The Oberliga West () was the highest level of the German football league system in the west of Germany from 1947 until the formation of the Bundesliga in 1963. It covered the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany.

Overview

The league was created in 1947 as the highest level of football in the newly created state of North Rhine-Westphalia, then part of the British occupation zone. It replaced the various Gauligas, which had existed until 1945 in the region: Gauliga Köln-Aachen Gauliga Moselland Gauliga Niederrhein Gauliga Westfalen

The league was, together with the Oberliga Nord, the last of the five Oberligas to be formed, the other four being:

Oberliga Nord (formed in 1947) Oberliga Berlin (formed in 1945, originally with clubs from West and East Berlin) Oberliga Südwest (formed in 1945) Oberliga Süd (formed in 1945)

The Oberliga West was formed from thirteen clubs from the Landesligas Niederrhein, Mittelrhein and Westfalen. The Landesligas remained the second tier of football in the West until 1949, when the 2. Oberliga West was formed.

With the reintroduction of the German championship in 1948, the winner and runners-up of the Oberliga West went on to the finals tournament with the other Oberliga champions. The Oberliga West, together with the Oberliga Süd, were the strongest of the five Oberligas, winning six German titles each in the Oberliga period from 1948 to 1963.

Founding members of the Oberliga West Borussia Dortmund Sportfreunde Katernberg STV Horst-Emscher Hamborn 07 Rot-Weiß Oberhausen FC Schalke 04 Fortuna Düsseldorf SpVgg Erkenschwick Alemannia Aachen TSG Vohwinkel (merged to become Wuppertaler SV) Preußen Dellbrück (merged to become Viktoria Köln) VfR Köln (merged to become Viktoria Köln) VfL Witten

Disbanding of the Oberliga With the introduction of the Bundesliga, five teams from the Oberliga West were admitted to the new Bundesliga. The remaining clubs went to the new Regionalliga West, one of five new second divisions.

The teams admitted to the Bundesliga were: 1. FC Köln Borussia Dortmund Meidericher SV SC Preußen Münster FC Schalke 04

The following teams from the Oberliga went to the new Regionalliga: Alemannia Aachen Schwarz-Weiß Essen Viktoria Köln Bayer Leverkusen Rot-Weiß Oberhausen Borussia Mönchengladbach Hamborn 07 Fortuna Düsseldorf Westfalia Herne Wuppertaler SV TSV Marl-Hüls

Qualifying for the Bundesliga 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.DSFS Ligachronik: Qualifikation zur Bundesliga 1963 , page: B 11 - 12, publisher: Deutscher Sportclub für Fussballstatistik - DSFS, accessed: 3 November 2008

All Oberliga West clubs except TSV Marl-Hüls applied for Bundesliga membership. Borussia Dortmund, 1. FC Köln and FC Schalke 04 qualified early. Meidericher SV and Preußen Münster qualified even though both clubs had less points than Alemannia Aachen. Aachen finished fifth, Meidericher SV came in fourth and Preußen Münster earned a third-place finish in 1962–63.

Points table: Rank Club Points 1952 to 1963 Place in 1962–63 1 1. FC Köln 1 466 1 2 Borussia Dortmund 1 440 2 3 FC Schalke 04 1 396 6 4 Alemannia Aachen 2 285 5 5 Preußen Münster 2 251 4 6 Meidericher SV 2 250 3 7 Fortuna Düsseldorf 2 225 13 8 Westfalia Herne 2 222 14 9 Viktoria Köln 3 201 8 10 Schwarz-Weiß Essen 2 167 7 11 Rot-Weiß Oberhausen 2 154 10 12 Borussia Mönchengladbach 3 155 11 13 Hamborn 07 3 101 12 14 Bayer Leverkusen 3 88 9 15 Wuppertaler SV 4 52 15

Bold Denotes club qualified for the new Bundesliga. 1 Denotes club was one of the nine selected on 11 January 1963. 2 Denotes club was one of the 20 taken into final selection. 3 Denotes club was one of the 15 applicants which were removed from final selection. 4 Denotes club withdrew Bundesliga application.

Honours The winners and runners-up of the Oberliga West:Germany - Oberliga West 1947-63 rsssf.org, accessed: 16 December 2015 SeasonWinnerRunner-Up 1947–48 Borussia Dortmund Sportfreunde Katernberg 1948–49 Borussia Dortmund Rot-Weiß Essen 1949–50 Borussia Dortmund Preußen Dellbrück 1950–51 FC Schalke 04 SC Preußen Münster 1951–52 Rot-Weiß Essen FC Schalke 04 1952–53 Borussia Dortmund 1. FC Köln 1953–54 1. FC Köln Rot-Weiß Essen 1954–55 Rot-Weiß Essen SV Sodingen 1955–56 Borussia Dortmund FC Schalke 04 1956–57 Borussia Dortmund Duisburger SV 1957–58 FC Schalke 04 1. FC Köln 1958–59 Westfalia Herne 1. FC Köln 1959–60 1. FC Köln Westfalia Herne 1960–61 1. FC Köln Borussia Dortmund 1961–62 1. FC Köln FC Schalke 04 1962–63 1. FC Köln Borussia Dortmund

Bold denotes team went on to win German championship.

Placings & all-time table of the Oberliga West The final placings and all-time table of the Oberliga West:Oberliga West all-time table Weltfussball.de, accessed: 22 December 2015 Club 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 S G GF GA Points Borussia Dortmund 1 1 1 3 4 1 5 5 1 1 5 5 3 2 8 2 16 506 1243 738 654 1. FC Köln 5 4 5 2 1 8 7 3 2 2 1 1 1 1 14 463 1097 657 591 FC Schalke 04 6 12 6 1 2 6 3 6 2 4 1 11 4 3 2 6 16 495 1051 753 587 Alemannia Aachen 9 8 12 15 3 5 9 11 3 5 3 10 9 8 11 5 16 469 847 853 484 Rot-Weiß Essen 2 3 6 1 3 2 1 5 8 7 6 6 15 13 399 802 604 470 Preußen Münster 4 8 2 7 7 4 9 12 13 6 7 10 9 7 4 15 451 810 764 466 Fortuna Düsseldorf 7 11 5 12 9 10 7 6 6 8 3 15 9 13 14 408 763 725 405 Meidericher SV 8 4 11 15 7 4 8 8 11 5 3 11 330 546 517 343 Rot-Weiß Oberhausen 5 5 11 13 11 12 13 4 3 10 10 288 439 468 290 Westfalia Herne 13 13 11 12 1 2 5 6 14 9 280 481 461 284 Duisburger SV 10 16 4 4 2 10 9 5 13 16 10 303 447 558 276 Hamborn 07 4 6 9 7 16 16 16 12 7 12 12 11 319 439 590 264 Borussia Mönchengladbach 14 14 12 14 11 16 13 14 6 13 11 11 331 503 762 263 Preussen Dellbrück * 11 2 8 9 8 13 10 14 12 9 268 425 483 255 Schwarz-Weiß Essen 11 13 6 12 8 15 16 4 7 9 270 463 471 252 SV Sodingen 11 14 2 9 14 13 15 14 15 9 277 404 479 240 STV Horst-Emscher 3 3 4 10 13 12 16 16 8 230 383 475 202 VfL Bochum 8 16 10 14 4 11 16 7 210 331 374 193 Bayer 04 Leverkusen 6 10 7 3 15 9 6 180 298 337 175 Viktoria Köln 9 14 7 10 10 8 6 180 366 415 166 SpVgg Erkenschwick 8 9 7 11 14 16 6 168 267 343 143 Sportfreunde Katernberg 2 13 12 10 15 5 139 251 308 124 Wuppertaler SV * 10 9 15 15 4 120 173 240 100 Rheydter SV 9 15 15 3 90 150 221 71 TSV Marl-Hüls 12 14 16 3 90 130 212 65 TSG Vohwinkel * 10 7 14 3 78 116 161 63 Rhenania Würselen 10 13 2 54 78 100 47 VfR Köln * 12 1 24 23 43 17 Arminia Bielefeld 15 1 30 32 72 17 Duisburger FV 08 16 1 30 29 66 14 VfL Witten 13 1 24 30 56 13

Table includes results from the finals rounds of the German Championship. Preussen Dellbrück merged with SC Rapid Köln in 1957 to form Viktoria Köln. SC Rapid Köln itself was a merger club, incorporating VfR Köln. SSV Wuppertal and TSG Vohwinkel merged in 1954 to form Wuppertaler SV.

References

Sources Kicker Almanach, The yearbook on German football from Bundesliga to Oberliga, since 1937, published by the Kicker Sports Magazine Die Deutsche Liga-Chronik 1945-2005 History of German football from 1945 to 2005 in tables, publisher: DSFS, published: 2006

External links Das deutsche Fussball Archiv Historic German league tables Oberliga West at Fussballdaten.de