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.^[1][2]

CountryGermany

Dates16 April – 18 June

Teams31

ChampionsDresdner SC
2nd German title

Quick facts Deutsche Fußballmeisterschaft, Tournament details ...

1944 German championship

Deutsche Fußballmeisterschaft
Replica of the Viktoria trophy
Tournament details
Country	Germany
Dates	16 April – 18 June
Teams	31
Final positions
Champions	Dresdner SC 2nd German title
Runners-up	LSV Hamburg
Tournament statistics
Matches played	32
Goals scored	185 (5.78 per match)
Top goal scorer	Helmut Schön (14 goals)
← 1943 1948 →

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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.^[3]

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.^[4]

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,^[5] competed in a single-leg knock out competition to determine the national champion.^[6]

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.^[7]