Oberliga West (1947–1963)

The Oberliga West (English: Premier League 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.

Oberliga West
Map of Germany: Position of the Oberliga West highlighted
Founded1947
Folded1963 (16 seasons)
Replaced byBundesliga
Country Germany
StateNorth Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia
Level on pyramidLevel 1
Relegation to2. Oberliga West
Last champions1. FC Köln
(1962–63)

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:

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

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

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:

The following teams from the Oberliga went to the new Regionalliga:

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.[1]

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.[2]

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
  • Source: DSFS Liga-Chronik (in German), page: B 11, accessed: 4 November 2008
  • 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:[3]

Season Winner Runner-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

Source: "Oberliga West". Das deutsche Fussball-Archiv. Retrieved 2008-01-09.

  • 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:[3][4]

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

Source: "All-time table Oberliga West". Clas Glenning. Archived from the original on 2009-07-31. Retrieved 2008-01-09.

  • 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
  1. DSFS Ligachronik: Qualifikation zur Bundesliga 1963 (in German), page: B 11 - 12, publisher: Deutscher Sportclub für Fussballstatistik - DSFS, accessed: 3 November 2008
  2. "Die Oberliga West 1962/63 - Abschlusstabelle" (in German). fussballdaten.de. Retrieved 3 November 2008.
  3. Germany - Oberliga West 1947-63 rsssf.org, accessed: 16 December 2015
  4. Oberliga West all-time table (in German) Weltfussball.de, accessed: 22 December 2015

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