The 1940 German football championship, the 33rd edition of the competition, was won by Schalke 04, the club's fifth German championship, by defeating Dresdner SC 1–0 in the final. Both clubs would continue to be strong sides during the Second World War editions of the German championship with Schalke making a losing appearance in the 1941 final before winning again in 1942 while Dresden was crowned German champions in 1943 and 1944.(West) Germany -List of champions rsssf.org, accessed: 27 December 2015FC Schalke 04 » Steckbrief Weltfussball.de – FC Schalke 04 honours, accessed: 27 December 2015Dresdner SC » Steckbrief Weltfussball.de – Dresdner SC honours, accessed: 27 December 2015
Schalke's 16–0 win over CSC 03 Kassel in the group stages was the highest win in the history of the German championship as well as the most goals scored in a game.Deutsche Meisterschaft » Statistik » Die höchsten Siege (in German) Weltfussball.de, highest wins, accessed: 1 January 2016
Rapid Wien's Franz Binder became the 1940 championships top scorer with 14 goals, a new record that would be broken the following year by Schalke's Hermann Eppenhoff when he scored 15 goals.
The eighteen 1939–40 Gauliga champions, the same number as in 1939,kicker Allmanach 1990, page: 243-245 competed in a group stage with the four group winners advancing to the semi-finals. The two semi-final winners then contested the 1940 championship final. The groups were divided into three with four clubs and one with six clubs with the latter, in turn, subdivided into two groups of three teams each and a final of these group winners to determine the overall group champions.German championship 1940 rsssf.org, accessed: 26 December 2015
In the following season, the German championship was played with twenty clubs. From there it gradually expanded further through a combination of territorial expansion of Nazi Germany and the sub-dividing of the Gauligas in later years, reaching a strength of thirty-one in its last completed season, 1943–44.
Qualified teams The teams qualified through the 1939–40 Gauliga season: Club Qualified from SV Waldhof Mannheim Gauliga Baden 1. FC Nürnberg Gauliga Bayern Union Oberschöneweide Gauliga Berlin-Brandenburg CSC 03 Kassel Gauliga Hessen SV Jena Gauliga Mitte Mülheimer SV Gauliga MittelrheinFortuna Düsseldorf Gauliga NiederrheinVfL Osnabrück Gauliga Niedersachsen Eimsbütteler TV Gauliga Nordmark SK Rapid Wien Gauliga Ostmark VfB Königsberg Gauliga Ostpreußen VfL Stettin Gauliga Pommern Dresdner SC Gauliga Sachsen Vorwärts-Rasensport Gleiwitz Gauliga Schlesien NSTG Graslitz Gauliga SudetenlandKickers Offenbach Gauliga SüdwestSchalke 04 Gauliga WestfalenStuttgarter Kickers Gauliga Württemberg
Competition
Group 1
Group 1A Group 1A was contested by the champions of the Gauligas Brandenburg, Ostpreußen and Pommern:
Group 1B Group 1B was contested by the champions of the Gauligas Ostmark, Schlesien and Sudetenland:
Group 1 final
Group 2 Group 2 was contested by the champions of the Gauligas Mitte, Niedersachsen, Nordmark and Sachsen:
Group 3 Group 3 was contested by the champions of the Gauligas Hessen, Mittelrhein, Niederrhein and Westfalen:
Group 4 Group 4 was contested by the champions of the Gauligas Bayern, Baden, Südwest and Württemberg:
Semi-finals Two of the four clubs in the 1940 semi-finals had reached the same stage in the previous season, Dresdner SC and FC Schalke 04, while Rapid Wien replaced Admira Wien and SV Waldhof Mannheim Hamburger SV in comparison to 1939:German championship 1939 rsssf.org, accessed: 27 December 2015
|align="center" style="background:#ddffdd" colspan=3|14 July 1940German championship 1940 – Semifinals Weltfussball.de, accessed: 27 December 2015
Third place play-off
|align="center" style="background:#ddffdd" colspan=3|21 July 1940German championship 1940 – Third place Weltfussball.de, accessed: 27 December 2015
Replay
|align="center" style="background:#ddffdd" colspan=3|28 July 1940
Final
FC GELSENKIRCHEN-SCHALKE 04: GK Hans Klodt DF Hans Bornemann DF Heinz Hinz MF Bernhard Füller MF Otto Tibulski MF Herbert Burdenski FW Hermann Eppenhoff FW Fritz Szepan FW Ernst Kalwitzki FW Ernst Kuzorra FW Willi SchuhManager:Otto FaistDRESDNER SC 1898: GK Willibald Kreß DF Herbert Pohl DF Heinz Hempel MF Strauch MF Walter Dzur MF Helmut Schubert FW Emanuel Boczek FW Heinrich Schaffer FW Helmut Schön FW Heinz Köpping FW Richard HofmannManager:Georg Köhler
References
Sources kicker Allmanach 1990, by kicker, page 164 & 177 - German championship
External links German Championship 1939–40 at weltfussball.de German Championship 1940 at RSSSF