German Sports Leagues and Clubs
Germany's sports leagues are highly organized. Men's soccer, Fussball, quickly springs to mind, but there also leagues and organizations for women's soccer, basketball, ice hockey, handball as well as a number of other sports.
Soccer, however, is the national craze. Germany hosted the 2006 World Cup matches, which is said to be one of the most watched television events in history. Its national team, unfortunately, wasn't able to place better than third, but that hasn't dimmed its enthusiasm for soccer.
Soccer leagues are separated into several levels. At the top are the two (soon to be three) professional leagues: Bundesliga 1, whose top players received salaries are comparable to American pros; and the lesser but still professional Bundesliga 2. Each of these two professional leagues has 18 teams, and VfB Stuttgart is the current Bundesliga 1 champion. (Beginning with the 2008-09 season there will also be a Bundesliga 3.)
Below the Bundesliga or national soccer league there are the two Regionalliga or regional leagues, with the top amateur teams: Regionalliga North with 18 teams and Regionalliga South with 19. Then come the upper leagues or Oberligas and at the bottom are the Verbandligas local leagues. The vast majority of the country's soccer clubs are in the bottom two leagues.
Teams can be promoted, or demoted, from one league to another. For example, the three Bundesliga 1 clubs that place lowest in a season are relegated to Bundesliga 2, and the three best Bundesliga 2 teams move up to take their places. The four Bundesliga 2 teams that do worst move down to one of the Regionaligas to be replaced by teams moving up. There are similar promotions and demotions within some of the lesser leagues as well.
But that's not the whole story with the German national soccer leagues. Two exist for women, each with 12 teams and again with a similar system of promotion and demotion. The ladies of 1.FFC Frankfurt have dominated the league since it was established in 1990, and Germany's national women's team won the World Cup last year for the second time running.
The soccer teams, big and small, are sponsored by sport clubs, with soccer being by far the most common form of sport club.
Two other sports federations, for marksmanship and tennis, also exist and have over a million members each.
The Marksman Club or Schützenverein dates back hundreds of years in Germany, and the Marksman Festivals or Schutzenfests they stage are gala occasions. There is target shooting with air weapons, small bore rifles and crossbows, plus lots of music, food and beer.
The Deutsche Tennis Bund, with 1.8 million members, is the world's biggest tennis association. It was founded in 1902, but has received a great deal of impetus in recent years thanks to a couple of super sport heroes, Boris Becker and Steffi Graf.
Germany boasts more than 750 golf courses, with another hero, Bernhard Langer, whose international golf-pro status has helped to promote the sport and create enthusiasm for the sport.
Handball is a German invention and is probably more popular here than in most other countries. The Handball Bundesliga or national league has 18 teams, and the champion three years running has been THW Kiel.
Basketball, an American import, is beloved at the sports clubs and doing rather well in Germany. The Basketball Bundesliga, with 18 teams, was established in 1966. Alba Berlin has dominated the league in recent years though the Bayer Giants Leverkusen has the most championships, with 14.
The German Ice Hockey League or Deutsche Eishockey-Liga, not surprisingly, has the largest number of American and Canadian players overseas. The Adler Mannheim team, a frequent winner, is the current champion.
Joining a German sports club is among the pleasanter ways an expatriate has of keeping fit and mixing with the local people. And, believe it or not, you can even join the club that fields one of the Bundesliga champions. There is a great deal more to a soccer club than fielding a team.
There are lesser soccer teams for youth, seniors, women and "hobbyists." And even if it is called a soccer or marksmanship club, many other sports, for all ages, are usually offered. There may be gymnastics, track and field, field hockey, boxing, tennis, handball, rugby, table tennis, basketball, curling, volleyball and ice hockey. The clubs often have their own gym, tennis courts and other sports facilities, not to mention a cozy clubroom for unwinding after a workout. Budesliga clubs sometimes even have their own museums.
There is plenty of emphasis on sports for children and youths at the clubs. That goes particularly for the field hockey programs, in which more than half the participants, lots of them girls, are usually under 18.
The Deutsche Sportjugend or German Youth Sports organization, a subsidiary of the Deutsche Sportbund or German Sports Federation, works closely with the sport clubs to promote sports activities for children and young people. They have buses to take kids to swimming areas; It sponsors canoe and riding courses and track and field events, replete with "cake breaks"; It even helps sponsor summer camps on the North Sea or in Spain, and provides a means for kids to go on vacation whose families couldn't otherwise afford them.
The organization of a club pretty much depends on its status. The vast majority of all clubs, the ones in the fourth and fifth level leagues, are small organizations, manned almost exclusively by unpaid volunteers. Teams in the Bundesliga 1, on the other hand, are huge organizations that play to packed stadiums and reap big sums from television rights. They have a president, several vice presidents, business managers and press officers. And they pay their players and coaches well.
The organizations of the Bundesliga 2 and Women's Bundesliga teams are less elaborate, but they too have paid staff and players. The Regionalligas, the top amateur teams, can sometimes afford to have some professional staff too, but even the Bundesliga 1 teams depend a lot on unpaid volunteers to man the many non-Bundesliga aspects of their programs.
If you are interested in joining a sport club you should have no trouble finding one. There are more than 87,000 clubs affiliated with the "Deutscher Sportbund" (DSB) or German Sports Federation. For up-to-date sports information as well as more information on the German Sports Federation: http://www.deutschland.de/hauptrubrik.php?lang=2&category1=4.
