Bundesliga
Bundesliga - Overview
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Oct 29, 2004, 16:02

Stuttgart goalkeeper Timo Hildebrand - Kept a clean sheet for 884 minutes in 2003/4, a Bundesliga record

No national league until 1963

The concept of a unified national football league in Germany is still relatively new.  It was not until 1963 that the now world-renowned Bundesliga was born.

Before then, Germany's football clubs had played in a variety of regional leagues, with the Champions of Germany being decided by play-off games between the various league winners, culminating in a Final for the German Championship.

In July 1962, the German FA finally decided to introduce a national league for the 1963/64 season.

Founding members
The founding members of the Bundesliga from 5 regional leagues were:

Southern Senior League: Eintracht Frankfurt Karlsruhe Nuremberg Munich 1860 Stuttgart	Western Senior League: Borussia Dortmund Cologne Meidericher SV Preussen Munster Schalke 04
South West Senior League: Kaiserslautern Saarbrucken	Northern Senior League: Eintracht Braunschweig Werder Bremen Hamburg
Berlin Senior League: Hertha Berlin

No Bayern Munich!
Note that the mighty Bayern Munich was not one of the founding teams!  They were not promoted to the Bundesliga until 1965, accompanied by Borussia Mönchengladbach.  Both teams were to go on to dominate much of the next three decades of Bundesliga football.

East meets West
After the reunification of Germany, the former East German Football League was downgraded into a regional league and two of the DDR's top clubs, Hansa Rostock and Dynamo Dresden, joined the Bundesliga for the 1991/92 season.  That year the Bundesliga had 20 clubs, before 4 teams, including Rostock, were relegated and - with 2 promoted - the league reverted to an 18-team format.

Hamburg's record

HSV - never relegated

The Bundesliga began life as 16 teams, had 20 in 1991/92, and now has 18.  3 teams get relegated each season to the Second Bundesliga.  The only founding club never to have been relegated is the Hamburg Sport Verein or HSV, the Hamburg Sports Club.  The manager with the record for the most Bundesliga matches is Otto Rehagel (with 820 games), mainly as manager of Werder Bremen.  Other records.