1939–40 Gauliga
{{infobox football league season
| competition = Gauliga
| logo =
| image =
| pixels =
| season = 1939–40
| winners = 18 regional winners
| promoted =
| relegated =
| continentalcup1 = German champions
| continentalcup1 qualifiers = Schalke 04
5th German title
| league topscorer =
| prevseason = 1938–39
| nextseason = 1940–41
}}
The 1939–40 Gauliga was the seventh season of the Gauliga, the first tier of the football league system in Germany from 1933 to 1945. It was the first season held during the Second World War.
The league operated in eighteen regional divisions with the league containing 216 clubs all up, 41 more than the previous season. The majority of Gauligas were regionally sub-divided during the season, with finals or final rounds played to determine the champions. The league champions entered the 1940 German football championship, won by FC Schalke 04 who defeated Dresdner SC 1–0 in the final. It was Schalke's fifth national championship, with the club winning six championships all up during the Gauliga era.{{cite web |url=https://www.rsssf.org/tablesd/duitchamp.html |title=(West) Germany -List of champions |website= Rsssf.com |access-date= 15 January 2016}}
The 1939–40 season saw the sixth edition of the Tschammerpokal, now the DFB-Pokal. The 1940 edition was won by Dresdner SC, defeating 1. FC Nürnberg 2–1 on 1 December 1940.{{cite web |url=https://www.dfb.de/dfb-pokal/statistik/bisherige-sieger/ |title= ALLE DFB-POKALSIEGER |website=dfb.de |publisher=German Football Association |access-date= 15 January 2016|language=de|trans-title= All German Cup winners}}
The number of Gauligas, eighteen, remained unchanged compare to the previous season which had seen the addition of the Gauliga Ostmark and Gauliga Sudetenland to the original sixteen.{{cite web |url=https://www.rsssf.org/miscellaneous/crossborder.html |title=Where's My Country? Austrian clubs in the German football structure 1938-1944 |website= Rsssf.com |access-date= 15 January 2016}}{{cite web |url=https://www.rsssf.org/miscellaneous/crossborder.html |title=Where's My Country? Czech clubs in the German football structure 1938-1944 |website= Rsssf.com |access-date= 15 January 2016}}
In the part of Czechoslovakia incorporated into Germany in March 1939, the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, a separate Czech league continued to exist which was not part of the Gauliga system or the German championship.{{cite web |url=https://www.rsssf.org/tablest/tsjslhist.html |title=Czechoslovakia / Czech Republic - List of League Tables |website= Rsssf.com |access-date= 18 January 2016}}{{cite web |url=https://www.rsssf.org/miscellaneous/crossborder.html |title=Where's My Country? Czech clubs in the German football structure 1938-1944 |website= Rsssf.com |access-date= 15 January 2016}} In Poland the German invasion in September 1939 caused the Polish league to stop play near the end of the 1939 season and, unlike in Bohemia and Moravia, the league would not resume till after the war.{{cite web |url=https://www.rsssf.org/tablesp/polhist.html |title=Poland Final Tables (1st and 2nd level) |website= Rsssf.com |access-date= 18 January 2016}} Eventually, in 1941, the Gauliga Wartheland, covering the Reichsgau Wartheland, and the Gauliga Generalgouvernement, covering the General Government, were created in the areas annexed by Nazi Germany and in occupied Poland put these leagues were only for ethnic German clubs and not open to Polish teams.{{cite web |url=https://www.rsssf.org/miscellaneous/crossborder.html |title=Where's My Country? Polish clubs in the German football structure 1940-1944 |website= Rsssf.com |access-date= 17 January 2016}}
Champions
The 1939–40 Gauliga champions qualified for the group stage of the German championship. SK Rapid Wien, SV Waldhof Mannheim, Dresdner SC and FC Schalke 04 won their championship groups and advanced to the semi-finals with the latter two reaching the championship final which Schalke won.{{cite web |url=http://www.f-archiv.de/ |title= Gauliga final tables|website= f-archiv.de |access-date= 15 January 2016|language=de}}{{cite web |url=http://www.claudionicoletti.eu/wordpress2/campionati-nazionali-in-europa/all-final-tables/f-r-germany-league-final-tables/frg-1930-31/frg-1939-40/ |title=Germany 1939–40 |website=claudionicoletti.eu |access-date=15 January 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305015126/http://www.claudionicoletti.eu/wordpress2/campionati-nazionali-in-europa/all-final-tables/f-r-germany-league-final-tables/frg-1930-31/frg-1939-40/ |archive-date=5 March 2016 |url-status=dead }}{{cite web |url=https://www.rsssf.org/tablesd/duithistpre45.html |title=German championship 1940 |website= Rsssf.com |access-date= 15 January 2016}}
FC Schalke 04 won their seventh consecutive Gauliga title, Fortuna Düsseldorf won their fifth consecutive one, Vorwärts-Rasensport Gleiwitz their third consecutive title while Stuttgarter Kickers, Dresdner SC, CSC 03 Kassel and VfL Osnabrück defended their 1938–39 Gauliga title.{{cite web |url=http://www.claudionicoletti.eu/wordpress2/campionati-nazionali-in-europa/all-final-tables/f-r-germany-league-final-tables/frg-1930-31/frg-1938-39/ |title=Germany 1938–39 |website=claudionicoletti.eu |access-date=15 January 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304134933/http://www.claudionicoletti.eu/wordpress2/campionati-nazionali-in-europa/all-final-tables/f-r-germany-league-final-tables/frg-1930-31/frg-1938-39/ |archive-date=4 March 2016 |url-status=dead }}{{cite web |url=http://www.claudionicoletti.eu/wordpress2/campionati-nazionali-in-europa/all-final-tables/f-r-germany-league-final-tables/frg-1930-31/frg-1937-38/ |title=Germany 1937–38 |website=claudionicoletti.eu |access-date=15 January 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160116211920/http://www.claudionicoletti.eu/wordpress2/campionati-nazionali-in-europa/all-final-tables/f-r-germany-league-final-tables/frg-1930-31/frg-1937-38/ |archive-date=16 January 2016 |url-status=dead }}{{cite web |url=http://www.claudionicoletti.eu/wordpress2/campionati-nazionali-in-europa/all-final-tables/f-r-germany-league-final-tables/frg-1930-31/frg-1936-37/ |title=Germany 1936–37 |website=claudionicoletti.eu |access-date=15 January 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304134026/http://www.claudionicoletti.eu/wordpress2/campionati-nazionali-in-europa/all-final-tables/f-r-germany-league-final-tables/frg-1930-31/frg-1936-37/ |archive-date=4 March 2016 |url-status=dead }}{{cite web |url=http://www.claudionicoletti.eu/wordpress2/campionati-nazionali-in-europa/all-final-tables/f-r-germany-league-final-tables/frg-1930-31/frg-1935-36/ |title=Germany 1935–36 |website=claudionicoletti.eu |access-date=15 January 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304212318/http://www.claudionicoletti.eu/wordpress2/campionati-nazionali-in-europa/all-final-tables/f-r-germany-league-final-tables/frg-1930-31/frg-1935-36/ |archive-date=4 March 2016 |url-status=dead }}{{cite web |url=http://www.claudionicoletti.eu/wordpress2/campionati-nazionali-in-europa/all-final-tables/f-r-germany-league-final-tables/frg-1930-31/frg-1934-35/ |title=Germany 1934–35 |website=claudionicoletti.eu |access-date=15 January 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304133913/http://www.claudionicoletti.eu/wordpress2/campionati-nazionali-in-europa/all-final-tables/f-r-germany-league-final-tables/frg-1930-31/frg-1934-35/ |archive-date=4 March 2016 |url-status=dead }}{{cite web |url=http://www.claudionicoletti.eu/wordpress2/campionati-nazionali-in-europa/all-final-tables/f-r-germany-league-final-tables/frg-1930-31/frg-1933-34/ |title=Germany 1933–34 |website=claudionicoletti.eu |access-date=15 January 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304200422/http://www.claudionicoletti.eu/wordpress2/campionati-nazionali-in-europa/all-final-tables/f-r-germany-league-final-tables/frg-1930-31/frg-1933-34/ |archive-date=4 March 2016 |url-status=dead }}
| style="border:1px solid #bbb;background:#fff;" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="2" width="75%" | ||
| style="background:#ccc;font-weight:bold"
|Club | League | No. of clubs |
| SV Waldhof Mannheim | Gauliga Baden | 25 |
| style="background:#ddd" | Gauliga Bayern{{Clear}}(1939–40 season) | 10 |
| Union Oberschöneweide | Gauliga Berlin-Brandenburg | 12 |
| style="background:#ddd" | Gauliga Hessen | 12 |
| SV Jena | Gauliga Mitte | 8 |
| style="background:#ddd" | Gauliga Mittelrhein | 13 |
| Fortuna Düsseldorf | Gauliga Niederrhein | 10 |
| style="background:#ddd" | Gauliga Niedersachsen | 12 |
| Eimsbütteler TV | Gauliga Nordmark | 13 |
| style="background:#ddd" | Gauliga Ostmark{{Clear}}(1939–40 season) | 8 |
| VfB Königsberg | Gauliga Ostpreußen | 8 |
| style="background:#ddd" | Gauliga Pommern | 11 |
| Dresdner SC | Gauliga Sachsen | 12 |
| style="background:#ddd" | Gauliga Schlesien | 14 |
| NSTG Graslitz | Gauliga Sudetenland | 12 |
| style="background:#ddd" | Gauliga Südwest | 14 |
| FC Schalke 04 | Gauliga Westfalen | 10 |
| style="background:#ddd" | Gauliga Württemberg | 12 |
German championship
{{main article|1940 German football championship}}
References
{{Reflist}}
=Sources=
- kicker-Almanach 1990 {{in lang|de}} Yearbook of German football, publisher: kicker Sportmagazin, published: 1989, {{ISBN|3-7679-0297-4}}
- 100 Jahre Süddeutscher Fußball-Verband {{in lang|de}} 100 Years of the Southern German Football Federation, publisher: SFV, published: 1997
- Die deutschen Gauligen 1933–45 – Heft 1–3 {{in lang|de}} Tables of the Gauligas 1933–45, publisher: DSFS