Ice hockey in Germany

Ice hockey is in Germany one of the most popular kinds of sport, which ranks however in the spectator favour and meaning far behind football. The ice hockey haven is accomplished today in Germany on the one hand by the Deutsche Eishockey-Liga the highest professional league, on the other hand by the Deutschen Eishockey-Bund ice hockey federation than responsible sport federation in Germany and member federation of the International Ice Hockey Federation.

The Men's German national ice hockey team stands on the current IIHF rank list on the tenth place of the world. Since they were before the Ice Hockey World Cup 2005 still figure eight, they are automatically qualified for the Olympic Ice Hockey tournament.

History

The beginnings of the ice hockey haven in Germany lie around 1900 in Berlin. Probably an ice hockey like game was played as early as on February 4, 1897 on the lake Halensee in Berlin, which however still had much in common with the related sport bandy. The participants were Akademische Sportclub Berlin and a team of students.

1901 saw, in the Berliner Schlittschuhclub, the first German association, which created its own ice hockey department. In the consequence further ice hockey associations or departments developed first in Berlin and then in other German large cities. 1908 were taken up then ice hockey as section to the Deutschen Eissport-Verband and occurred on September 19 1909 as the sixth nation the predecessor organization of the IIHF, the "Ligue International de Hockey sur Glace" (LIHG).

When in 1910 Germany participated in the first European Ice Hockey Championship a city league with ten teams already played in Berlin: beside the Berliner Schlittschuhclub of the BFC Preussen, the teams were the Sportclub Berlin, the Berliner Eislaufverein 1904, the BFC Britania, the Berliner EV 1886, the Hockey Club Berlin, the Sportklub Komet, the SC Charlottenburg and the Eislauf Verein Berlin. In 1912, the first German championships were held, which the Berliner Schlittschuhclub would win.

After the First World War, Germany was excluded (from 1920) from the LIHG and could thus not in any LIHG-Turnieren tournaments. On January 11, 1926 the Deutsche Eissport-Verband, the body responsible for ice hockey in Germany, was taken up however again to the LIHG, whereby Germany could again participate, starting from 1927, in the European Ice-Hockey championships.

Until 1940 the development of the ice hockey haven in Germany made large progress, so that with the 1932 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid the bronze medal attain a German team and during the European champion valuation in the context of the Ice Hockey World Cup in 1930 and 1934 European champions could become. The 1936 Winter Olympics saw a contentious issue arise when the Nazi party were forced to include a Jewish player on the team (Rudi Ball). The development of the ice hockey became apparent also in the emergence of new regional regional organizations.

After the World War II, Germany was excluded again in April 1946 from the LIHG. At this time a country wide league for the best teams, the Oberliga (Ice Hockey) developed in the Federal Republic, while the Soviet zone of occupation and the later DDR took its own development. ("See Also:" Ice Hockey in the DDR)

The Federal Republic returned on March 10 1951 again to the LIHG, which followed the DDR as an independent member with the Deutschen Eislauf-Verband der DDR on June 9, 1954.

The Oberliga was replaced 1958 by the again introduced Ice Hockey Bundesliga, before 1963 the Deutsche Eishockey-Bund was created, which remained however under the roof of the Deutschen Eissport-Verbandes. Internationally the national team of the FRG created the jump into the A-world championship, where they could be established end of the 1970er and into the 1980er years. It however never succeeded to arrive among the four best teams of the world.

Tournaments and championships

* Championships
** "general:" German Champions (ice hockey)
** "current:" Deutsche Eishockey-Liga, 2nd Bundesliga, Oberliga (Ice Hockey), Regionalliga (ice hockey)
** "historical:" Berliner Stadtliga, Oberliga (Ice Hockey), Bundesliga (ice hockey)
* Internationale Tournaments
** Deutschland-Cup
* Olympische Eishockey-Turniere in Germany
** 1936
* The Men's Eishockey-Weltmeisterschaft in Germany
** 1930 (in Chamonix and Berlin), 1936 (gleichzeitig Olympische Spiele), 1955, 1975, 1983, 1993, 2001, 2010
* The men's Eishockey-Europameisterschaft in Germany "(nur reine Europameisterschaften)"
** 1911, 1913, 1914, 1932

National team

Trainer, Spieler und Platzierungen der Deutschen Nationalmannschaft siehe unter Deutsche Eishockeynationalmannschaft

References and Literature

* Eckert, Horst: "Eishockey-Lexikon." München: Copress, 1993. ISBN 3-7679-0407-1. (German)

External links

* [http://www.deb-online.de Seite des Deutschen Eishockey-Bundes]
* [http://www.del.org Seite der Deutschen Eishockey-Liga]
* [http://www.lotok.de/ost-eishockey/ Geschichte des Eishockey im deutschen Osten]
* [http://www.germanhockey.net GermanHockey.net - English website with daily updates on German DEL hockey]