In the 1999/2000 season , Dürkheimer HC defended its title as German indoor champion for the third time in a row . Due to the restructuring of the Bundesliga from two groups of eight teams to four groups of six clubs, there were two relegated teams and a total of ten promoted teams.
For the following 2000/01 season , the previous two groups were divided into four groups according to the regional affiliation of the clubs. From the previous north group, the groups north and west emerged, from the previous south group the groups east and south. Since the new groups were supposed to consist of six teams each, there were different promotion and relegation rules: in the north group there was no relegation, in the south group there were two. Since the 2. Bundesliga (2. BL) was split from two to four regional groups, teams from the Regionalliga (RL) moved up in the north and east: