The 5th men's field handball world championship took place in Austria from June 13 to 21, 1959 . The host was the International Handball Federation (IHF). Germany became world champion, represented by a joint selection of the Federal Republic and the GDR (eight players each, one coach each). In the run-up to the event, there were two unofficial viewing games between the two German teams in April and July 1957 , which were attended by 30,000 spectators in Hanover and 80,000 in Leipzig. Both games were won by the respective visiting team (GDR in Hanover 16:13, BR Germany in Leipzig 19:14).
Twelve nations had registered for the tournament: Belgium, Denmark, Germany, France, Yugoslavia, Austria, Poland, Romania, Sweden, Switzerland, Spain and Hungary. However, Belgium, France, Spain and Yugoslavia did not take part. After Spain's cancellation, a B-team from Austria was set up out of competition in order to be able to offer eight teams in the group stage. The games against this team were not counted.
Was played by an elimination round in the knockout format in a main round with two groups "all against all", concluded three finals to determine the locations 1 to 6. Top scorer was Olimpiu Nodea (Romania) with 28 goals before Josef Steffelbauer (Austria A ) with 27 goals.
In the elimination round, four matches were scheduled, the losers of which were eliminated, while the winners (Romania, Hungary, Denmark and Spain) advanced to the main round:
In two groups of four, "everyone should play against everyone". As Spain did not play the elimination round, Group A consisted of only three teams. The first of these groups fought for places 1 and 2 in the final, the second for 3 and 4, the third for 5 and 6:
^ Alfil: España ausente del campeonato mundial al no poder formar equipo . In: El Mundo Deportivo . tape54 , no.11,107 . Barcelona June 10, 1959, p.4 ( Online [PDF; accessed July 27, 2020]).