German Bowl XLI

The game featured the division champions in the North and the South who had posted perfect regular season records of 14–0. For Schwäbisch Hall this was the eighth appearance in the final in their club history - all having come since 2011. Braunschweig meanwhile avenged their semifinal defeat from the previous season in this year's semifinal against Frankfurt Universe to return to the Championship Game after a one year absence. It was their sixth appearance that decade and eighteenth overall, the latter being a league record. Prior to the Bowl, Schwäbisch Hall had posted a 50 game winning streak in league games (playoffs and regular season)^[4] which coincided with the tenure of Head Coach Jordan Neuman who had taken over for Siegfried Gehrke after the 2016 season.

After Hall's Quarterback Marco Ehrenfried, who had led his team to championships in 2017 and 2018 and also led the German national team to the 2014 European Championship, retired from his role as starting Quarterback at the age of 27 to focus on his day job,^[5] the Unicorns hired Jadrian Clark as his replacement,^[6] who had played for Braunschweig the previous season.^[7] Braunschweig meanwhile decided to put Brandon Connette under Center who had played for the Dresden Monarchs in the 2016 German Football League, losing the semifinals to Schwäbisch Hall. Connette had played the previous two seasons with the Helsinki Roosters of the Vaahteraliiga (Maple League) winning the Maple Bowl both times.^[8]

While the quarterfinals were won by the home teams, as expected, the semifinals saw two rematches with not only advancement to the German Bowl but also considerable rivalry bragging rights on the line. Frankfurt Universe had upset the Lions in the previous season after the Lions had managed to narrowly knock them out in 2017's semifinal. Frankfurt and Braunschweig's GFL playoff head-to-head at 1–1, Braunschweig also had to prove the continued dominance of the North over the South beside their own ambitions. The Unicorns meanwhile hosted the Dresden Monarchs for the fifth semifinal in six years. Dresden had last managed to best Schwäbisch Hall in the playoffs in 2010 and the Saxonians were anxious to reverse their fortunes this time. However, in the end the home teams again had the better luck on their side and thus Braunschweig and Schwäbisch Hall would meet for the fifth German Bowl in six years. Frankfurt was also denied the rare treat of a Championship Game "at home" as the game would be held in Frankfurt am Main after a seven year stint at Berlin's Friedrich Ludwig Jahn Sportpark.