The Oberliga Süd (English: Premier League South[citation needed]) 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.
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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.[1] 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 (Südgruppe), where they remained until 1950, when the separation of South and Southwest was made final.[2] 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 (or nationwide) 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.
In order of finish:
Of those clubs, the Karlsruher FV was reformed and the Phönix Karlsruhe is now the Karlsruher SC.
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.[3]
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.[4]
Points table:
The winners and runners-up of the Oberliga Süd:[5]
The final placings and all-time table of the Oberliga Süd:[5][6]
Source: "Oberliga Süd". Das deutsche Fussball-Archiv. Retrieved 2007-12-26.
The league's top scorers:
Source: 50 Jahre Bayerischer Fussball–Verband. Vindelica Verlag. 1996. p. 189.