DFB-Pokal facts for kids

"German Cup" redirects here. For other uses, see German Cup (disambiguation).

Quick facts for kids
DFB-Pokal

Organising body	Deutscher Fußball-Bund
Founded	1935; 90 years ago (1935)
Region	Germany
Number of teams	64
Qualifier for	UEFA Europa League
Domestic cup(s)	DFL-Supercup
Current champions	VfB Stuttgart (4th title)
Most successful club(s)	Bayern Munich (20 titles)
Television broadcasters	ARD Sky Sport OneFootball

The DFB-Pokal, also known as the German Cup, is a big football competition in Germany. It's like a knockout tournament, meaning teams are eliminated if they lose. The German Football Association (DFB) organizes it every year.

Sixty-four teams get to play in this exciting cup. These include all the clubs from Germany's top leagues, the Bundesliga and the 2. Bundesliga. The best four teams from the 3. Liga also join in. The DFB-Pokal is seen as the second most important football title in Germany, right after the Bundesliga championship.

The tournament runs from August to May. The team that wins the DFB-Pokal gets to play in the DFL-Supercup. They also qualify for the UEFA Europa League, which is a big European club competition. However, if the winner has already qualified for the UEFA Champions League through their Bundesliga performance, the Europa League spot goes to another team.

The competition started in 1935. Back then, it was called the Tschammer-Pokal. The first team to win it was 1. FC Nürnberg. In 1937, Schalke 04 made history by winning both the cup and the league. The Tschammer-Pokal stopped in 1944 because of World War II. It was brought back in 1952–53 in West Germany as the DFB-Pokal.

Bayern Munich has won the DFB-Pokal a record 20 times. The current champions are VfB Stuttgart. They won their fourth title in the 2025 final by beating Arminia Bielefeld 4–2. Fortuna Düsseldorf holds a special record. They won 18 games in a row in the tournament between 1978 and 1981.

How the DFB-Pokal Works

The way the DFB-Pokal is played has changed a lot since it began in 1935.

Who Can Play?

The DFB-Pokal starts with 64 teams. All 36 teams from the Bundesliga and 2. Bundesliga automatically get a spot. The top four teams from the 3. Liga also qualify.

The other spots are given to winners of regional football cups. There are 21 such winners. The last three spots go to the regional football associations with the most men's teams. These associations usually give the spot to the runner-up of their regional cup.

Almost any team in the German football league system can try to qualify for the DFB-Pokal. They just need to play in their local tournaments first. The only teams that cannot enter are reserve teams, like Bayern Munich II.

How Teams Are Chosen for Matches

For the first round, the 64 teams are put into two groups of 32.

One group has the 18 teams from the previous Bundesliga season. It also includes the top 14 teams from the previous 2. Bundesliga season.
The other group has the bottom 4 teams from the 2. Bundesliga. It also includes the top 4 teams from the 3. Liga. Finally, it has the 24 amateur teams that won their regional cups.

Teams from one group play against teams from the other group. Since 1982, the amateur teams always get to play their first-round game at home.

For the second round, teams are again divided into two groups using similar rules. Teams from one group play against teams from the other. If there are still teams left, they play each other. The team drawn first gets to play at home.

For all later rounds, except the final, teams are drawn from one big group. Since 1985, the final match has always been held at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin. This decision was made partly because Berlin was not chosen for the UEFA Euro Championship in 1988.

Match Rules

If a game is tied after 90 minutes, teams play extra time. This means two more 15-minute halves. If the score is still tied after extra time, the game is decided by a penalty shootout.

History of the Cup

The number of teams in the DFB-Pokal has changed over time. It was as few as four teams in the late 1950s. It grew to 128 teams from 1973 to 1982. This meant tournaments could have anywhere from two to seven rounds.

Since the Bundesliga started in 1963, all Bundesliga clubs automatically play in the DFB-Pokal. The same applies to all 2. Bundesliga clubs since 1974. Reserve teams used to be allowed to play, but they have been excluded since 2008.

The final match has been held at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin every season since 1985. Before 1985, the final's location was decided closer to the game.

Originally, if a cup game was tied after 120 minutes (90 minutes plus extra time), the game would be replayed. The home team would switch for the replay. In 1939, one semi-final game was replayed three times and still ended in a draw! Eventually, the winner was chosen by drawing lots.

Later, the DFB decided to use penalty shootouts if a replay also ended in a draw. This happened after a similar situation in 1970. In 1977, the final had to be replayed, which caused many problems. After that, the DFB decided that cup finals would no longer be replayed. Instead, they would go straight to a penalty shootout after extra time. This rule was then applied to all cup games in 1991.

Playing in Europe

Since 1960, the DFB-Pokal winner has qualified for European club competitions. First, it was the European Cup Winners' Cup. If the cup winner had already qualified for the UEFA Champions League, the losing finalist would take their spot in the Cup Winners' Cup.

After the Cup Winners' Cup ended in 1999, the DFB-Pokal winner started qualifying for the UEFA Europa League. If both finalists have already qualified for European competitions through the Bundesliga, the Europa League spot goes to the highest-ranked Bundesliga team that hasn't qualified yet.

The First German Cup (Tschammerpokal)

The first German Cup was held in 1935. It was called the von Tschammer und Osten Pokal, or Tschammerpokal for short. It was named after the Sports Chief of the Reich, Hans von Tschammer und Osten. The first final was between two very successful clubs, 1. FC Nürnberg and Schalke 04. Nürnberg won 2–0.

The Tschammerpokal stopped after 1943. The cup didn't happen for almost ten years. The German Football Association (DFB) brought it back in 1952 as the DFB-Pokal. In 1965, the original trophy was replaced with the one used today. This was because the old trophy reminded people of the Nazi era.

Giant Killings

The DFB-Pokal used to be only for clubs from the top divisions. But since 1974, semi-professional and amateur clubs could also enter. This led to many exciting surprises!

One famous upset happened in 1974. Hamburger SV, a big Bundesliga team, lost to VfB Eppingen, an amateur side. This was called the "mother of all cup upsets" in Germany. In 1990, a fourth-division team, SpVgg Fürth, knocked out Borussia Dortmund.

In 1993, Hertha BSC II, a reserve team from the third division, even reached the cup final! In 1997, Eintracht Trier beat both Schalke 04 and Borussia Dortmund, who were big European champions. In 2000, 1. FC Magdeburg became the first fourth-division team to knock out two Bundesliga clubs in one season.

These surprise results get a lot of attention in Germany and sometimes even around the world. When TSV Vestenbergsgreuth eliminated Bayern Munich in 1994, an Italian sports newspaper reported it on its front page!

Records

Bayern Munich has won the most DFB-Pokal titles, with 20 wins. They have been the most successful team since 1969.

Fortuna Düsseldorf holds the record for winning 18 consecutive German Cup matches between 1978 and 1981. They won the cup in 1979 and 1980 during this streak.

Werder Bremen has won the most consecutive home games (37 between 1988 and 2019). Bayern Munich has won the most consecutive away games (33 between 2009 and 2020).

Schalke 04 holds the record for the biggest win in a DFB-Pokal final. They won 5–0 against 1. FC Kaiserslautern in 1972 and 5–0 against MSV Duisburg in 2011.

Finals

The Trophy

Here are the results of the DFB-Pokal finals over the years.

Tschammer-Pokal

Year	Winners	Runners-up	Result	Date	Venue	Attendance
1935	1. FC Nürnberg	Schalke 04	2–0	08/12/35	Düsseldorf	55,000
1936	VfB Leipzig	Schalke 04	2–1	03/01/37	Berlin	70,000
1937	Schalke 04	Fortuna Düsseldorf	2–1	09/01/38	Cologne	72,000
1938	Rapid Wien	FSV Frankfurt	3–1	08/01/39	Berlin	38,000
1939	1. FC Nürnberg	Waldhof Mannheim	2–0	28/04/40	Berlin	60,000
1940	Dresdner SC	1. FC Nürnberg	2–1 (aet)	01/12/40	Berlin	60,000
1941	Dresdner SC	Schalke 04	2–1	02/11/41	Berlin	65,000
1942	1860 Munich	Schalke 04	2–0	15/11/42	Berlin	80,000
1943	First Vienna	Luftwaffen-SV Hamburg	3–2 (aet)	31/10/43	Stuttgart	45,000

DFB-Pokal

Season	Winners	Runners-up	Result	Date	Venue	Attendance
1952–53	Rot-Weiss Essen	Alemannia Aachen	2–1	01/05/53	Düsseldorf	40,000
1953–54	VfB Stuttgart	1. FC Köln	1–0 (aet)	17/04/54	Ludwigshafen	60,000
1954–55	Karlsruher SC	Schalke 04	3–2	21/05/55	Braunschweig	25,000
1955–56	Karlsruher SC	Hamburger SV	3–1	05/08/56	Karlsruhe	25,000
1956–57	Bayern Munich	Fortuna Düsseldorf	1–0	29/12/57	Augsburg	42,000
1957–58	VfB Stuttgart	Fortuna Düsseldorf	4–3 (aet)	16/10/58	Kassel	28,000
1958–59	Schwarz-Weiss Essen	Borussia Neunkirchen	5–2	27/12/59	Kassel	20,000
1959–60	Borussia Mönchengladbach	Karlsruher SC	3–2	05/10/60	Düsseldorf	50,000
1960–61	Werder Bremen	1. FC Kaiserslautern	2–0	13/09/61	Gelsenkirchen	18,000
1961–62	1. FC Nürnberg	Fortuna Düsseldorf	2–1 (aet)	29/08/62	Hannover	41,000
1962–63	Hamburger SV	Borussia Dortmund	3–0	14/08/63	Hannover	68,000
1963–64	1860 Munich	Eintracht Frankfurt	2–0	13/06/64	Stuttgart	45,000
1964–65	Borussia Dortmund	Alemannia Aachen	2–0	22/05/65	Hannover	55,000
1965–66	Bayern Munich	Meidericher SV	4–2	04/06/66	Frankfurt am Main	62,000
1966–67	Bayern Munich	Hamburger SV	4–0	10/06/67	Stuttgart	67,000
1967–68	1. FC Köln	VfL Bochum	4–1	09/06/68	Ludwigshafen	60,000
1968–69	Bayern Munich	Schalke 04	2–1	14/06/69	Frankfurt am Main	60,000
1969–70	Kickers Offenbach	1. FC Köln	2–1	29/08/70	Hannover	50,000
1970–71	Bayern Munich	1. FC Köln	2–1 (aet)	19/06/71	Stuttgart	71,000
1971–72	Schalke 04	1. FC Kaiserslautern	5–0	01/07/72	Hannover	61,000
1972–73	Borussia Mönchengladbach	1. FC Köln	2–1 (aet)	23/06/73	Düsseldorf	69,000
1973–74	Eintracht Frankfurt	Hamburger SV	3–1 (aet)	17/08/74	Düsseldorf	52,000
1974–75	Eintracht Frankfurt	MSV Duisburg	1–0	21/06/75	Hannover	43,000
1975–76	Hamburger SV	1. FC Kaiserslautern	2–0	26/06/76	Frankfurt am Main	61,000
1976–77	1. FC Köln	Hertha BSC	1–1 (aet) 1–0 replay	28/05/77 30/05/77	Hannover	54,000 35,000
1977–78	1. FC Köln	Fortuna Düsseldorf	2–0	15/04/78	Gelsenkirchen	70,000
1978–79	Fortuna Düsseldorf	Hertha BSC	1–0 (aet)	23/06/79	Hannover	56,000
1979–80	Fortuna Düsseldorf	1. FC Köln	2–1	04/06/80	Gelsenkirchen	56,000
1980–81	Eintracht Frankfurt	1. FC Kaiserslautern	3–1	02/05/81	Stuttgart	71,000
1981–82	Bayern Munich	1. FC Nürnberg	4–2	01/05/82	Frankfurt am Main	61,000
1982–83	1. FC Köln	Fortuna Köln	1–0	11/06/83	Cologne	61,000
1983–84	Bayern Munich	Borussia Mönchengladbach	1–1 (7–6 p)	31/05/84	Frankfurt am Main	61,000
1984–85	Bayer Uerdingen	Bayern Munich	2–1	26/05/85	West Berlin	70,000
1985–86	Bayern Munich	VfB Stuttgart	5–2	03/05/86	West Berlin	76,000
1986–87	Hamburger SV	Stuttgarter Kickers	3–1	20/06/87	West Berlin	76,000
1987–88	Eintracht Frankfurt	VfL Bochum	1–0	28/05/88	West Berlin	76,000
1988–89	Borussia Dortmund	Werder Bremen	4–1	24/06/89	West Berlin	76,000
1989–90	1. FC Kaiserslautern	Werder Bremen	3–2	19/05/90	West Berlin	76,000
1990–91	Werder Bremen	1. FC Köln	1–1 (4–3 p)	22/06/91	Berlin	73,000
1991–92	Hannover 96	Borussia Mönchengladbach	0–0 (4–3 p)	23/05/92	Berlin	76,000
1992–93	Bayer Leverkusen	Hertha BSC II	1–0	12/06/93	Berlin	76,000
1993–94	Werder Bremen	Rot-Weiss Essen	3–1	14/05/94	Berlin	76,000
1994–95	Borussia Mönchengladbach	VfL Wolfsburg	3–0	24/06/95	Berlin	75,700
1995–96	1. FC Kaiserslautern	Karlsruher SC	1–0	25/05/96	Berlin	75,800
1996–97	VfB Stuttgart	Energie Cottbus	2–0	14/06/97	Berlin	76,400
1997–98	Bayern Munich	MSV Duisburg	2–1	16/05/98	Berlin	75,800
1998–99	Werder Bremen	Bayern Munich	1–1 (5–4 p)	12/06/99	Berlin	75,841
1999–2000	Bayern Munich	Werder Bremen	3–0	06/05/00	Berlin	76,000
2000–01	Schalke 04	Union Berlin	2–0	26/05/01	Berlin	73,011
2001–02	Schalke 04	Bayer Leverkusen	4–2	11/05/02	Berlin	70,000
2002–03	Bayern Munich	1. FC Kaiserslautern	3–1	31/05/03	Berlin	70,490
2003–04	Werder Bremen	Alemannia Aachen	3–2	29/05/04	Berlin	71,682
2004–05	Bayern Munich	Schalke 04	2–1	28/05/05	Berlin	74,349
2005–06	Bayern Munich	Eintracht Frankfurt	1–0	29/04/06	Berlin	74,349
2006–07	1. FC Nürnberg	VfB Stuttgart	3–2 (aet)	26/05/07	Berlin	74,220
2007–08	Bayern Munich	Borussia Dortmund	2–1 (aet)	19/04/08	Berlin	74,244
2008–09	Werder Bremen	Bayer Leverkusen	1–0	30/05/09	Berlin	72,244
2009–10	Bayern Munich	Werder Bremen	4–0	15/05/10	Berlin	72,954
2010–11	Schalke 04	MSV Duisburg	5–0	21/05/11	Berlin	75,708
2011–12	Borussia Dortmund	Bayern Munich	5–2	12/05/12	Berlin	75,708
2012–13	Bayern Munich	VfB Stuttgart	3–2	01/06/13	Berlin	75,420
2013–14	Bayern Munich	Borussia Dortmund	2–0 (aet)	17/05/14	Berlin	76,197
2014–15	VfL Wolfsburg	Borussia Dortmund	3–1	30/05/15	Berlin	75,815
2015–16	Bayern Munich	Borussia Dortmund	0–0 (4–3 p)	21/05/16	Berlin	74,322
2016–17	Borussia Dortmund	Eintracht Frankfurt	2–1	27/05/17	Berlin	74,322
2017–18	Eintracht Frankfurt	Bayern Munich	3–1	19/05/18	Berlin	74,322
2018–19	Bayern Munich	RB Leipzig	3–0	25/05/19	Berlin	74,322
2019–20	Bayern Munich	Bayer Leverkusen	4–2	04/07/20	Berlin	0
2020–21	Borussia Dortmund	RB Leipzig	4–1	13/05/21	Berlin	0
2021–22	RB Leipzig	SC Freiburg	1–1 (4–2 p)	21/05/22	Berlin	74,322
2022–23	RB Leipzig	Eintracht Frankfurt	2–0	03/06/23	Berlin	74,667
2023–24	Bayer Leverkusen	1. FC Kaiserslautern	1–0	25/05/24	Berlin	74,322
2024–25	VfB Stuttgart	Arminia Bielefeld	4–2	24/05/25	Berlin	74,036

Who Won the Most?

This table shows which clubs have won the DFB-Pokal and how many times.

Club	Winners	Runners-up	Winning years
Bayern Munich	20	4	1957, 1966, 1967, 1969, 1971, 1982, 1984, 1986, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2019, 2020
Werder Bremen	6	4	1961, 1991, 1994, 1999, 2004, 2009
Schalke 04	5	7	1937, 1972, 2001, 2002, 2011
Borussia Dortmund	5	5	1965, 1989, 2012, 2017, 2021
Eintracht Frankfurt	5	4	1974, 1975, 1981, 1988, 2018
1. FC Köln	4	6	1968, 1977, 1978, 1983
VfB Stuttgart	4	3	1954, 1958, 1997, 2025
1. FC Nürnberg	4	2	1935, 1939, 1962, 2007
Hamburger SV	3	3	1963, 1976, 1987
Borussia Mönchengladbach	3	2	1960, 1973, 1995
1. FC Kaiserslautern	2	6	1990, 1996
Fortuna Düsseldorf	2	5	1979, 1980
Bayer Leverkusen	2	3	1993, 2024
Karlsruher SC	2	2	1955, 1956
RB Leipzig	2	2	2022, 2023
Dresdner SC	2	—	1940, 1941
1860 Munich	2	—	1942, 1964
Rot-Weiss Essen	1	1	1953
VfL Wolfsburg	1	1	2015
KFC Uerdingen 05	1	—	1985
Hannover 96	1	—	1992
1. FC Lokomotive Leipzig	1	—	1936
Kickers Offenbach	1	—	1970
Rapid Wien	1	—	1938
Schwarz-Weiss Essen	1	—	1959
First Vienna	1	—	1943
MSV Duisburg	—	4	—
Alemannia Aachen	—	3	—
VfL Bochum	—	2	—
Hertha BSC	—	2	—
Arminia Bielefeld	—	1	—
Borussia Neunkirchen	—	1	—
Energie Cottbus	—	1	—
Fortuna Köln	—	1	—
FSV Frankfurt	—	1	—
SC Freiburg	—	1	—
Hertha BSC II	—	1	—
Luftwaffen-SV Hamburg	—	1	—
Stuttgarter Kickers	—	1	—
Union Berlin	—	1	—
Waldhof Mannheim	—	1	—

Other German Football Cups

East German Cup

East Germany also had its own national football cup. It was called the FDGB-Pokal. This cup started in 1949 and was played every year until 1991. After Germany became one country again in 1990, the East German league and cup joined with the DFB-Pokal.

Women's German Cup

Since 1981, women's football clubs in Germany have competed for their own cup, the DFB-Pokal Frauen. There was also an East German women's cup from 1987 to 1991.

Watching the Games

In Germany

In Germany, you can watch DFB-Pokal matches on TV. ARD and ZDF broadcast 15 games each season. All matches are also available on Sky Sport.

Around the World

For fans outside Germany, many matches can be watched live. The German Football YouTube channel and DFB Play often stream games. Other broadcasters around the world also show the matches.