 3

Group 3 was contested by the champions of the Gauligas Elsaß, Mittelrhein, Niederrhein and Südwest:[11]

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GR Pts Qualification K99 KOF HEA M93
1 VfL Köln 6 4 1 1 19 12 1.583 9 Advance to semi-finals — 3–1 3–1 6–1
2 Kickers Offenbach 6 3 2 1 19 9 2.111 8 2–2 — 1–1 5–1
3 Helene Altenessen 6 2 2 2 15 13 1.154 6 6–1 0–4 — 5–2
4 FC Mülhausen 6 0 1 5 9 28 0.321 1 1–4 2–6 2–2 —
Source: RSSSF
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal ratio.

Group 4

Group 4 was contested by the champions of the Gauligas Bayern, Baden, Ostmark and Württemberg:[11]

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GR Pts Qualification RWI M60 SKI NEC
1 Rapid Wien 6 4 1 1 24 5 4.800 9 Advance to semi-finals — 2–0 1–1 8–1
2 1860 Munich 6 3 1 2 14 11 1.273 7 2–1 — 2–1 6–2
3 Stuttgarter Kickers 6 1 2 3 11 16 0.688 4 1–5 3–3 — 2–0
4 VfL Neckarau 6 2 0 4 10 27 0.370 4 0–7 2–1 5–3 —
Source: RSSSF
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal ratio.

Semi-finals

Three of the four clubs in the 1941 semi-finals had reached the same stage in the previous season, Rapid Wien, Dresdner SC and FC Schalke 04, while VfL Köln 99 replaced SV Waldhof Mannheim in comparison to 1940:[12]

Team 1  Score  Team 2
8 June 1941[13]
SK Rapid Wien 2–1 Dresdner SC
Schalke 04 4–1 VfL Köln 99

Third place play-off
Team 1  Score  Team 2
22 June 1941[14]
Dresdner SC 4–1 VfL Köln 99

Final
SK Rapid Wien4–3Schalke 04
Schors  60'
Binder  62'  65' (pen.)  71'		 Report Hinz  5'  58'
Eppenhoff  8'
Attendance: 95,000
Referee: Adolf Reinhardt (Stuttgart)
SPORTKLUB RAPID:
GK Rudolf Raftl
DF Stefan Wagner
DF Heribert Sperner
MF Franz Wagner
MF Leopold Gernhardt
MF Stefan Skoumal
FW Willy Fitz
FW Georg Schors
FW Franz Binder
FW Hermann Dvoracek
FW Hans Pesser
Manager:
Leopold Nitsch
FC GELSENKIRCHEN-SCHALKE 04:
GK Hans Klodt
DF Hans Bornemann
DF Otto Schweisfurth
MF Bernhard Füller
MF Otto Tibulski
MF Rudolf Gellesch
FW Herbert Burdenski
FW Fritz Szepan
FW Hermann Eppenhoff
FW Ernst Kuzorra
FW Heinz Hinz
Manager:
Otto Faist
gollark: Turtlebot armies aren't cheap.
gollark: the only citizen is you and you have no elytron.
gollark: I could put laser squid at its borders if you did that, though.
gollark: Then claim the nation. Simple.
gollark: No; claims.

References
  1. (West) Germany -List of champions rsssf.com, accessed: 26 December 2015
  2. FC Schalke 04 » Steckbrief (in German) Weltfussball.de – FC Schalke 04 honours, accessed: 26 December 2015
  3. Rapid Wien » Steckbrief (in German) Weltfussball.de – Rapid Wien honours, accessed: 26 December 2015
  4. Der längste Tag – das Protokoll des Überfalls Die Welt, published: 22 June 2011, accessed: 26 December 2015
  5. Deutsche Meisterschaft 1940/1941 » Finale » Rapid Wien – FC Schalke 04 4:3 (in German) Weltfussball.de, Game report, accessed: 26 December 2015
  6. Die deutsche Vergangenheit von Rapid Wien (in German) sportal.de, The German history of Rapid Wien, accessed: 26 December 2015
  7. Deutscher Meister: Rapid 1, Leverkusen 0 (in German) Kurier, published: 25 December 2012, accessed: 26 December 2015
  8. Erfolge Archived 9 January 2016 at the Wayback Machine (in German) Rapid Wien website – honours, accessed: 27 December 2015
  9. "Deutsche Meisterschaft » Torschützenkönige" [German championship: Top goal scorer]. Weltfussball.de (in German). Retrieved 2 January 2016.
  10. kicker Allmanach 1990, page: 243-245
  11. German championship 1941 rsssf.com, accessed: 26 December 2015
  12. German championship 1940 rsssf.com, accessed: 27 December 2015
  13. German championship 1941 – Semifinals (in German) Weltfussball.de, accessed: 26 December 2015
  14. German championship 1941 – Third place game (in German) Weltfussball.de, accessed: 26 December 2015

Sources
  • kicker Allmanach 1990, by kicker, page 164 & 177 – German championship
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