1902-03: The first championship!

The first official German championship was organized by the DFB in 1903, and was based upon regional qualifiers played through 1902. Some of the regions, such as Hamburg and Berlin, had full fledged league play, whereas others, such as southern Germany, had knockout tournaments.

Despite the long ago era, several of today's clubs participated in the chase. From the south, Stuttgarter Kickers, FSV Frankfurt, Bayern München, from the north, Werder Bremen, and Hertha from Berlin. 

Regional Winners

South: 		Karlruher FV
Middle:		VfB Leipzig
West:		Cöner FC 1899
North:		Altonaer FC 93	(Bremen: FV Werder Bremen)
Southeast:	FC Breslau
Berlin:		Britannia 1892
Prague:		DFC Prag

Oddly enough, not all the champions chose to participate, or perhaps not all were invited. The inclusion of Prague seems a bit of a surprise, as this was part of Austro-Hungary. The DFB had been trying to get more members, so they allowed "German" Austrian and Bohemian clubs to join the federation. The Deutscher Fußball Club Prag ended up as the representative, even though they didn't participate in the local championship. And as we find out, it gets better: they advanced to the German finals without playing either! This state of affairs actually lasted only until 1904, as when the DFB joined FIFA, they were forced to kick out all clubs not in Germany.

The Championship started in May 1903, and already in the 1st round, there was some contraversy. The Karlsruhe-Prag match was slated for München, but apparently the DFC bribed the federation to move the match to Prague for financial reasons. Karlsruhe protested, and the DFB decided just to reschedule the match as a semi-final, in Leipzig. However, just before travelling, the Karlsruhe team received a mysterious telegramm, announcing this match had been canceled. So they didn't travel, whereupon, the DFB forfeited the match to DFC Prag! No one knows who sent the telegram, although it is believed to have originated from Prague.

Luckily, VfB Leipzig kicked Prag's ass in the final, so they initial German championship didn't end in a total disgrace. 

 
1st Round: 
Altonaer FC 93 - Viktoria Magdeburg	8:1
DFC Prag - Karlsruher FV		canceled
Britannia Berlin - VfB Leipzig		1:3

Semifinals:
VfB Leipzig - Altonaer FC 93		6:3
DFC Prag - Karlsruher FV		forfeit

Final:
VfL Leipzig - DFC Prag			7:2

Leipzig:
Raydt - Schmidt, Werner - Rossler, W.Friedrich, Braune - Steinbeck, 
Stanischewski, Riso, A.Friedrich, Assmus

Prague:
Pick - Kurpiel, Schwarz - Robitsek, Fischl, Sedlacek - Beck, K.Kubik, 
Meyer, Fischer, ?.Kubik

Scoring:
0:1 Meyer (22.), 1:1 W.Friedrich (31.), 2:1 A.Friedrich (49.), 3:1 Riso, 
3:2 Meyer, 4:2 Stanischewski, 5:2 Stanischewski, 6:2 Riso, 7:2 Riso

Attendance: 1.500
Leipzig were a worthy champion. Led by brothers Wilhelm and Adelbert Friedrich, and goalgetters Heinrich Riso and Bruno Stanischewski, VfB steamrollered their opponents. Since the pre-tournament favorite, Karlsruhe, never got to play, most pundits figured that Altona had the inside track. Indeed, in the first round, the Hamburgers destroyed Magdeburg, which only a couple of weeks ago Leipzig had vanquished only 1-0 in the Middle championship.

In an interesting aside, the first championship was not a financial success for the DFB. The federation spent some 2200 Reichsmarks, and only brought in about 1300, so suffered a net loss of 900 Reichsmarks.