# 1944 German football championship

The 1944 German football championship, the 37th edition of the competition, was won by Dresdner SC, the club defending its 1943 title by defeating Luftwaffe team LSV Hamburg in the final.
The final years of the German Championship during the war saw many military teams compete in the championship, Luftwaffe teams, Luftwaffensportvereine, short LSV, and, Wehrmacht teams, Wehrmachtssportvereine, short WSV, became very competitive.
Dresden's Helmut Schön, who would later coach Germany to the 1974 FIFA World Cup, became the top scorer of the 1944 championship with 14 goals, the second-highest individual amount of any player in the history of the competition from 1903 to 1963.
It was the last edition of the tournament during the Second World War, with the competition not being held again until 1948. The thirty-one 1943–44 Gauliga champions, two more than in the previous season, competed in a single-leg knock out competition to determine the national champion.
Dresdner SC became the last club to be awarded the Viktoria, the annual trophy for the German champions from 1903 to 1944. The trophy disappeared during the final stages of the war, did not resurface until after the German reunification and was put on display at the DFB headquarters in Frankfurt until 2015, when it was moved to the new Deutsches Fußballmuseum in Dortmund.

## Qualified teams

The teams qualified through the 1943–44 Gauliga season:
| Club | Qualified from |
| VfR Mannheim | Gauliga Baden |
| MSV Brünn | Gauliga Böhmen und Mähren |
| Hertha BSC | Gauliga Berlin-Brandenburg |
| LSV Danzig | Gauliga Danzig-Westpreußen |
| FC Mühlhausen 93 | Gauliga Elsaß |
| LSV Mölders Krakau | Gauliga Generalgouvernement |
| LSV Hamburg | Gauliga Hamburg |
| Kickers Offenbach | Gauliga Hessen-Nassau |
| KSG VfL 99 Köln/SpVgg Sülz 07 | Gauliga Köln-Aachen |
| Borussia Fulda | Gauliga Kurhessen |
| LSV Rerick | Gauliga Mecklenburg |
| SV Dessau 05 | Gauliga Mitte |
| TuS Neuendorf | Gauliga Moselland |
| KSG Duisburg | Gauliga Niederrhein |
| STC Hirschberg | Gauliga Niederschlesien |
| 1. FC Nürnberg | Gauliga Nordbayern |
| Germania Königshütte | Gauliga Oberschlesien |
| WSV Celle | Gauliga Osthannover |
| First Vienna | Gauliga Ostmark |
| VfB Königsberg | Gauliga Ostpreußen |
| HSV Groß-Born | Gauliga Pommern |
| Dresdner SC | Gauliga Sachsen |
| Holstein Kiel | Gauliga Schleswig-Holstein |
| FC Bayern Munich | Gauliga Südbayern |
| NSTG Brux | Gauliga Sudetenland |
| Eintracht Braunschweig | Gauliga Südhannover-Braunschweig |
| SDW Posen | Gauliga Wartheland |
| SpVgg Wilhelmshaven | Gauliga Weser-Ems |
| Schalke 04 | Gauliga Westfalen |
| KSG Saarbrücken | Gauliga Westmark |
| SV Göppingen | Gauliga Württemberg |

## Competition
### First round

Borussia Fulda received a bye for the first round.
| Team 1 | Score | Team 2 |
| 16 April 1944 |||
| LSV Danzig | 0–0 | Hertha BSC |
| HSV Groß Born | 6–4 | LSV Rerick |
| STC Hirschberg | 7–0 | SDW Posen |
| Dresdner SC | 9–2 | Germania Königshütte |
| LSV Hamburg | 4–0 | WSV Celle |
| Eintracht Braunschweig | 1–2 | SpVgg Wilhelmshaven |
| Schalke 04 | 5–0 | TuS Neuendorf |
| KSG Köln-Sülz | 0–2 | KSG Duisburg |
| FC Mühlhausen 93 | 4–2 | Kickers Offenbach |
| SV Göppingen | 3–5 | KSG Saarbrücken |
| VfR Mannheim | 2–1 | FC Bayern Munich |
| NSTG Brüx | 0–8 | 1. FC Nürnberg |
| MSV Brno | 3–6 | First Vienna |
| SV Dessau 05 | 2–3 | Holstein Kiel |
| LSV Mölders Krakau | 1–4 | VfB Königsberg |

#### Replay

| Team 1 | Score | Team 2 |
| 23 April 1944 |||
| Hertha BSC | 7–1 | LSV Danzig |

### Round of 16

| Team 1 | Score | Team 2 |
| 7 May 1944 |||
| VfB Königsberg | 3–10 | HSV Groß Born |
| First Vienna | 5–0 | STC Hirschberg |
| Hertha BSC | 4–2 | Holstein Kiel |
| Borussia Fulda | 2–9 | Dresdner SC |
| SpVgg Wilhelmshaven | 1–1 | LSV Hamburg |
| KSG Duisburg | 2–1 | Schalke 04 |
| KSG Saarbrücken | 5–3 | FC Mühlhausen 93 |
| 1. FC Nürnberg | 3–2 | VfR Mannheim |

#### Replay

| Team 1 | Score | Team 2 |
| 14 May 1944 |||
| LSV Hamburg | 4–2 | SpVgg Wilhelmshaven |

### Quarter-finals

| Team 1 | Score | Team 2 |
| 21 May 1944 |||
| Dresdner SC | 3–2 | First Vienna |
| KSG Saarbrücken | 1–5 | 1. FC Nürnberg |
| HSV Groß Born | 3–2 | Hertha BSC |
| LSV Hamburg | 3–0 | KSG Duisburg |

### Final

DRESDNER SC :
| | Willibald Kreß |
| | Heinz Hempel |
| | Fritz Belger |
| | Helmut Schubert |
| | Walter Dzur |
| | Rudi Voigtmann |
| | Helmut Schön |
| | Heinrich Schaffer |
| | Herbert Pohl |
| | Fritz Machate |
| | Richard Hofmann |
| Manager: ||||
| Georg Köhler ||||
LSV HAMBURG :
| | Willy Jürissen |
| | Reinhold Münzenberg |
| | Karl Miller |
| | Heinrich Gärtner |
| | Walter Ochs |
| | Heinz Mühle |
| | Robert Gebhardt |
| | Fritz Zahn |
| | Jakob Lotz |
| | Ludwig Janda |
| | Willi Gornick |
| Manager: ||||
| Karl Höger ||||