The Gauliga Donau-Alpenland 1943/44 was the sixth season of the Gauliga Donau-Alpenland in annexed Austria. The First Vienna FC 1894 was able to successfully defend the Gaumeistertitel and became the fifth time Austrian soccer champion . With this victory, Vienna qualified for the German soccer championship 1943/44 , in which they reached the quarter-finals after victories over MSV Brno (6: 3) and STC Hirschberg (5: 0). There Vienna met the defending champion Dresdner SC . The match took place away from home in Dresden and ended with a 3-2 home win for the Saxons . This was the worst result of an Austrian team in a German championship so far.
The SK Amateure Steyr prematurely ended the game on April 20, 1944 with 3 points from 14 games. The games that had already been played were then canceled. The club joined forces with SK Vorwärts Steyr to form FC Steyr during the season and played in the 1st class Oberdonau for the remaining time. The LSV Markersdorf was dissolved after the end of the season, so that the bottom of the table, the Wiener Sport-Club , was spared relegation.
The top scorer of the season was Karl Decker from Vienna with 32 goals in 16 games. He also scored another five goals in the canceled games against SK Amateure Steyr.
Promotion game
The decision to play the Gauliga 1944/45 only with Viennese clubs had the consequence that only the champions of the two first Viennese classes A and B were allowed to play for promotion this season. The promotion round turned out to be insignificant, because the voluntary withdrawal of two teams from the Gauliga, the loser, SC Rapid Oberlaa , was allowed to move up.
Only the two winners of the 1st class Vienna played the promoted team in promotion games for the coming season. The 1st classes in Upper Danube and Salzburg were merged due to the war.
aThe FG Steyr ( football community Steyr ) was a game community of the clubs SK Vorwärts Steyr and SK Amateure Steyr , which was decided due to the war during the season (in April 1944).
The championship in Styria was played in two groups (A and B). The champion was determined in a play-off between the group winners. Due to the decision that only Viennese clubs were allowed to play in the top Gauliga Donau-Alpenland for the coming season, the winner of the Gauliga Styria had no opportunity to move up to the top division.
The Tyrolean clubs were not integrated into football in the East Markets, but played their championship in the Tyrolean regional league . A promotion to the Gauliga Donau-Alpenland was therefore excluded from the start.