# 1996–97 2. Bundesliga

The 1996–97 2. Bundesliga season was the twenty-third season of the 2. Bundesliga, the second tier of the German football league system.
1. FC Kaiserslautern, VfL Wolfsburg and Hertha BSC were promoted to the Bundesliga while SV Waldhof Mannheim, VfB Lübeck, Rot-Weiss Essen and VfB Oldenburg were relegated to the Regionalliga.

## League table

For the 1996–97 season VfB Oldenburg, Rot-Weiss Essen, FC Gütersloh and Stuttgarter Kickers were newly promoted to the 2. Bundesliga from the Regionalliga while 1. FC Kaiserslautern, Eintracht Frankfurt and KFC Uerdingen 05 had been relegated to the league from the Bundesliga.
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Promotion or relegation |
| 1 | 1. FC Kaiserslautern (C, P) | 34 | 19 | 11 | 4 | 74 | 28 | +46 | 68 | Promotion to Bundesliga |
| 2 | VfL Wolfsburg (P) | 34 | 14 | 16 | 4 | 52 | 29 | +23 | 58 | Promotion to Bundesliga |
| 3 | Hertha BSC (P) | 34 | 17 | 7 | 10 | 57 | 38 | +19 | 58 | Promotion to Bundesliga |
| 4 | Mainz 05 | 34 | 14 | 12 | 8 | 50 | 34 | +16 | 54 | |
| 5 | Stuttgarter Kickers | 34 | 14 | 11 | 9 | 38 | 27 | +11 | 53 | |
| 6 | SpVgg Unterhaching | 34 | 11 | 16 | 7 | 35 | 29 | +6 | 49 | |
| 7 | Eintracht Frankfurt | 34 | 13 | 9 | 12 | 43 | 46 | −3 | 48 | |
| 8 | VfB Leipzig | 34 | 12 | 10 | 12 | 53 | 54 | −1 | 46 | |
| 9 | KFC Uerdingen | 34 | 13 | 5 | 16 | 46 | 44 | +2 | 44 | |
| 10 | SV Meppen | 34 | 10 | 14 | 10 | 44 | 48 | −4 | 44 | |
| 11 | Fortuna Köln | 34 | 11 | 9 | 14 | 52 | 47 | +5 | 42 | |
| 12 | Carl Zeiss Jena | 34 | 9 | 15 | 10 | 44 | 49 | −5 | 42 | |
| 13 | FC Gütersloh | 34 | 12 | 9 | 13 | 43 | 51 | −8 | 45 | |
| 14 | FSV Zwickau | 34 | 12 | 6 | 16 | 34 | 48 | −14 | 42 | |
| 15 | Waldhof Mannheim (R) | 34 | 10 | 10 | 14 | 45 | 56 | −11 | 40 | Relegation to Regionalliga |
| 16 | VfB Lübeck (R) | 34 | 8 | 12 | 14 | 32 | 53 | −21 | 36 | Relegation to Regionalliga |
| 17 | Rot-Weiss Essen (R) | 34 | 8 | 5 | 21 | 47 | 74 | −27 | 29 | Relegation to Regionalliga |
| 18 | VfB Oldenburg (R) | 34 | 6 | 9 | 19 | 33 | 67 | −34 | 27 | Relegation to Regionalliga |
* ↑ VfB Lübeck, and VfB Oldenburg were relegated to Regionalliga Nord. Waldhof Mannheim was relegated to Regionalliga Süd. Rot-Weiss Essen was relegated to Regionalliga Südwest.

## Results

| Home \ Away | BSC | RWE | SGE | FCG | JEN | FCK | FKO | LEI | LUE | M05 | WMA | SVM | OLD | SKI | KFC | UNT | WOB | ZWI |
| Hertha BSC | — | 7–3 | 1–2 | 5–2 | 0–1 | 2–0 | 4–2 | 1–1 | 0–0 | 1–0 | 2–2 | 3–0 | 1–0 | 0–1 | 0–2 | 3–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 |
| Rot-Weiss Essen | 2–1 | — | 4–1 | 2–2 | 0–2 | 1–4 | 0–4 | 4–1 | 2–0 | 0–2 | 2–1 | 2–1 | 5–0 | 0–4 | 1–2 | 1–2 | 0–1 | 1–2 |
| Eintracht Frankfurt | 3–1 | 3–0 | — | 2–0 | 1–1 | 0–0 | 3–1 | 2–3 | 3–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 0–1 | 2–3 | 0–1 | 0–1 | 1–0 | 1–1 | 2–1 |
| FC Gütersloh | 1–0 | 2–3 | 3–1 | — | 0–0 | 1–1 | 1–0 | 2–0 | 3–1 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 4–2 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 1–1 | 1–1 | 1–1 | 3–1 |
| Carl Zeiss Jena | 2–1 | 4–0 | 1–1 | 2–5 | — | 2–2 | 1–1 | 0–0 | 1–1 | 2–1 | 1–1 | 2–1 | 3–1 | 0–0 | 2–2 | 1–1 | 3–3 | 2–1 |
| 1. FC Kaiserslautern | 0–0 | 3–2 | 5–0 | 2–0 | 2–0 | — | 2–0 | 4–1 | 7–0 | 1–1 | 5–0 | 7–6 | 6–2 | 2–0 | 3–1 | 0–0 | 4–0 | 4–1 |
| Fortuna Köln | 2–0 | 1–1 | 0–0 | 3–0 | 2–0 | 0–0 | — | 2–3 | 0–3 | 1–3 | 4–0 | 0–0 | 7–1 | 1–2 | 1–2 | 3–1 | 2–0 | 2–1 |
| VfB Leipzig | 0–3 | 2–0 | 2–3 | 3–1 | 3–3 | 2–2 | 4–1 | — | 0–0 | 3–0 | 6–1 | 1–3 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 3–1 | 3–0 | 0–2 | 4–0 |
| VfB Lübeck | 1–4 | 3–2 | 1–1 | 2–3 | 1–0 | 0–2 | 1–1 | 0–1 | — | 0–2 | 2–3 | 4–1 | 2–0 | 1–0 | 2–0 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 1–1 |
| Mainz 05 | 0–1 | 2–1 | 2–2 | 3–0 | 3–2 | 0–0 | 2–0 | 2–1 | 1–1 | — | 2–0 | 3–0 | 3–0 | 1–0 | 3–1 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 1–1 |
| Waldhof Mannheim | 2–1 | 3–3 | 1–2 | 1–0 | 4–0 | 2–0 | 3–3 | 1–1 | 3–1 | 2–2 | — | 1–0 | 2–0 | 0–1 | 1–0 | 1–1 | 1–3 | 4–0 |
| SV Meppen | 1–1 | 1–1 | 1–1 | 2–0 | 0–0 | 2–1 | 0–3 | 0–0 | 2–0 | 5–4 | 1–1 | — | 2–1 | 1–1 | 2–0 | 1–1 | 0–0 | 3–0 |
| VfB Oldenburg | 2–2 | 2–1 | 1–2 | 2–0 | 1–0 | 0–1 | 1–1 | 4–1 | 1–1 | 1–1 | 1–0 | 1–1 | — | 1–1 | 1–2 | 1–3 | 1–4 | 1–2 |
| Stuttgarter Kickers | 1–2 | 1–1 | 0–0 | 1–1 | 1–2 | 0–2 | 3–1 | 3–1 | 2–3 | 2–1 | 2–1 | 0–0 | 5–0 | — | 1–0 | 1–0 | 0–0 | 1–0 |
| KFC Uerdingen | 2–3 | 1–0 | 3–0 | 0–2 | 2–2 | 0–1 | 1–2 | 5–0 | 5–0 | 0–1 | 4–1 | 0–0 | 1–0 | 3–1 | — | 0–4 | 0–3 | 3–0 |
| SpVgg Unterhaching | 1–2 | 2–0 | 2–1 | 3–1 | 2–1 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 1–1 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 2–1 | 1–2 | 1–1 | 1–1 | 0–0 | — | 1–0 | 2–1 |
| VfL Wolfsburg | 1–1 | 5–1 | 4–1 | 3–0 | 4–1 | 0–0 | 2–1 | 2–0 | 0–0 | 5–4 | 1–1 | 3–1 | 2–2 | 0–0 | 1–0 | 0–0 | — | 1–1 |
| FSV Zwickau | 1–2 | 2–1 | 1–0 | 3–1 | 1–0 | 2–1 | 2–0 | 1–2 | 2–0 | 0–0 | 2–0 | 1–1 | 1–0 | 0–1 | 2–1 | 0–2 | 0–0 | — |

## Top scorers

The league's top scorers:
| Goals | Player | Team |
| 18 | Angelo Vier | Rot-Weiss Essen |
| 17 | Steffen Heidrich | VfB Leipzig |
| 15 | Axel Kruse | Hertha BSC Berlin |
| 14 | Pavel Kuka | 1. FC Kaiserslautern |
| 13 | Christian Claaßen | SV Meppen |
| 12 | Abderrahim Ouakili | 1. FSV Mainz 05 |
| 12 | Jürgen Rische | 1. FC Kaiserslautern |
| 11 | Rainer Krieg | Fortuna Köln |
| 10 | Sven Demandt | 1. FSV Mainz 05 |
| 10 | Horst Elberfeld | VfB Oldenburg |
| 10 | Wolfram Klein | Rot-Weiss Essen |
| 10 | Olaf Marschall | 1. FC Kaiserslautern |
| 10 | Dirk van der Ven | FC Gütersloh |
| 10 | Mark Zimmermann | FC Carl Zeiss Jena |