FDGB Cup
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The FDGB Cup (Freier Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund Pokal or Free German Trade Union Federation Cup) was an elimination football tournament held annually in the former East Germany. It was the second most important national title in East German football after the DDR-Oberliga championship. The founder of the competition was East Germany's major trade union.
The inaugural FDGB Cup or East German Cup was contested in 1949, two years before the initial German Cup (DFB-Pokal) was played in the western half of the country. The first national cup competition was the Tschammerpokal introduced in 1935.
Each football club which participated in the East German football league system was entitled to enter the tournament. Clubs from the lower leagues played in regional qualification rounds, with the winners joining the teams of the DDR-Oberliga and DDR-Liga in the main round of the tournament of the following year. Each elimination was determined by a single game held on the ground of one of the two participating teams.
Until the mid-80's the field of competition was made up of as many as sixty teams playing in five rounds due to the large number of elligible clubs in the country. Beginning in 1975 the final was held each year in the Berliner Stadion der Weltjugend (Berlin's Stadium for World Youth) and drew anywhere from 30,000 to 55,000 spectators. The last cup final, played in 1991 after the fall of the Berlin Wall, was a 1:0 victory by Hansa Rostock over Stahl Eisenhüttenstadt which drew a meagre crowd of only 4,800.
The most successful side in 42 years of competition was 1. FC Magdeburg which celebrated seven FDGB Cup wins (including those as SC Aufbau Magdeburg before 1965).
FDGB Cup Winners 1949 to 1991
- 1949 - Waggonbau Dessau
- 1950 - BSG EHW Thale
- 1951 - no competition
- 1952 - SG Volkspolizei Dresden
- 1953 - no competition
- 1954 - Vorwärts KVP Berlin
- 1955 - SC Wismut Karl-Marx-Stadt
- 1956 - SC Chemie Halle
- 1957 - SC Lok Leipzig
- 1958 - SC Einheit Dresden
- 1959 - Dynamo Berlin
- 1960 - SC Motor Jena
- 1961 - no competition
- 1962 - SC Chemie Halle
- 1963 - BSG Motor Zwickau
- 1964 - SC Aufbau Magdeburg
- 1965 - SC Aufbau Magdeburg
- 1966 - BSG Chemie Leipzig
- 1967 - BSG Motor Zwickau
- 1968 - 1. FC Union Berlin
- 1969 - 1. FC Magdeburg
- 1970 - FC Vorwärts Berlin
- 1971 - Dynamo Dresden
- 1972 - FC Carl Zeiss Jena
- 1973 - 1. FC Magdeburg
- 1974 - FC Carl Zeiss Jena
- 1975 - BSG Sachsenring Zwickau
- 1976 - 1. FC Lok Leipzig
- 1977 - Dynamo Dresden
- 1978 - 1. FC Magdeburg
- 1979 - 1. FC Magdeburg
- 1980 - FC Carl Zeiss Jena
- 1981 - 1. FC Lok Leipzig
- 1982 - Dynamo Dresden
- 1983 - 1. FC Magdeburg
- 1984 - Dynamo Dresden
- 1985 - Dynamo Dresden
- 1986 - 1. FC Lok Leipzig
- 1987 - 1. FC Lok Leipzig
- 1988 - Dynamo Berlin
- 1989 - Dynamo Berlin
- 1990 - Dynamo Dresden
- 1991 - FC Hansa Rostock
FDGB Cup Trivia
- A unique double awaits one of the former FDGB cup winners – the opportunity to be both a DFB and FDGB Cup title holder. 1. FC Union Berlin came close to accomplishing the feat when they appeared in the 2001 German Cup final, but lost 0:2 to Schalke.
- To date the only other former East German club to appear in the German Cup final is Energie Cottbus which also dropped a 0:2 decision, in this case to VfB Stuttgart.
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