The 1938 World Men's Handball Championship was the first ever handball World Championship. It was played in Germany on 5 and 6 February 1938. Contested by just 4 national teams, the tournament was won by hosts Germany.
History Only two years before at the fourth IAHF congress the first international rules for indoor handball were created. The only game between indoor handball national teams had been played between the Danish and Swedish teams in Copenhagen on 8 March 1935. Sweden had won 18 to 12. In Germany and Austria indoor handball was not regularly played and they had no international appearance yet. An unofficial German national team like team played at tournament in Copenhagen on 28 August 1934.
Venues All games were played in the Deutschlandhalle in Berlin. The court had the dimensions 50 × 25 meter (today 40 × 20 meter) and the games were 2 × 10 minutes (today (2× 30 minutes).
Berlin DeutschlandhalleCapacity: 8,764
Squads
Referees One referee from Denmark and two from Germany were refereeing the games.
Results
Top scorers RankNameNationGoals1Yngve Lamberg6Hans-Werner ObermarkHans Theilig4Rudolf Tauscher55Günther Ortmann4Jaroslav Volak7Kurt Mahnkopf3Anton Perwein9Sven Åblad2Hans HouschkaWalter MadsenGerd Schauer138 players 1
Medallist Squads GoldSilverBronze Germany Austria SwedenKarl HerbolzheimerHerbert SchmidtGerard BrüntgensWalter HomkeHans KeiterKurt LubenowKurt MahnkopfHans ObermarkGünther OrtmannGerd SchauerWill SteiningerHans TheiligAdolar WoczinskiPhilipp ZimmermannFranz AxmannOtto CernyHans HouschkaZdenko KuceraRobert LeuOtto LichaFerdinand MantlerAnton PerweinAlfred SchmalzerAlois SchnabelRudolf TauscherJaroslav VolakLeopold WohSven ÅbladTorsten AnderssonErik FlobergÅke ForslundStig HjortsbergSture HultbergÅke KallerdahlYngve LambergRoland NilssonAllan RollanderSigfrid SchönningTage SjöbergGustaf Adolf Thoren
City tournament Besides the World Men's Handball Championship there was also a city tournament played. Berlin won the city tournament.
References International Handball Federation Games of Sweden Games of Germany (Helmut Laaß and Stephan Müller)