The Gauliga Mitte was the highest

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

league in the

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

province A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

Saxony Saxony, officially the Free State of Saxony, is a landlocked state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, and Bavaria, as well as the countries of Poland and the Czech Republic. Its capital is Dresden, and ...

and the German states of

Thuringia Thuringia (; officially the Free State of Thuringia, ) is one of Germany, Germany's 16 States of Germany, states. With 2.1 million people, it is 12th-largest by population, and with 16,171 square kilometers, it is 11th-largest in area. Er ...

and

Anhalt Saxony-Anhalt ( ; ) is a state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony, Thuringia and Lower Saxony. It covers an area of and has a population of 2.17 million inhabitants, making it the 8th-largest state in Germany by area an ...

from 1933 to 1945, all located in the center (German:''Mitte'') of Germany. Shortly after the formation of the league, the

Nazis Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

reorganised the administrative regions in Germany, and the '' Gaue'' ''

'', '' Magdeburg-Anhalt'' and ''

Halle-Merseburg The Province of Halle-Merseburg () was a province of the Free State of Prussia from 1944 to 1945. The provincial capital was the city Merseburg. Halle-Merseburg was created on 1 July 1944, out of Regierungsbezirk Merseburg, an administrative ...

'' replaced the states and Prussian province.

Overview

The league was introduced by the

Nazi Sports Office Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During Hitler's rise to power, it was frequen ...

in 1933, after the Nazi takeover of power in Germany. It replaced the '' Bezirksligas'' and ''Oberligas'' as the highest level of play in German football competitions. Until the formation of the ''Gauliga'', the region was covered by a number of local leagues and, together with clubs from state of

, they played out a ''Central German championship'' (German: ''Mittel-Deutsche Meisterschaft''). In its first season, the league had ten clubs, playing each other once at home and once away. The league champion then qualified for the German championship. The bottom two teams were relegated. The league operated on the same modus until the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

in 1939. Due to the effects of the war, the 1939–40 and 1940–41 seasons were played with only eight clubs. In 1941, the league returned to a ten-club strength, which it retained until 1944. The imminent collapse of

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

in 1945 gravely affected all ''Gauligas'' and football in the region was split into six regional groups. However, none of them played more than a few games before the arrival of the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

, and the end of the war ended all competitions.

Aftermath

With the end of the Nazi era, the ''Gauligas'' ceased to exist and the region found itself in the

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

occupation zone. The

DDR-Oberliga The DDR-Oberliga (English: ''East German Premier League'' or ''GDR Premier League'') was the top-level association football league in East Germany. Overview Following World War II, separate sports competitions emerged in the Allied-occupied G ...

was formed in the following years as the highest level of play in the new country of

East Germany East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...

and the region became part of the East German football league system. Virtually all football clubs in the region were dissolved and replaced with clubs controlled by the new communist government. Of those, some readopted the pre-1945 names after the

German reunification German reunification () was the process of re-establishing Germany as a single sovereign state, which began on 9 November 1989 and culminated on 3 October 1990 with the dissolution of the East Germany, German Democratic Republic and the int ...

in 1990.

Founding members of the league

The ten founding members and their league positions in the 1932–33 season were: * FC Wacker Halle, ''champion

Saale The Saale (), also known as the Saxon Saale ( ) and Thuringian Saale (), is a river in Germany and a left-bank tributary of the Elbe. It is not to be confused with the smaller Fränkische Saale, Franconian Saale, a right-bank tributary of the M ...

division'' *

SV 08 Steinach SV Steinach is a German association football club that plays in Steinach, a town 75 km south of Erfurt in Thuringia. History This small local club was founded on 4 November 1908 as ''FC Steinach''. Play was suspended through World War I ...

, ''champion Südthüringen division'' * VfL Bitterfeld, ''champion

Mulde The Mulde () is a river in Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is a left tributary of the Elbe and is long. The river is formed by the confluence, near Colditz, of the Zwickauer Mulde (running through Zwickau) and the Freiberger Mulde (wit ...

division'' * SpVgg Erfurt * SV Victoria 96 Magdeburg * SC 95 Erfurt, ''champion Nordthüringen division'' * 1. SV Jena 03, ''champion Ostthüringen division'' * SV Merseburg 1899 *

Fortuna Magdeburg SV Fortuna Magdeburg is a Football in Germany, German association football club from the city of Magdeburg in Saxony-Anhalt. History The club was founded 1 August 1911 as Magdeburger Fußball-Verein Fortuna 1911. An earlier unrelated side kno ...

, ''champion

Elbe The Elbe ( ; ; or ''Elv''; Upper Sorbian, Upper and , ) is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Giant Mountains of the northern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia (western half of the Czech Republic), then Ge ...

division'' * SC Preußen Magdeburg

Winners and runners-up of the Gauliga Mitte

The winners and runners-up of the league:

Placings in the Gauliga Mitte 1933-44

The complete list of all clubs participating in the league:

References

Sources

* ''Die deutschen Gauligen 1933-45 - Heft 1-3'' Tables of the Gauligas 1933–45, publisher: DSFS * ''Kicker Almanach'', The yearbook on German football from Bundesliga to Oberliga, since 1937, published by the Kicker Sports Magazine

External links

*
The Gauligas
''Das Deutsche Fussball Archiv''

at RSSSF.com {{Football in Thuringia 1933 establishments in Germany 1945 disestablishments in Germany Football competitions in Saxony-Anhalt Football competitions in Thuringia Gauliga Sports leagues disestablished in 1945 Sports leagues established in 1933