Fifteen nations had registered for the tournament: Belgium, Denmark, Germany, France, Italy, Yugoslavia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Austria, Portugal, Saarland, Sweden, Switzerland and Spain.
The finalists of 1948, Sweden and Denmark, as well as the hosts Switzerland, were set for the finals, the other twelve teams were to determine six further finalists in a qualifying round. Since Portugal (in Spain) and Italy (in Austria) did not compete, their respective opponents reached the tournament without a fight.
The actual tournament was played in preliminary and intermediate round groups “everyone against everyone”. This was followed by three finals to determine places 1 to 6.
The top scorer was Svend Aage Madsen (Denmark) and Bernhard Kempa (Germany) with 27 goals each, ahead of Walter Schädlich (Germany) and Klöti (Switzerland) with 26 goals each.
There were six matches in the elimination round, the losers of which were eliminated, while the winners (Germany, Saarland, France, the Netherlands, Spain and Austria) advanced to the preliminary round:
The six winners of the elimination round played against three seeded teams in three groups of three "everyone against everyone". The first two in each group qualified for the intermediate round.
The group first and second in the preliminary round played in two groups of three "everyone against everyone". The first of these groups played in the final for places 1 and 2, the second for 3 and 4, the third for 5 and 6:
Organizing Committee (Ed.): Handball World Championship . Final report of the organizing committee. Bern & Basel March 20, 1953 ( online version [PDF; 21.2MB ; accessed on February 27, 2020]; Dossier: 3rd field handball world championship 1952. Swiss Federal Archives . 1952-1953. Signature: E5001F # 1000/1857 # 2844 *. Link ).
BR Germany
Luxembourg
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Yugoslavia
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Saarland
Belgium
France
Netherlands
Norway
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Spain
Portugal
Austria
Italy
Denmark
Sweden
Switzerland
