Ice hockey in Germany

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GermanyGermany Ice hockey in Germany
Logo of the German Ice Hockey Federation eVpng
Association: German ice hockey association
Founding: 1963 ( organized in DEV until 1962 )
IIHF joining: September 11, 1909
Remarks: 1920–1926 and 1946–1951 excluded from the LIHG.
1954–1990 GDR independent IIHF member
German national ice hockey team
1st international match: January 1910 in Chamonix against France (2: 4)
1st  EM participation: 1910
1st  World Cup participation: 1930
1st  OL participation: 1928
Medals won:
EM: 2 × gold, 4 × silver, 7 × bronze

WM: 2 × silver, 2 × bronze
OL: 1 × silver, 2 × bronze

1st  championship : 1912
1st national champion: Berlin ice skating club
Record champions: Berlin ice skating club (19 + 1x)

Ice hockey isone of the most popular team sports in Germany , and nowadays itranksbehind soccer in audience favor and importance. Thesport ofice hockey is represented in Germany today by the German Ice Hockey Federation (DEB) as the responsible sports association in Germany and a member of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). According to the IIHF, there are currently almost 21,000 registered players in Germany, making it 9th worldwide.

The game operation is carried out on the one hand by the professional leagues German Ice Hockey League (DEL) and DEL2 , on the other hand for lower leagues, women and youngsters by the DEB and the state ice sports associations. The DEB also organizes the German national ice hockey team , which is currently in 8th place (as of 2018 World Cup ) in the world rankings .

history

The first years

Ice hockey on the Halensee, 1898
A sports magazine in 1912
Ice hockey team of the Berlin Ice Skating Club, 1912

The invention of the artificial ice rink can be regarded as an essential technical basis . The first artificial ice rink in Germany (and third worldwide, after London and New York ) was 520 m² and opened in Frankfurt am Main in 1881 as part of a patent exhibition. However, it was only in operation for about three months. The first permanent artificial ice rink opened only ten years later, also in Frankfurt. The first recorded ice hockey game in Germany dates back to February 4, 1887, when the Academic Sports Club Berlin won 11: 4 against a student team on the Halensee in Charlottenburg . The sport was described in a magazine two years earlier. A review from 1901 criticized the book “Sportspiele im Freien”, stating that “tennis, croquet, hockey, ice hockey, golf and football [is] preferring purely sporting activities in a foreign way” and alludes to the fact that there are similar ones there were domestic games.

The German Ice Sports Association was finally founded in Berlin, from 1908 ice hockey was a section of this association. On September 19, 1909, the association joined the “Ligue International de Hockey sur Glace” (LIHG) as the sixth national association. The first official ice hockey game in Germany was played in Berlin and the first championship in a city league was played.

After the first game on February 4, 1887 on the Halensee (the Akademische Sportclub Berlin faced a student team), it only lasted three years. until the first Berlin city championships were played. In 1910 ten teams took part in the city league. The Berlin ice skating club , the later German record champion, won this championship before the BFC Preussen . The other participants in the city league were the Sportclub Berlin, the Berliner Eislaufverein 1904, the BTuFC Britannia , the Berliner EV 1886, the Hockey Club Berlin, the Sportklub Komet, the SC Charlottenburg and the Eislaufverein Berlin. A German national ice hockey team first appeared in preparation for the European ice hockey championship in January 1910 and lost the first game against France 2: 4. At the first European Championship in Les Avants on January 18, 1910, the first competitive game against Great Britain was finally lost 0-1, before the first win was against Belgium 5-4 two days later . There were mainly players from Berlin in the squad, as most of the teams were there. In 1910, "The rules of the ice hockey game" were adopted by the German Ice Skating Association for the first time, which in addition to rules for "ice hockey with the ball" also for the first time included rules for "ice hockey with the disc". In the 1920s, the Frankfurt company Mitteldeutsche Gummiwarenfabrik Louis Peter AG was still producing ice hockey pucks as well as "ice hockey balls"

In 1912, the first championship with teams from all over Germany that the Berlin Ice Skating Club was able to win took place in Berlin. The year before, the city had already hosted the second European championships , and had it not been for the First World War , the first Olympic ice hockey tournament would have taken place in Berlin in 1916 .

Just like tennis, the practice of ice hockey was not possible for material reasons for large parts of the population; this changed in the Weimar Republic.

Up until the 1920s, ice hockey was referred to in German as "Eistreibball" and less often as "Ice Hockey".

Suspension and resumption after the world wars

The Berlin Sportpalast had a capacity of 10,000 spectators, and in the 1920s the games were often sold out

After the First World War, Germany was excluded from the LIHG for six years between 1920 and 1926. This did not diminish the popularity of the sport in the Weimar Republic in the least. In a contemporary report it can be read: “Overcrowded sports palace, completely sold out house, fantastic prices for seats in black shops. Ice hockey is the trump card, today it is the sport of all classes “ Due to the commitment of Sweden , whose national association threatened to leave, the LIHG was rejoined on January 11, 1926. In 1927 Germany was again allowed to take part in the European ice hockey championships; the first ice hockey world championship with German participation took place in St. Moritz in 1928 . A German team was able to win the bronze medal at the Olympic Games in Lake Placid in 1932 and become European champions in the European scoring at the ice hockey world championships in 1930 and 1934. At that time, the importance of the national team was a lot higher than that of the clubs. In the 1930s, ice hockey was part of the "Winter Fighting Games" and thus teacher training at the College for Teacher Training in Frankfurt am Main. At the Maccabi Winter Games in 1936, a German Maccabi selection competed against the Czechoslovak national team, it was the only ice hockey game at these Winter Games.

After the Second World War in 1946, the German Ice Sports Association was again excluded. The Federal Republic was resumed with the German Ice Sports Association on March 10, 1951, and the GDR did not follow until June 9, 1954.

Bavarian dominance

As early as 1948, a nationwide league for the best teams, the ice hockey league , was formed in Germany for the first time . Since the clubs from the ice hockey stronghold Berlin, which was in the middle of the Soviet sphere of influence, were missing, the league only had six teams at the beginning. The first champion was EV Füssen after a single round . The mode changed continuously in the coming years: For the second season the league was increased to eight clubs, which is why the planned relegation was not carried out. Although the league was increased again for the 1950/51 season , this time there was a direct relegation with HC Augsburg for the first time. The third league champion was played out again using a different mode: a final round was formed from the best teams from the three preliminary round groups, which played out the champions, Preussen Krefeld . In the following season there were only two preliminary round groups, but they were canceled. The championship was held immediately in a final round. For the 1952/53 season not only was the preliminary round abolished, but also the relegation regulation was changed. The relegation game between the upper division last and second division first fell away, the last of the upper division was relegated directly and was replaced by the second division champions. Until the 1956/57 season , when the preliminary round groups were reintroduced, there was no more mode change until 1958.

The league years were dominated above all by Bavarian teams. The EV Füssen alone was German champions six times in a row from 1953 to 1958, plus once in 1949. Krefeld teams were also able to win the championship twice.

In the GDR, too, the league was created as the highest division level.

The "Bundesliga era"

The Oberliga was replaced in the Federal Republic in 1958 by the newly introduced ice hockey Bundesliga , which remained the top ice hockey division in Germany for 34 years. The Bundesliga also consisted of eight teams, which played off the champions in a single and later in a double round. In the first year there were two direct relegations, from the second season the last placed went into the relegation round. A major mode change came in 1962 with the introduction of a staggered finals. This was also the first season without relegation, as the last Bundesliga player was able to win the relegation for the first time. Several changes in the relegation regulation and the increase in the league to ten teams could not stop the dominance of the series champion EV Füssen at the time. Only when the points were not taken from the preliminary round to the finals did another team, namely EC Bad Tölz , win the championship title.

With the establishment of the Bundesliga as the highest division, the Oberliga was relegated to the second division. Eight teams took part in the first season. Like the relegation regulation of the Bundesliga, the promotion regulation of the Oberliga was changed almost every year. Because of the increase to ten teams for the second season , there were only relegated from the league since 1960. Since the introduction of the group league in 1961/62 , which was the first national amateur league below the major league, the bottom of the table in the now twelve-team league had to compete against the first of the group league in a relegation to determine who was entitled to the last starting place in the second-highest division. Before 1961 there were only state associations whose league game operations were regionally limited.

Association foundation and the 1960s

In 1963, ice hockey in Germany was given its first independent association, the German Ice Hockey Federation (DEB). For the time being, however, this still remained under the umbrella of the German Ice Sports Association. The German Ice Skating Association of the GDR was founded as early as 1958 . Before that, ice hockey was a section of the ice sports association in the GDR for four years.

The relegation against the group league first was abolished at the same time as the relegation of the Bundesliga relegated in 1964 and direct relegation was introduced. From 1966 , the league was finally divided into a north and a south group. With the introduction of the two-part Bundesliga in 1967, for the first time since 1952, no Bavarian team (but the Düsseldorfer EG ) became German champions. Towards the end of the 1960s, the trend gradually set in that professional ice hockey continued to move from the Bavarian provinces to major German cities.

Situation in the GDR

Youngsters from Dynamo Weißwasser (1988)

In September 1970 ice hockey was classified by the government of the GDR together with the German Gymnastics and Sports Association of the GDR (DTSB) as a "sport not worthy of support". Before that, a large part of the teams came from Berlin and from 1970 Dynamo Berlin only played against Dynamo Weißwasser for the GDR championship due to the classification . Weißwasser won the championship 25 times and Dynamo Berlin won the title 15 times. In the Federal Republic, on the other hand, the Berlin clubs lost their dominance. The Berlin ice skating club was only able to win the championship twice after 1949 (in the ice hockey Bundesliga in 1974 and 1976 ). After that, the city had to wait 29 years for the Eisbären Berlin to become German champions again in 2005 . Weißwasser later played as ES Weißwasser and now under the name Lausitzer Füchse in the 2nd Bundesliga.

The 1970s and the passport forgery scandal

In the 1970/71 season , graduations were again dispensed with after years. After a double round, both the champions (EV Füssen) and the direct relegated ( Mannheimer ERC ) were determined. The league also gave up the division again for the 1970/71 season , promoted and relegated players were played in a single round. The last season of the Oberliga as the second highest league was played with 16 teams. For the next season, the two Bundesliga relegated teams as well as the teams in places two to ninth in the major league were divided into the newly created 2nd Bundesliga . The 2nd Bundesliga remained Germany's second-highest division for 21 years before an amateur league was created under the DEL in 1994 because of many bankruptcies, both in the first and especially in the 2nd Bundesliga.

Between 1974 and 1978 there was no master from Bavaria for the first time four years in a row. Instead, the Berliner SC was able to celebrate some, if not all, championship titles during this time. From 1976/77 a final round was held again after the main round. The 1979/80 season brought the most complicated mode of all time. This was therefore abolished for the next season and replaced by the play-offs , which are part of every ice hockey season to this day. But it was not they who determined the ice hockey scene in the 1980/81 season , but the so-called passport forgery scandal in which the two West German teams of Duisburger SC and Cologne EC were involved. The play-off mode imported from North America quickly established itself in ice hockey Germany and even brought with it one or the other rather unexpected champions ( SB Rosenheim 1982 ).

In 1974, a fourth national league came into being for the first time. This existed for 19 years under the name Regionalliga, the Oberliga became the third division.

Development to urban sport

German postage stamp for the ice hockey world championship 1975

Lower and Upper Bavaria and the Allgäu are still considered the center of German ice hockey today. Bavarian teams dominated the Oberliga, but also the Bundesliga years. For example, EV Füssen, one of the many traditional clubs in the Bavarian province, was particularly successful. It was founded in 1922 and has been German champion a total of 16 times. In the ten years of the Oberliga, the EV was seven times German champion. Only after two seasons during this time did the front runner not come from Bavaria in the end. In the first few years, Bavarian provincial clubs were also far superior in the ice hockey Bundesliga. Until 1966 , only clubs from Bavaria were German champions, before a big city team secured the title for the first time in 1967 with the Düsseldorfer EG . A change in German ice hockey began slowly. The amateur section shows how important Bavarian teams are to this day for German ice hockey, especially for young talent. Because it is mainly determined by small Bavarian clubs. This is also clear at the general assembly of the German Ice Hockey Federation by the number of votes from the Bavarian Block , which consists of the Bavarian Ice Sports Association and the other voting representatives of the teams from the 2nd Bundesliga and the Oberliga.

Compared to Bavaria, ice hockey has always been less important in North Rhine-Westphalia . Football is usually more important, especially in the densely populated Ruhr area. However, the influence of North Rhine-Westphalia in professional ice hockey and the number of North Rhine-Westphalian championship teams has risen continuously since the 1970s.

The national team of the Federal Republic of Germany, which made it into the A-World Cup, where they were able to establish themselves at the end of the 1970s and in the 1980s, was practically spared from this change, even if the world elite remained unmatched.

First German in the National Hockey League

In 1981, Udo Kießling was the first German player to move to the top North American professional league. Despite a contract offer from the Minnesota North Stars , however, Kießling returned to the Bundesliga after a game. The first German player who was finally used regularly in the NHL was Uli Hiemer , who moved to New Jersey Devils between 1984 and played for them until 1987. The most successful German player in the National Hockey League to date is Uwe Krupp, who has been on the ice in the league since 1986 and has twice won the North American ice hockey championship, the Stanley Cup . Krupp is also the first to win this title. However, Krupp was never able to win an individual award from the league during his playing days; goalkeeper Olaf Kölzig was the first German to do so in 2000.

Since 2018, Marco Sturm (assistant coach at the Los Angeles Kings ) has been the first German trainer to work in the NHL.

Money problems with first division clubs and reunification

What the EV Füssen last achieved in the 1960s, the Cologne EC achieved for the first time between 1985 and 1988 : three championship titles in a row. The 1987/88 season was overshadowed by the bankruptcy of the ECD Iserlohn , which was followed by a number of other clubs over the next few years. But it wasn't until 1990 that the Bundesliga was increased to twelve clubs. With the EHC Berlin and ES Weißwasser, two GDR clubs complemented the West Germans.

The women's ice hockey Bundesliga had existed for two years at that time. Since 1988 a German championship has also been held for women. The league has since been divided into a north and a south season. After the main round, the German champions will be played through a tournament. The first German champion was the EHC Eisbären Düsseldorf . The women's national team played for the first time on December 3, 1988, like the men in their premiere against Switzerland.

The ice hockey federations of the two German states joined after the turn of September 11, 1990 - earlier than any other sports association - the German Ice Hockey Federation together. The two professional clubs of the GDR were accepted into the DEB five months before reunification.

In the 1990/91 season , the Eintracht Frankfurt ice hockey department left the Bundesliga. SB Rosenheim did the same a year later, while PEV Weißwasser 's license was withdrawn. The EHC Freiburg also lost its license in the 1992/93 season . While a number of clubs were relegated or relegated from the Bundesliga due to financial problems, the Düsseldorfer EG won one title after another. The last Bundesliga season ended with the championship of the EC Hedos Munich .

Reform of the league system

Economic aspects led to the establishment of the German Ice Hockey League (DEL) in 1994 . Many clubs from the 1st and 2nd Bundesliga plagued massive economic problems. After the last season, the 2. Bundesliga comprised only 7 clubs, four of which went bankrupt during and after the season. The 18 most economical clubs combined in the DEL and outsourced their professional departments to corporations, a relegation option was not provided. But even the first season was not made by the Mad Dogs Munich . In the next season, three clubs went bankrupt. Only the Wedemark Scorpions moved up, so the league was reduced to 16 clubs. In 1996 there was the Bosman decision , which brought down restrictions on the number of European players in Germany. Clubs used this opportunity to sign players from North America with Greek or Italian origins, for example.

In the first division , the amateur champion was played at the same time. The league was divided into a north and a south season and, especially in the last season of its existence, it was home to some German national team players, as there was only a very mild foreigner regulation in the DEL. For this reason, among other things, the 1998 Ice Hockey World Championship in Switzerland was relegated to the B-World Cup. The foreigner regulation was promptly tightened and Germany was back as a nation two years later.

Also in the course of the 1997/98 season , two clubs had to give up the game. In order to increase the league, which was reduced to 14 teams, back to 16, promoted players were allowed again from 1999. From the 2001/02 season , a relegated team was determined through play-downs . For the 2006/07 season , the descent was abolished. In previous years it was not the play-down loser who was relegated, but another club's license was revoked due to financial or technical problems.

Changes below the DEL

In the 1997/98 season, no third division was played in the north. This year, the regional associations followed the first division there. In 1998, at least in the south, there was again a fourth-highest division. There has been no fourth division since 2002, a third has been called the Oberliga since 1999 . The leagues of the regional associations have been called Regionalliga in the north since 1994 .

As a single-track, second-highest division, the so-called Bundesliga was introduced after just four years of the 1st division , the name of which was criticized by the DEL because it was of the opinion that the Bundesliga must represent the highest division. With the 1999/2000 season there is again a 2nd Bundesliga in ice hockey. The first second division champion was the Düsseldorfer EG, which rose to the DEL alongside the Iserlohner EC , which took over the license from the Starbulls Rosenheim . In the years up to the 2003/04 season there were also some financial problems in the 2nd Bundesliga.

New millennium brings cup competition

The German ice hockey cup existed from 2002 to 2009 based on the model of the DFB Cup. All teams in the DEL, the 2nd Bundesliga and three to four teams in the Oberliga were qualified. The last cup winners were the Grizzly Adams Wolfsburg .

The women's cup competition has been around for a year longer. 2001/02 won the Grefrather EC , which could also win the final in 2004. In terms of sport, Grefrath would have also won in 2005, but the victory was withdrawn from them because they did not meet the minimum number of players and awarded the ESC Planegg . In the 2005/06 season, the EC Bergkamener Bears took home the DEB Cup. Since the 2006/07 season , the women's Bundesliga has been single-track, the staggering has been abandoned. Current record champions with four titles each are the Mannheim ERC WildCats (1990, 1992, 1999, 2000), the ESG Esslingen (1995–1998) and the TV Kornwestheim (2001–2005). It is noticeable that two teams were able to become champions four times in a row. The current German champion is for the second time in the history of the OSC Berlin .

Placement of the national team in the top 10 in the world was the rule in the first years of the 21st century, but in 2005 the national team had to return to the second division after weak management, from which they emerged a year later under the new national coach Uwe Krupp could free.

Germany has hosted ice hockey world championships several times, first in 1930 and most recently in 2017 (together with France).

Development of the league system

Eishockey-Regionalliga Eishockey-Regionalliga Eishockey-Regionalliga Eishockey-Oberliga Eishockey-Oberliga Eishockey-Regionalliga DEL2 2. Eishockey-Bundesliga 2. Eishockey-Bundesliga Eishockey-Oberliga Deutsche Eishockey Liga Eishockey-Bundesliga Eishockey-Oberliga

Present and outlook

Today the two highest professional leagues DEL and DEL2 are no longer organized by the DEB, but by independent corporations. The DEL and DEL2 clubs have been members of the DEB again since 2015. The DEL has a broadcasting rights contract with Deutsche Telekom . The TV channel Sport1 broadcasts a game every Sunday. DEL2 games are broadcast by sprade.tv. The DEL arenas are among the most modern in Europe. In a Europe-wide list of stadiums with the highest average attendance, many DEL locations occupy top places (e.g. Lanxess Arena or SAP Arena ). In addition, the average attendance increases from year to year.

In formal terms, larger associations are usually companies. Although an average of 6,215 viewers per game are reached, the income remains comparatively low, the television rights roughly correspond to the salary of a single player. The financing is therefore patronized and closely linked to individual patrons, some of whom support gaming operations annually with amounts in the millions.

The German Ice Hockey Federation is primarily responsible for the national teams and the next generation. In addition, he is responsible for playing in the women's Bundesliga and the top leagues. He handles player transfers and trains the referees. After their training, the DEB issues trainer certificates and is also a member of the DOSB . The DEB is contractually bound to the DEL and the DEL2, i.e. the organizers of the national game operations. The state ice sports associations that are responsible for the regional leagues are members of the DEB. National coach since 2015 has been Marco Sturm , who also achieved the greatest success in German ice hockey to date, the silver medal at the 2018 Winter Olympics .

The success of the sport depends largely on the availability of artificial ice rinks. While there are 350 halls and 150 outdoor lanes in the much smaller Sweden, for example, there are only a fraction of them in Germany, the ice surfaces of which are often occupied well into the night. Many cities and municipalities no longer want to bear the costs of the operation, so that, for example, upcoming renovation measures are used to cause a closure. Outside of pure professional ice hockey, there have actually only been closings of ice rinks in Germany in recent years, so the number of active players is likely to decline.

Women ice hockey

Although 3114 women are active in ice hockey in all age groups in Germany (as of 2014), women's ice hockey is a marginal sport.

In 1983 there were 17 clubs that offered women's ice hockey, but no league yet. Even in the women's ice hockey Bundesliga , founded in 1988, all players are amateurs who have to bear the costs themselves. For example, the ERC Ingolstadt games have an average of 20 spectators (as of 2016). The media presence is essentially limited to the Winter Olympics and thus to every four years. Even the considerable successes of the women's national ice hockey team have so far changed little.

German teams internationally

European Cup

Between the 1965/66 season and the 1996/97 season , the European championship teams played the European Cup . This cup competition was based on an idea by the German official Dr. Günther Sabetzki back. For the FRG (until 1990) and Germany (from 1991) the following teams took part:

The following teams took part for the GDR (until 1990): Dynamo Berlin (15 participations), Dynamo Weißwasser (10 participations).

A German team could never win. The best placings were second places for the EV Füssen 1966, the Cologne EC 1985, the Düsseldorfer EG 1991 and again the Cologne EC 1995, when the decision was made in the penalty shootout.

European Hockey League

The successor to the European Cup, the European Hockey League , was not very popular with German teams or internationally. The German participants were:

Up to three teams (1997/98) took part in the competition each year, but only in the 1998/99 season, the Eisbären Berlin, was a German participant able to qualify for the final tournament of the best four teams.

IIHF European Champions Cup

From 2005 to 2008 the European Cup winner was played in a tournament of the champions of the six best European leagues, the IIHF European Champions Cup . Only in 2005 did the German champions take part with the Frankfurt Lions . Frankfurt was the last of his group. In the remaining four tournaments Germany was no longer qualified because the national team was no longer among the top 6 in Europe according to the IIHF world rankings .

Champions Hockey League 2008/09

In the 2008/09 season , the IIHF held the Champions Hockey League (CHL) as the highest European club competition. From Germany, the champion Eisbären Berlin qualified directly for the group stage; The winner of the main round Nürnberg Ice Tigers started the qualification as the second participant. Nuremberg failed as second in the qualifying tournament. In the group stage, Berlin won three out of four games and was eliminated just one point behind the eventual finalists Metallurg Magnitogorsk. In the 2009/10 season the Champions Hockey League was not performed.

European Trophy

Between 2010 and 2013, the top European clubs held their own competition. The Adler Mannheim and Eisbären Berlin will take part in this European Trophy, and from 2012 the Hamburg Freezers and the ERC Ingolstadt will also take part. Berlin won the European Trophy in 2010. In 2011 the polar bears just missed the final tournament, for which they were able to qualify again in 2012 and 2013. The other German participants achieved midfield positions in their preliminary round groups.

Champions Hockey League

For the season 2014/15 was Champions Hockey League (CHL) reintroduced, this time organized by clubs, European leagues and the IIHF. Until 2016/17 the DEL had six starting places: four of them fixed for Ingolstadt, Mannheim, Berlin and Krefeld, plus champions and main round winners. Since 2017/18 , qualification has been based purely on sporting criteria. The DEL took fifth place in the league ranking and therefore had three participants. Until 2018, the best results for German teams were reaching the round of 16. In the season 2018/19 which reached EHC München in the final. In the 2019/20 season, all three German participants reached the knockout phase for the first time. Due to the good results, the DEL rose to third place in the league ranking and thus has four participants in the 2020/21 season .

Spengler Cup

With a few exceptions, the Swiss Spengler Cup has been held annually since 1923. And German championship and top teams have always participated regularly. The last time it was in 2015 was the Adler Mannheim. The Kölner Haie won their last German victory in 1999. The Berliner SC won the Spengler Cup three times, the EV Füssen entered the list of winners twice. The 1999 win was the first for the Haie.

International ice hockey tournaments in Germany

Olympic games

A number of important international tournaments have already been held in Germany. The 1936 Olympic ice hockey tournament that took place in Garmisch-Partenkirchen is particularly important . The 15 participating teams were divided into four preliminary round groups. The two best of each group then met in two intermediate round groups, in which the four final round participants were played out. The host Germany itself was missing a point to reach the final round. Overall, they finished fourth. The Olympic champion was the team from Great Britain , which in the final Canada suffered the first defeat at the Olympic Games . Bronze went to the USA , which only finished second behind Germany in the preliminary round.

Ice hockey world championships

Men's World Championships

The final of the European and World Championships was held in Berlin as early as 1930 after the European Championship / World Cup tournament in Chamonix had to be canceled due to the weather. Germany won the European title, but lost the World Cup final against Canada.

The ice hockey tournament of the 1936 Winter Olympics in Garmisch-Partenkirchen also counted as the world championship. Germany dropped out in the group stage.

After the Second World War, the German Ice Hockey Federation has hosted an ice hockey world championship seven times.

This was the case for the first time in 1955 . The venues were the North Rhine-Westphalian cities of Dortmund , Düsseldorf , Cologne and Krefeld . Group A world champion was Canada , ahead of the defending champion, the Soviet Union . Because of the high number of participants (15 teams were a new record in the post-war period), a B tournament was held in addition to the actual competition, in which a second German team also took part. Italy was able to win ahead of Germany B. During the World Cup, the European champions were also played, and the USSR secured the title.

At the second World Cup in Germany in 1975, the Soviet Union became world champions for the 14th time. The tournament in Düsseldorf and Munich , however, was only very poorly attended; the West German national team had missed promotion to the A group the year before and entered the B World Cup in Sapporo / Japan . Both the GDR team and the FRG team were able to secure promotion at the B-WM.

The 1983 Ice Hockey World Championship took place in Dortmund, Düsseldorf and Munich. Germany could not qualify for the final round and finished the tournament in 5th place after the relegation round. World champions were again the USSR, ahead of Czechoslovakia with equal points . The Soviet Union only surrendered one point during the entire World Cup.

Ten years later another ice hockey world championship was held in Germany. The games took place in Dortmund and Munich. Russia became world champion, beating Sweden 3-1 in the final . After the quarter-finals against Russia, Germany finished fifth.

The 2001 men's ice hockey world championship was played in Hanover , Cologne and Nuremberg . Germany reached the quarter-finals, but lost there against the eventual finalists Finland . These were subject to the Czech team in the final . The Czech Republic became world champions for the third time in a row.

The 2010 men's ice hockey world championship took place in Cologne and Mannheim . In addition, there was the opening game in the AufSchalke arena in Gelsenkirchen in front of a record crowd of 77,803 spectators. The German team was able to use the home advantage and finished the tournament in fourth place, the best result since 1953. The Czech Republic became world champions.

The 2017 men's ice hockey world championship was organized by the DEB together with the French association . The games took place in Cologne and Paris , with the semi-finals and finals being played in Cologne. The German team was eliminated in the quarter-finals against Canada. Canada lost to Sweden in the final.

The next German application for a world championship is planned for 2026, 2027 or 2028.

European championships

Independent European championships were held in Germany in 1911 , 1914 and 1932 in Berlin and in 1913 in Munich. In addition, European champions were played at the World Championships until 1991, see above.

Junior World Championships

At the fifth U20 Junior A World Championship in 1981 in various Bavarian cities (including Augsburg , Füssen and Oberstdorf ), the Swedes won the title in this age group for the first time. Germany took fifth place.

In 1992 the U20 World Cup took place in Füssen and Kaufbeuren . The CIS team won the title . Germany was able to avert relegation in the last game.

The first U18 World Championship was held in Füssen and Kaufbeuren in 1999 . Finland was world champion, Germany was penultimate. The 13th ice hockey world championships for the U18 juniors were held in 2011 in Crimmitschau and Dresden . The USA became world champions, Germany finished the tournament in 6th place.

In 1990 the first B-World Cup for U20 juniors was held in Germany. In Bad Tölz and Geretsried the German team missed promotion as second. In the same competition, now known as Division I , in Füssen and Landsberg am Lech in December 2000 , Germany finished the tournament in second place. In 2003 the tournament took place in Berlin, the German team used the home advantage and won the tournament. In 2007 the tournament was held in Bad Tölz again, and Germany was able to rise again. The team achieved the same in 2011 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. In contrast, the German team missed promotion at the home tournament in Bremerhaven in December 2016 . In December 2018 the Division I tournament took place in Füssen; Germany reached first place.

Women's World Championships

In 2011 , Division I of the Women's World Cup was held in Ravensburg . Germany won the tournament and rose to the top division.

Club landscape

Berlin

Reception of the two German champions 2006, Eisbären (men) and OSC Berlin (women), in the Rotes Rathaus

Main article: Ice hockey in Berlin

The Berlin Ice Skating Club was the German record champion and the first sports club in the country with an ice hockey department .

In the 1990s, there was long competition between the two top division clubs Eisbären Berlin and BSC Preussen , but today there is only one first-class club, Eisbären Berlin, which, however, also played in 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2011 and 2012 brought the German championship to Berlin and is now the DEL record champion. There are also several lower-class teams from various clubs.

In women's ice hockey , the OSC Berlin plays an important role throughout Germany, becoming German champions in 1991, 2006, 2007, 2009 and 2010 , and vice- champions in 2003, 2004, 2008 and 2011. The DEC Eishasen Berlin , which played in the 1st Bundesliga at times and belonged to the 2nd division until the 2005/06 season, were also important in Berlin women's ice hockey .

Hamburg

Main article: Ice hockey in Hamburg

Contrary to popular belief that ice hockey has only existed in Hamburg since the Hamburg Freezers were founded , the Hanseatic city can look back on a long history. Already in the 1930s, the Altonaer SV from 1893, a Hamburg club , made it into the final round of the German championship several times. But the big success did not materialize. EG Hamburg and HTHC Hamburg took part in the league for one season each . During the Bundesliga times, some Hamburg teams played in the second-highest league level. It took a long time until another club from Hamburg caused a sensation. In 1998 the Hamburg Crocodiles were a founding member of the 2nd ice hockey league and in 2000 had the chance to rise to the German ice hockey league when SB Rosenheim had to sell its license. But the Iserlohn Roosters were more successful in this endeavor. Today a successor club to the Crocodiles plays in the Oberliga Nord. First-class ice hockey was last seen in Hamburg between 2002 and 2016. By decision of the Anschutz Group, the Munich Barons moved to the Color Line Arena and were renamed Hamburg Freezers. In May 2016, the Anschutz Group announced that it would not apply for a DEL license for the coming season.

Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein and Bremen

The determining city in Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein and Bremen was certainly Hanover with the Hanover Scorpions in the DEL, which originally came from Wedemark near Hanover, and the second division team Hanover Indians . The Hannover Scorpions DEL license was given to Schwenningen. The successor teams of both teams (as of 2016/17) take part in the Oberliga Nord . The youth teams of the Indians participating in the German youth league continue the youth work of the club founded in 1948 as the Hanover ice sports company. In addition to Hanover, Wolfsburg now dominates in eastern Lower Saxony with the Grizzly Adams Wolfsburg , which emerged from the ice hockey division of TV Jahn founded in 1975 and was re-established from a fan club in 1992 , who were promoted to the DEL in 2007 . There are also clubs on the North and Baltic Seas that can look back on local tradition, such as EHC Timmendorfer Strand 06 or REV Bremerhaven in the state of Bremen . Ice hockey in Braunlage can also be mentioned in this series , where the clubs from Altenau and Osterode am Harz now also have their venues. Other clubs to be mentioned are: Adendorfer EC , Harsefeld Tigers in TuS Harsefeld and the Weserstars Bremen and Bremer Pirates in Bremer EC, the successor club of HTSV Bremen. In earlier times there were also teams in the higher divisions at EC Wilhelmshaven , in Braunschweig and in the northernmost ice rink in Germany in Flensburg .

Bavaria

See also: Ice hockey in Munich

The most successful Bavarian club is EV Füssen , which has been German champion 16 times, followed by SC Riessersee with 10 titles. Although clubs in small Bavarian towns won the championship title less and less and more and more such clubs were threatened with relegation, Bavaria still has the largest number of amateur and junior teams in Germany. In the DEL today only five teams - Nuremberg Ice Tigers , ERC Ingolstadt , Augsburger Panther , Straubing Tigers , EHC Red Bull Munich - out of 14 from Germany's southernmost state are represented. The last Bavarian champion is the EHC Red Bull Munich 2018 . Four of 14 teams from Bavaria play in the DEL2 with the ESV Kaufbeuren , the EV Landshut , the EC Bad Tölz and the EHC Bayreuth , in the Oberliga Süd all 12 teams are from Bavaria, although the southern group theoretically also Baden-Württemberg and includes southern Saxony.

North Rhine-Westphalia

There are also some ice hockey centers in the most populous federal state. These are the Rhineland , u. a. with the traditional clubs Krefeld , Düsseldorf and Cologne , and the Iserlohn region . There are also a few clubs in the Ruhr area , but they are and were less successful. For example, the former DEL clubs in Essen and Oberhausen should be mentioned here.

The oldest ice hockey club in the country is Düsseldorfer EG (DEG), which was founded at the end of 1935. In the first post-war years, however, the two Krefeld clubs were successful. Preussen Krefeld celebrated the first championship for a NRW team in the 1950/51 season. A year later, local rivals Krefelder EV, founded in 1936, won the title. It was not until 1967 that DEG was able to break through Bavarian dominance. This initiated a lengthy change in leadership in German ice hockey. Because the clubs from big cities became more and more important, so that championship teams from North Rhine-Westphalia became more frequent. In 1977 the Cologne EC (KEC) added the list of NRW championship clubs. The KEC and DEG were to dominate top German ice hockey in the coming years of the late 1980s and early 1990s. During this time, both clubs made the championship mostly among themselves. The last championship for a NRW team was a few years ago. In 2003 , the Krefeld Pinguine , the successor to the Krefelder EV from 1936, which went bankrupt in 1978, surprisingly became a Krefeld team of German champions for the third time.

North Rhine-Westphalia is currently represented in the DEL with four teams (Kölner Haie, Düsseldorfer EG, Krefeld Pinguine, and Iserlohn Roosters ). While no NRW teams play in the second-class DEL2, three teams from NRW fight in the third-class Oberliga Nord with Duisburg, Essen and Herne.

Hesse

Hessen also has a long tradition of ice hockey. Several Frankfurt clubs were already playing ice hockey in the 1930s. After the war, after the construction of an ice stadium in Bad Nauheim in 1946, VfL Bad Nauheim was founded , which immediately became German runner-up in 1948 behind Riessersee. Successful ice hockey teams also developed in Frankfurt ( Eintracht Frankfurt from 1959) and Kassel ( ESG Kassel from 1977). Her greatest successes include the 2004 German championship of the Frankfurt Lions and the German runner-up in 1997 of the EC Kassel Husky .

All three clubs are successful in youth development and provided players for the German national team. VfL Bad Nauheim, with Rainer "Flipper" Philipp, who was born in Nauheim, was even a legendary winner of the bronze medal at the 1976 Olympic Games in Innsbruck . Today, however, none of the Hessian ice hockey strongholds are represented in the top German league. After the founding clubs went bankrupt, the EC Bad Nauheim , the Löwen Frankfurt and the EC Kassel Huskies now play in the second-class DEL2 as their successors .

In addition to the teams from Bad Nauheim, Frankfurt and Kassel, clubs from Bad Nauheim (Rote Teufel 1b, Ice Devils), Frankfurt (Löwen 1b, Eisteufel, Eintracht) also play. Kassel (Huskies 1b), Lauterbach ( Luchse , Luchse 1b), Darmstadt ( Dukes ), Diez / Limburg (Rockets), Pohlheim (Galloways) and Wallernhausen (Pirates) with their teams in lower-class ice hockey leagues (Regionalliga West, Hessenliga).

Southwest Germany

A multiple German champion comes from Baden-Württemberg with the Adler Mannheim. After earning a championship title in 1980 as Mannheim ERC, four more titles followed in the late 1990s and early 2000s. At the same time, the Eagles have one of the best youth departments in the country. The young eagles are champions in the German junior league several times . In the DNL season 2006/07 the series tore in the final against the Cologne young sharks.

Founded in 1904 as a swimming and ice club, the EC Schwenningen celebrated its first successes as early as 1931. In 1981 they were promoted to the ice hockey Bundesliga and had played under the name SERC Wild Wings in the DEL since 1994 , before their license was revoked in 2003 . Until their return to the DEL for the 2013/14 season, the Schwenninger Wild Wings team, which has since been outsourced from the club, played in the 2nd Bundesliga.

The Wölfe Freiburg were only in the DEL for one season ( 2003/04 ). The club was founded in 1984 as the successor to ERC Freiburg and, like the latter, has already participated in the top division - the ice hockey Bundesliga . After relegation from the DEL, there were a few more years in the second and third class before Wölfe GmbH filed for bankruptcy in 2011. The parent club EHC Freiburg then took over the first team again and is currently playing in the DEL2.

SC Bietigheim-Bissingen is more successful in the 2nd league , whose team outsourced as Bietigheim Steelers won the DEL2 championship in 2015 and 2018 . The SC, which was founded in 1989, has never played in the top division.

In addition to SC Bietigheim and EHC Freiburg, the EVR Tower Stars Ravensburg and the Heilbronner Falken represent a third and fourth team from Baden-Württemberg in the DEL2.

The Stuttgart Wizards , who played in the major league in 2005/06, were unable to solve the massive financial problems, which is why the parent club Stuttgarter EC continues to play in the Regionalliga Süd-West instead of the insolvent GmbH .

Ice hockey clubs in Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland are rather rare and were not represented in the highest divisions - with the exception of EHC Neuwied - which is one of the reasons for the few ice rinks. Other well-known locations are Trier and Zweibrücken .

East Germany

See also: Ice hockey in the GDR , ice hockey in Weißwasser

For a long time, ice hockey in East Germany outside of Berlin was concentrated in Saxony . Dresden , Weißwasser and Crimmitschau in particular are traditional venues. Up until the Second World War , ice hockey was also played in East Prussia , and Rastenburg deserves a special mention .

In the Saxon state capital Dresden , organized ice hockey was played from around 1909. Various clubs took part in the Saxon and German championships in the following years. At the time of the GDR-Oberliga, the SC Einheit Dresden took part in the game operation for many years before it was played exclusively in the amateur area ( best determination ) between 1970 and 1990 . Since 1990 there has been an ice hockey club again with the ESC Dresden or Dresdner Eislöwen , which since then has mostly been represented in the second ( DEL2 ) or third division, currently in the DEL2. Most of the youth teams at the ESC Dresden play successfully in the respective Bundesliga or German youth league .

The first ice hockey club was founded in Weißwasser in 1932. Eissport Weißwasser , who joined TSV Weißwasser two years after it was founded , took part in the final round of the German championship for the first time as the Silesian champion in 1937. This could be repeated in 1941 and 1942. At the beginning of the 1950s, BSG Ostglas and BSG Chemie were founded, which after their merger as SG Dynamo Weißwasser became GDR champions 25 times. After joining the ice hockey Bundesliga, such great successes were not achieved. Today the successor club of SG Dynamo, the Lausitzer Füchse , plays in the DEL2.

The ETC Crimmitschau was founded as EHC as early as 1920 and also took part in the finals of the German championship several times. After the GDR league was deleted from two clubs, the EHC took part in the determination of the best every year. After reunification, the ETC only rose back to professional ice hockey in 2001, relegated to the major league in 2005 and surprisingly managed to return to the second division, today DEL2. Most of the youth teams play successfully in their respective Bundesliga.

SG Frankenhausen from the Crimmitschau district of the same name was even more successful , and in 1949 it became “Master of the Soviet-occupied Zone”. Due to forced relocations to Zwickau and Karl-Marx-Stadt , there has been no first-class ice hockey in Frankenhausen since 1960 . The SG was re-established in 1994 as a hobby team.

In addition to ECC Preussen Berlin, the big-city clubs Saale Bulls Halle , Icefighters Leipzig and Piranhas Rostock play in the Oberliga Nord . Among them is the Regionalliga Ost, in which clubs from smaller cities such as Tornado Niesky or Schönheider Wölfe also play.

Important German ice hockey players

See also: Category: Ice hockey players (Germany) , List of German players in the NHL

Former

Active

Men

Women

Refereeing

In contrast to most of the leagues in North America , where ice hockey has a significantly higher priority than in Germany, the majority of German referees are amateurs, as the uniform introduction of professional referees in Europe is always due to the higher costs compared to the NHL lower number of match days fails. The only exception in Germany is the DEL, which has employed Petr Chvatal as a professional referee since it was founded in 1994 . The league currently employs three professional referees: Georg Jablukov , Daniel Piechaczek and Lars Brüggemann . Frank Awizus received a professional contract from the DEL, but never ran a DEL game as a professional due to a serious leg injury, and has now ended his career.

As is customary internationally, there are four game officials (two main referees, two linesmen) on the ice per game in the DEL and DEL2. In the Oberliga, organized by the DEB, there are three match officials (one main referee, two linesmen). In lower-class leagues (e.g. in the area of ​​the Bavarian Ice Sports Association), sometimes only two officials are played. In this case both referees have the rights of the main referee as well as the line referee.

The German referees are organized by the DEB referee committee, in which the individual leagues and associations, including the DEL, are represented by individual representatives.

Media presence and reception

Television and TV broadcast rights

The broadcasting rights of live games on German television are held by different broadcasters and media groups, depending on the competition.

The DEL television rights have been with Telekom since the 2016/17 season. Every DEL game can be viewed through Telekom Ice Hockey for € 9.99 per month (free for Telekom customers). In addition, the free TV broadcaster Sport1 broadcasts one game per week in the preliminary round and at least one game per game day in the play-offs.

Since the founding of the DEL, Sky (or its predecessor, Premiere) had broadcast games of the German ice hockey league live on PayTV. Das Erste , ZDF , the third programs, ProSiebenSat.1 Media , n-tv and some regional broadcasters have post-exploitation rights.

From 2007 to 2010 DSF broadcast a weekly magazine in which the Friday games (2-3 games in excerpts) of the 2nd Bundesliga were reported.

Sprade TV broadcasts all DEL2 games as well as selected games from the major leagues and the Bavarian league live.

International games, on the other hand, have been broadcast on public or private television in the past . For example, ARD and ZDF shared the broadcast of the 2007 ice hockey world championship with the private broadcaster Sport1 , but the ratings remained rather weak despite the good performance of the German team, so that the continuation of the ice hockey program in the ARD and ZDF programs was questionable. In February 2008, the public broadcasters finally announced their withdrawal from coverage of the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championships, so that the 2008 World Championships were again broadcast exclusively by Sport1, which secured the rights until 2011.

The 2010 Winter Olympics, and thus the ice hockey tournament, will be shown on the public broadcasters , as last in 2006 , which received the broadcasting rights for the equivalent of 614 million euros.

The 2019 winter game between the Kölner Haien and the Düsseldorfer EG was attended by over 47,000 viewers, but was not mentioned in the ZDF's current sports studio on the same evening.

radio

Various local German radio stations broadcast the complete or excerpts of games of the teams based in the broadcasting area on the radio or in the Internet live stream . For example, the Baden-Württemberg private broadcaster Radio Regenbogen plays the Adler Mannheim games, and the station Welle Niederrhein, which is responsible for Krefeld and the district of Viersen, plays the Krefeld Pinguine games, or the Düsseldorf- based DEG fan radio plays the Düsseldorfer EG games. In the second division, the games of the Lausitzer Füchse are partly broadcast live on Radio WSW . In the league South transmits Hofer transmitter radio Euro Heart the parts of the Same wolves .

art

Expressionist painting by Maximilian Schels (1927)

Ice hockey was also discovered as a subject in the vicinity of the Berlin Secession , whose catalog 52 for the spring exhibition in 1927 notes that "a kind of ice hockey" can already be seen in paintings by Dutch masters from past centuries. Erich Büttner created the etching "Ice Hockey" before 1924, Mathilde Schulz-Brockmann painted a game scene in the Sports Palace in 1927, as did Walther Klemm , Fritz Heinsheimer , and the Expressionist Ernst Ludwig Kirchner in 1934 the painting "Four Ice Hockey Players". Two works by Willi Baumeister have survived, including a painting from 1924.

The art magazine Jugend dealt with the phenomenon of pretending to be athletic : “We've already been photographed, now all the ice hockey has no purpose” reads the caption of a caricature in No. 32 from 1927. Also in the social democratic satirical magazine The True Jacob from Berlin taucht Ice hockey again and again, e.g. B. in No. 8 from 1933 in a cartoon: A game scene in which one player falls over another is misinterpreted by monarchist viewers as a gesture of submission.

Postage stamps

Postage stamps from German postal administrations were issued for the Winter Olympics and World Championships (if they were held in Germany). However, the placement mostly on high postage value levels ensures a low distribution.

The postage stamp for the 1983 World Cup (Mi. No. 699) which took place in Düsseldorf, Dortmund and Munich was only issued by the Bundespost in West Berlin, at 120 Pfennig, which is far more than the standard letter. This practice applies to the present: For the sports stamps 2010 (Mi.-No. 2788-2789) for the world championships, football was assigned the postage 55 cents and ice hockey the rare large letter at 145 cents, although the ice hockey world championship in contrast to the of football took place in Germany.

literature

  • Frank Bröker: Ice hockey in Germany. Nothing for weak nerves. Reiffer, Meine 2013, ISBN 978-3-934896-93-2 .
  • Horst Eckert: Ice Hockey Lexicon. Copress, Munich 1993, ISBN 3-7679-0407-1 ( online ).
  • Stephan Müller: German ice hockey championships. Libris Books on Demand, Müller, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-8311-0997-4 .
  • Daniel Stolpe, Horst Eckert: The official book of German ice hockey . Foreword by Erich Kühnhackl, Pietsch, Stuttgart 2009, ISBN 978-3-613-50605-3 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ IIHF : IIHF Member National Association Germany. Retrieved December 17, 2018 .
  2. ↑ IIHF : world ranking. Retrieved December 17, 2018 .
  3. ^ Linde AG: "75 Years of Linde", 1954, p. 52.
  4. ^ Robert Skuppin, Volker Wieprecht: Berliner popular errors: Ein Lexikon, 2014.
  5. ^ L. Voss: "Health and Education", Volume 8, 1895, page 119
  6. ↑ Yearbook for Youth and Popular Games, p. 143, 1901.
  7. ↑ All A-international game results since 1910. deb-online.de, archived from the original on April 26, 2010 ; Retrieved July 19, 2013 .
  8. ↑ General sports newspaper as part of the ÖNB-ANNO historical newspapers and magazines: Edition February 27, 1910.
  9. ↑ Gummi-Zeitung and Kautschuk, No. 36/1922, p. 229.
  10. ↑ Toni Maschitzke: The workers' sports movement in the Weimar Republic, p. 5
  11. ↑ Jens Kegel: Do you want total war? P. 99
  12. ↑ German Science, Education and National Education (Official Gazette No. 5), p. 139, 1939
  13. ↑ faz.net Restriction for foreigners in ice hockey with a role model function
  14. ↑ hockeyweb.de Women's Bundesliga single track in the coming season
  15. ^ IIHF-News: SC Bern is still the attendance king of European hockey clubs. IIHF, 2007, archived from the original on November 21, 2007 ; Retrieved July 19, 2013 .
  16. ↑ Viewership record in the DEL. In: Abendblatt.de. Hamburger Abendblatt , March 6, 2007, accessed on July 19, 2013 (access only with a paid online subscription).
  17. ^ Ice hockey in Germany Cold business. In: spiegel.de. Der Spiegel , April 18, 2019, accessed on April 19, 2019 (funding).
  18. ↑ Pioneers without an Olympic future? Retrieved December 25, 2016 .
  19. ↑ Women's ice hockey: That is why the stadiums remain empty. Retrieved December 25, 2016 .
  20. ↑ https://www.svz.de/sport/weiter-sportarten/eishockey/reindl-wm-2026-2027-oder-2028-wieder-in-deutschland-id20185142.html
  21. ↑ Scorpions sale to Schwenningen perfect ( Memento from October 24, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  22. ↑ DEL: Georg Jablukov new professional referee. In: hockeyweb.de. August 25, 2010, accessed December 10, 2015 .
  23. ↑ hockeyweb.de, DEL extended with referee Daniel Piechaczek
  24. ↑ SpradeTV. Retrieved January 27, 2020 .
  25. ↑ faz.de, weak ratings despite good performance
  26. ↑ Ice Hockey Magazine, live broadcast of the Ice Hockey World Championships secured
  27. ↑ (dpa / HA): Record price for Olympic television rights. In: Abendblatt.de. Hamburger Abendblatt, July 7, 2004, accessed on July 19, 2013 .
  28. ↑ (Kölner Express): Winter game fury ice hockey captain attacks the ZDF - so the broadcaster apologizes. Kölner Express, January 14, 2019, accessed on January 19, 2019 .
This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on May 29, 2006 .