Start without FC Bayern
The heated path to the founding of the Bundesliga
08/23/2023, 6:05 p.m
The Bundesliga was founded on July 28, 1962 at the Bundestag of the German Football Association (DFB) in Dortmund. There are very heated discussions, the success story of the new German football upper house is not really foreseeable this evening.
The air in the gold hall of Dortmund’s Westfalenhallen was stuffy and smoky, the discussions heated and the opinions controversial: a number of obstacles had to be cleared and the concerns of some officials were considerable. The founding of the Bundesliga around 61 years ago was anything but a sure-fire success. The “introduction of a central league with licensed players” was on the razor’s edge. At 5:44 p.m. on July 28, 1962, the Bundestag of the German Football Association (DFB) decided with 103:26 votes to start the Bundesliga in August 1963.
The visionary Franz Kremer, president of 1. FC Köln, and the head of the Saarland association at the time, Hermann Neuberger, who later became DFB president, are considered to be the decisive figures in the introduction of the German elite class. Above all, Neuberger carried the delegates away with his flaming speech. “We want our club board members to finally be able to sleep peacefully again. And we want to give them the chance to be honest again. That’s the deepest reason, gentlemen,” said the Saarlander. Neuberger’s speech marked the breakthrough after Kremer (“I felt like I was in the wrong Bundestag for hours”) had found clear words.
Birth defects are corrected late
In any case, the birth pangs were severe, and the success story of the new German football upper house was not really foreseeable. The Bundesliga is now one of the top leagues in Europe. A company run by the German Football League (DFL) that now moves billions of euros. The later DFB President Gerhard Mayer-Vorfelder described the fact that the independence of the league association was not immediately implemented when the Bundesliga was founded as a “birth defect”. That was only made up for on December 18, 2000 in the Hotel Gravenbruch in Neu-Isenburg, the 36 professional clubs were given their independence – albeit under the umbrella of the DFB. This should preserve the unity of football.
The international status of German football is inextricably linked to the Bundesliga, because it ensured the competitiveness of the DFB selection (after 1954 three more world champions and three European Championship champions). Even if the international marketing of the Bundesliga still leaves a lot to be desired. The proceeds on the world market do not meet the expectations of the clubs.
German football is still one of the top addresses internationally, even if the men’s national team has lost a lot of credit through failures in recent years. After the first attempts to install a German football elite class had failed in the 1930s, the delegates in Dortmund ensured the required two-thirds majority. “This decision makes me happy. We finally have it,” the DFB-Journal quoted the then national coach Sepp Herberger, who even voted as a delegate of the Southwest German Football Association.
Timo Konietzka scored the first goal
On the other hand, the application for the introduction of the full profit clearly failed with 49:80 votes. At least the application for the introduction of the licensed player went through with 91:37, whereby the required two-thirds majority of 86 was only just achieved. At that time, 1200 marks (around 600 euros) including bonuses was the monthly maximum earnings of Bundesliga players in the premiere season of 1963/64.
The composition of the Bundesliga, which finally started on August 24, 1963, was interesting. 46 clubs applied for the 16 starting places in the new upper house of the league. There was no room for today’s German record champions Bayern Munich, who, like Borussia Mönchengladbach, only managed to get promoted to the Bundesliga in 1965. Timo Konietzka (Borussia Dortmund) scored the first goal in Bundesliga history against Werder Bremen on matchday one that was not documented as a picture, let alone as a moving image. The first Bundesliga champion was 1. FC Köln in 1964.