| Season | 1943–44 |
|---|---|
| Champions | 31 regional winners |
| German champions | Dresdner SC 2ndGerman title |
1944–45 → | |
The1943–44 Gauliga was the eleventh season of theGauliga, the first tier of thefootball league system inGermany from 1933 to 1945. It was the fifth season of the league held during theSecond World War and the last completed one.
The league operated in thirty-one regional divisions, two more than in the previous season, with the league containing 358 clubs all up, 60 more than the previous season. The league champions entered the1944 German football championship, won byDresdner SC who defeatedLuftwaffe teamLSV Hamburg 4–0 in the final. It was Dresden's secondnational championship, having won the competition in the previous season as well.[1]
The number of Gauligas, thirty-one, increased by two compare to the previous season because of the splitting off of theGauliga Osthannover from theGauliga Südhannover-Braunschweig and the creation of theGauliga Böhmen und Mähren.[2][3]
The 1943–44 season saw the continued participation of military and police teams, especially in the eastern regions. Gauliga champions likeLSV Hamburg,LSV Danzig,LSV Mölders Krakau andLSV Rerick were associated with the German air force, theLuftwaffe,LSV standing forLuftwaffen Sportverein whileMSV Brünn,WSV Celle andHSV Groß-Born were clubs of theWehrmacht.[4]
In the part of Czechoslovakia annexed into Germany in March 1939, theProtectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, a separateCzech league continued to exist which was not part of the Gauliga system or the German championship.[5][3]
The 1943–44 Gauliga champions qualified for the knock-out stages of the German championship. HSV Groß-Born and 1. FC Nürnberg were knocked-out in the semi-finals while LSV Hamburg and Dresdner SC contested the final which the latter won.[2][4][6]
FC Schalke 04 won their eleventh consecutive Gauliga title, VfB Königsberg and Kickers Offenbach their fifth, Germania Königshütte and First Vienna FC their third while SDW Posen, SpVgg Wilhelmshaven, Eintracht Braunschweig, Holstein Kiel, Dresdner SC, 1. FC Nürnberg, VfR Mannheim, SV Dessau 05, TuS Neuendorf and FC Mühlhausen 93 defended their 1942–43 Gauliga title.[7]