The Tschammerpokal 1939 was the fifth competition for the German football cup.
According to the tried and tested mode, the cup fight of 1939 started with the teams of the district classes. With the subsequently intervening clubs from the district classes and the Gauligen, a total of 4628 teams took part in the competition. This time the teams from Ostmark , formerly Austria, were involved from the start, as well as the Sudetenland, which was annexed in 1938 . This increased the number of groups from five to six in the group phase.
With the beginning of the Second World War, the competition increasingly suffered from tight deadlines and lost games. Since the round of 16 could only take place in December, the final of the Tschammer Cup in 1939 did not take place until April 28, 1940. The cup winners were 1. FC Nürnberg after a 2-0 victory over SV Waldhof Mannheim .
Two completely different teams met in the final. With 1. FC Nürnberg, the six-time German champion and winner of the first cup competition in 1935 met the young ambitious team of SV Waldhof Mannheim. In the ranks of Mannheim were seven players who had not yet reached the age of 21, while Nuremberg competed with four current national players. In the past championship season, the Nuremberg Gauliga finished fifth, while SV Waldhof came fourth in the Gauliga Baden. The Mannheimers had to play three semi-finals to get into the cup final and after three draws they had to try the luck of the draw. In the final, they were unlucky that their regular goalkeeper and his representative had not been released from military service, so that Hubert Fischer, goalkeeper No. 3, had to be called up. On the other hand, Nuremberg had an advantage, on the one hand they were able to bring one of their most valuable players back from the front in Hans Uebelein and on the other hand they were able to use the Saarbrücken international Wilhelm Sold as a guest player. Under these circumstances, SV Waldhof went into the game as an outsider. Coach Neumann sent his players onto the field with instructions to gain respect for their own playing style from the start, regardless of big names. This was implemented with great commitment and fighting strength in the first half, but without being able to achieve a mandatory goal danger. But the Nuremberg team was initially harmless and couldn't find the right recipe against the opposing way of playing, their own game seemed too slow. After clear words from their coach in the half-time break, the 1. FC players energetically took the initiative in the second 45 minutes. If they had previously relied on the counterattack, they were now fully on the offensive and had success just a minute after the restart when their half-right striker Max Eiberger was able to outsmart the not yet properly sorted and inattentive Waldhofer cover to 1-0. With this, calm returned to the Nuremberg ranks, which could determine the flow of the game almost unhindered. On the other hand, the Mannheimers were no longer able to get the game under control and radiate dangerousness. In the 85th minute, Eiberger made it 2-0 again.
Matthias Weinrich, Hardy Greens : Encyclopedia of German League Football. Volume 6: German Cup history since 1935. Pictures, statistics, stories, constellations. Agon-Sportverlag, Kassel 2000, ISBN 3-89784-146-0 , pp. 50-58.
1. FC Nuremberg - SV Waldhof Mannheim
