# 1940 German football championship

The 1940 German football championship, the 33rd edition of the competition, was won by Schalke 04, the club's fifth German championship, by defeating Dresdner SC 1–0 in the final. Both clubs would continue to be strong sides during the Second World War editions of the German championship with Schalke making a losing appearance in the 1941 final before winning again in 1942 while Dresden was crowned German champions in 1943 and 1944.
Schalke's 16–0 win over CSC 03 Kassel in the group stages was the highest win in the history of the German championship as well as the most goals scored in a game.
Rapid Wien's Franz Binder became the 1940 championships top scorer with 14 goals, a new record that would be broken the following year by Schalke's Hermann Eppenhoff when he scored 15 goals.
The eighteen 1939–40 Gauliga champions, the same number as in 1939, competed in a group stage with the four group winners advancing to the semi-finals. The two semi-final winners then contested the 1940 championship final. The groups were divided into three with four clubs and one 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.
In the following season, the German championship was played with twenty 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.

## Qualified teams

The teams qualified through the 1939–40 Gauliga season:
| Club | Qualified from |
| SV Waldhof Mannheim | Gauliga Baden |
| 1. FC Nürnberg | Gauliga Bayern |
| Union Oberschöneweide | Gauliga Berlin-Brandenburg |
| CSC 03 Kassel | Gauliga Hessen |
| SV Jena | Gauliga Mitte |
| Mülheimer SV | Gauliga Mittelrhein |
| Fortuna Düsseldorf | Gauliga Niederrhein |
| VfL Osnabrück | Gauliga Niedersachsen |
| Eimsbütteler TV | Gauliga Nordmark |
| SK Rapid Wien | Gauliga Ostmark |
| VfB Königsberg | Gauliga Ostpreußen |
| VfL Stettin | Gauliga Pommern |
| Dresdner SC | Gauliga Sachsen |
| Vorwärts-Rasensport Gleiwitz | Gauliga Schlesien |
| NSTG Graslitz | Gauliga Sudetenland |
| Kickers Offenbach | Gauliga Südwest |
| Schalke 04 | Gauliga Westfalen |
| Stuttgarter Kickers | Gauliga Württemberg |

## Competition
### Group 1
#### Group 1A

Group 1A was contested by the champions of the Gauligas Brandenburg, Ostpreußen and Pommern:
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GR | Pts | Qualification | OBE | KON | STE |
| 1 | Union Oberschöneweide | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 13 | 8 | 1.625 | 6 | Advance to group final | — | 6–3 | 3–1 |
| 2 | VfB Königsberg | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 13 | 10 | 1.300 | 6 | | 3–1 | — | 5–2 |
| 3 | VfL Stettin | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 5 | 13 | 0.385 | 0 | | 1–3 | 1–2 | — |

#### Group 1B

Group 1B was contested by the champions of the Gauligas Ostmark, Schlesien and Sudetenland:
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GR | Pts | Qualification | RWI | VRG | GRA |
| 1 | Rapid Wien | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 19 | 4 | 4.750 | 7 | Advance to group final | — | 3–1 | 7–0 |
| 2 | Vorwärts-Rasensport Gleiwitz | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 11 | 11 | 1.000 | 4 | | 2–2 | — | 4–2 |
| 3 | NSTG Graslitz | 4 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 7 | 22 | 0.318 | 1 | | 1–7 | 4–4 | — |

#### Group 1 final

| Team 1 | Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score | Team 2 | 1st leg | 2nd leg |
| Rapid Wien | 6–3 | Union Oberschöneweide | 3–1 | 3–2 |

### Group 2

Group 2 was contested by the champions of the Gauligas Mitte, Niedersachsen, Nordmark and Sachsen:
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GR | Pts | Qualification | DRE | ETV | OSN | SVJ |
| 1 | Dresdner SC | 6 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 9 | 0 | — | 10 | Advance to semi-finals | — | 0–0 | 3–0 | 1–0 |
| 2 | Eimsbütteler TV | 6 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 10 | 10 | 1.000 | 7 | | 0–3 | — | 3–1 | 0–1 |
| 3 | VfL Osnabrück | 6 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 11 | 14 | 0.786 | 4 | | 0–0 | 3–4 | — | 5–2 |
| 4 | 1. SV Jena | 6 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 7 | 13 | 0.538 | 3 | | 0–2 | 2–3 | 2–2 | — |

### Group 3

Group 3 was contested by the champions of the Gauligas Hessen, Mittelrhein, Niederrhein and Westfalen:
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GR | Pts | Qualification | S04 | F95 | MUS | CSC |
| 1 | Schalke 04 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 35 | 5 | 7.000 | 10 | Advance to semi-finals | — | 0–0 | 5–0 | 16–0 |
| 2 | Fortuna Düsseldorf | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 21 | 4 | 5.250 | 8 | | 1–1 | — | 7–1 | 7–0 |
| 3 | Mülheimer SV | 6 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 14 | 29 | 0.483 | 4 | | 2–8 | 2–1 | — | 4–5 |
| 4 | CSC Kassel | 6 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 10 | 42 | 0.238 | 2 | | 2–5 | 0–5 | 3–5 | — |

### Group 4

Group 4 was contested by the champions of the Gauligas Bayern, Baden, Südwest and Württemberg:
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GR | Pts | Qualification | WMA | FCN | SKI | KOF |
| 1 | Waldhof Mannheim | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 14 | 5 | 2.800 | 8 | Advance to semi-finals | — | 1–1 | 7–2 | 4–0 |
| 2 | 1. FC Nürnberg | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 10 | 4 | 2.500 | 6 | | 0–0 | — | 1–0 | 8–0 |
| 3 | Stuttgarter Kickers | 6 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 9 | 9 | 1.000 | 6 | | 1–0 | 2–0 | — | 4–0 |
| 4 | Kickers Offenbach | 6 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 3 | 18 | 0.167 | 4 | | 1–2 | 1–0 | 1–0 | — |

### Semi-finals

Two of the four clubs in the 1940 semi-finals had reached the same stage in the previous season, Dresdner SC and FC Schalke 04, while Rapid Wien replaced Admira Wien and SV Waldhof Mannheim Hamburger SV in comparison to 1939:
| Team 1 | Score | Team 2 |
| 14 July 1940 |||
| Schalke 04 | 3–1 | SV Waldhof Mannheim |
| SK Rapid Wien | 1–2 aet | Dresdner SC |

### Third place play-off

| Team 1 | Score | Team 2 |
| 21 July 1940 |||
| SK Rapid Wien | 4–4 aet | SV Waldhof Mannheim |

#### Replay

| Team 1 | Score | Team 2 |
| 28 July 1940 |||
| SK Rapid Wien | 5–2 | SV Waldhof Mannheim |

### Final

FC GELSENKIRCHEN-SCHALKE 04: :
| GK | Hans Klodt |
| DF | Hans Bornemann |
| DF | Heinz Hinz |
| MF | Bernhard Füller |
| MF | Otto Tibulski |
| MF | Herbert Burdenski |
| FW | Hermann Eppenhoff |
| FW | Fritz Szepan |
| FW | Ernst Kalwitzki |
| FW | Ernst Kuzorra |
| FW | Willi Schuh |
| Manager: |||
| Otto Faist ||||
DRESDNER SC 1898: :
| GK | Willibald Kreß |
| DF | Herbert Pohl |
| DF | Heinz Hempel |
| MF | Strauch |
| MF | Walter Dzur |
| MF | Helmut Schubert |
| FW | Emanuel Boczek |
| FW | Heinrich Schaffer |
| FW | Helmut Schön |
| FW | Heinz Köpping |
| FW | Richard Hofmann |
| Manager: |||
| Georg Köhler ||||