January 30, 1933: The beginning of the "Thousand Year Reich" and the end of civilized Germany. From a soccer standpoint, there were immediate repercussions. Already by February 1933, the Communist KPD supported Kampfgemeinschaft für Rote Einheit (KG) was banned by the government. Only three months later, the SPD supported Arbeiter Turn -und Sportbund (ATSB) met with the same fate. (Note: For more info on the workers soccer movement, see the article Arbeiterfussball). Some 700,000 working class athletes were displaced. To add insult to injury, in order to join a Deutscher Fußballbund (DFB) affiliated club, they would need two recommendations from "non-Marxists". By mid 1935, the Nazis effectively banned all church organizations that were not "completely religious", which effectively destroyed the Catholic Deutsche Jugendkraft (DJK). This organization consisted of almost 4,500 clubs and some 240,000 members. The DJK had been organizing a national championship since the 1920s, and along with it's smaller Protestant cousin, Eichenlaub, ceased to exist.

Oddly enough, the Nazis soon decided to replace the worker's clubs with something similar. The so-called Betriebssportgemeinschaft (BSG), organized by company and industry under the auspices of the Nazi Labour Front (Arbeitsfront) grew quite rapidly. By 1938, some 10,000 clubs and almost 2 million players fell into this category.

Jewish soccer players faced a slightly different set of circumstances. For the most part, Jewish players had been fully integrated in DFB affiliated clubs since the beginning; few "Jewish" clubs existed. With the "Aryanization" of German society, clubs were ordered to expel Jewish members, and most acquiesed willingly. There were some notable exceptions, such as Alemannia Aachen, where the members risked serious Nazi wrath in demanding the release from jail of a Jewish member. Oddly enough, for the time being, Jewish athletes however were allowed to pursue their sports in Jewish clubs. While this seems somewhat strange, the main reason was for propaganda purposes. The Nazis didn't want to threaten the 1936 Berlin Olympics, and bad publicity, especially in the United States, could lead to boycotts of the games - which the Nazis wanted as a major showpiece. So it wasn't until after the Olympics that Jewish clubs were banned. (In 1938, after the notorious Kristallnacht of organized pogroms.)

The DFB caves in

The Nazis quickly moved to implement their so-called Führerprinzip at all levels of society, building a pyramid of command in organized sport. The DFB essentially lost it's independance, becoming just another cog under the Deutsche Reischausschuß für Leibesübungen (DRA). Meanwhile, the old nemesis of the soccer players, the gymnasts, had thrown their entire support behind the Nazis in an attempmt to once more become Germany's "leading" sport. The Deutsche Turnerschaft (DT), the German Gymnastics Federation, led by their leader Erwin Neuendorff, attempted to kiss up to the Nazis and claim total leadership of sport under the Nazi banner. The DFB also had a weasel at the top, in Felix Linnemann, who was also kissing ass. In the end, the Nazis ignored both, and a Nazi-Altkämpfer, Heinz von Tschammer und Osten, was put in charge of all sports as Reichssportsführer. The DRA was dissolved and replaced by a similar group, and all formerly independant organizations became mere departments under the new organization, Deutschen Reichsbund für Leibesübungen (DRL). (It later became "National Socialist, i.e. NSRL) There is no question that the DFB rolled over and both clubs and the federation went enthusiastically along with the Nazi plan. but that merely reflects German society in general, and why would soccer be any different?

New league structure: Die Gauligen

This was actually a somewhat beneficial side of Nazi interference. Soccer leagues were essentially organized along the lines of political organizations, the so-called Gau. A total of 16 regions were designated (becoming 17 when Austria was integrated as "Ostmark"), and each region would have a Gauliga consisting of usually around 10 teams. The net effect of this reorganization was to raise the stakes and level of competition. Whereas previous to 1933 there were some 600 clubs available for "top flight" competition, now it had effectively shrunk to around 170.

The new organization was a complete success. The finals of the German championship usually drew crowds of up to 100,000. Higher levels of competition in the regional leagues also led to increased attendance figures.