1968–69 Bundesliga

Bundesliga
Season	1968–69
Dates	17 August 1968 – 7 June 1969
Champions	Bayern Munich; 1st Bundesliga title; 2nd German title
Relegated	1. FC Nürnberg; Kickers Offenbach
European Cup	FC Bayern Munich
Cup Winners' Cup	FC Schalke 04 (losing DFB Cup finalists to Bayern)
Goals scored	873
Average goals/game	2.85
Top goalscorer	Gerd Müller (30)
Biggest home win	FC Bayern 6–0 Werder Bremen (29 March 1969)
Biggest away win	1860 Munich 0–4 M'gladbach (28 September 1968)
Highest scoring	Werder Bremen 6–5 M'gladbach (11 goals) (7 June 1969)
	← 1967–68 1969–70 →

The 1968–69 Bundesliga was the sixth season of the Bundesliga, West Germany's premier football league. It began on 17 August 1968 and ended on 7 June 1969.^[1] 1. FC Nürnberg were the defending champions.

Competition modus

Every team played two games against each other team, one at home and one away. Teams received two points for a win and one point for a draw. If two or more teams were tied on points, places were determined by goal average. The team with the most points were crowned champions while the two teams with the fewest points were relegated to their respective Regionalliga divisions.

Team changes to 1967–68

Borussia Neunkirchen and Karlsruher SC were relegated to the Regionalliga after finishing in the last two places. They were replaced by Hertha BSC Berlin and Kickers Offenbach, who won their respective promotion play-off groups.

Season overview

The dominant team of the 1968–69 season was FC Bayern Munich. Bayern were in first place of the standings from the very first matchday and never looked back, continuously increasing their margin to eventually eight points, the biggest so far in league history. They were victorious in the DFB Cup as well, beating Schalke in the final by a 2–1 score. Keys to their double win were their improved defense and top scorer Gerd Müller, who scored 30 goals.

Behind Bayern, the league continued to create surprises. Alemannia Aachen ended up in second place after a campaign which featured almost every position between second and 16th. Other notable astonishments were Eintracht Braunschweig, who finished in fourth place, and 1. FC Köln, who ended their season in a dismal 13th position.

Köln even were in danger of being relegated prior to the last matchday, sitting in 15th place with 30 points at that time. They played 1. FC Nürnberg at home, who also were in relegation trouble as 16th-placed team, one point behind Köln. Another match on that day was the clash between 17th-placed Borussia Dortmund and 18th-placed Kickers Offenbach. Both teams had 28 points prior to the game. After the matches were over, both Nürnberg and Offenbach had received 3–0 defeats, resulting in the demotion of both teams.

The demotion of Nürnberg was especially tragic as they had been Bundesliga champions only 12 months ago. Nevertheless, a pre-season sell-out of their best players and continuous quarrels between coach Max Merkel and his players proved to be costly, and although Merkel was sacked in late March 1969, it was too late to reverse tides. A home draw to Dortmund on matchday 33 and the defeat against Köln one week later eventually sealed their fate.

Team overview

Location of teams in Bundesliga 1968–69

Club	Ground^[2]	Capacity^[2]
Alemannia Aachen	Tivoli	30,000
Hertha BSC	Olympiastadion	100,000
Eintracht Braunschweig	Eintracht-Stadion	38,000
SV Werder Bremen	Weserstadion	32,000
Borussia Dortmund	Stadion Rote Erde	30,000
MSV Duisburg	Wedaustadion	38,500
Eintracht Frankfurt	Waldstadion	87,000
Hamburger SV	Volksparkstadion	80,000
Hannover 96	Niedersachsenstadion	86,000
1. FC Kaiserslautern	Stadion Betzenberg	42,000
1. FC Köln	Müngersdorfer Stadion	76,000
Borussia Mönchengladbach	Bökelbergstadion	34,500
TSV 1860 Munich	Stadion an der Grünwalder Straße	44,300
FC Bayern Munich	Stadion an der Grünwalder Straße	44,300
1. FC Nürnberg	Städtisches Stadion	64,238
Kickers Offenbach	Bieberer Berg	30,000
FC Schalke 04	Glückauf-Kampfbahn	35,000
VfB Stuttgart	Neckarstadion	53,000

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GR	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Bayern Munich (C)	34	18	10	6	61	31	1.968	46	Qualification to European Cup first round
2	Alemannia Aachen	34	16	6	12	57	51	1.118	38
3	Borussia Mönchengladbach	34	13	11	10	61	46	1.326	37
4	Eintracht Braunschweig	34	13	11	10	46	43	1.070	37
5	VfB Stuttgart	34	14	8	12	60	54	1.111	36	Qualification to Inter-Cities Fairs Cup first round
6	Hamburger SV	34	13	10	11	55	55	1.000	36	Qualification to Inter-Cities Fairs Cup first round
7	Schalke 04	34	14	7	13	45	40	1.125	35	Qualification to Cup Winners' Cup first round^[a]
8	Eintracht Frankfurt	34	13	8	13	46	43	1.070	34
9	Werder Bremen	34	14	6	14	59	59	1.000	34
10	1860 Munich	34	15	4	15	44	59	0.746	34	Qualification to Inter-Cities Fairs Cup first round
11	Hannover 96	34	9	14	11	47	45	1.044	32	Qualification to Inter-Cities Fairs Cup first round
12	MSV Duisburg	34	8	16	10	33	37	0.892	32
13	1. FC Köln	34	13	6	15	47	56	0.839	32
14	Hertha BSC	34	12	8	14	31	39	0.795	32	Qualification to Inter-Cities Fairs Cup first round
15	1. FC Kaiserslautern	34	12	6	16	45	47	0.957	30
16	Borussia Dortmund	34	11	8	15	49	54	0.907	30
17	1. FC Nürnberg (R)	34	9	11	14	45	55	0.818	29	Relegation to Regionalliga
18	Kickers Offenbach (R)	34	10	8	16	42	59	0.712	28	Relegation to Regionalliga

Source: www.dfb.de
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal ratio.
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated
Notes:

^ As Bayern Munich also won the 1968–69 DFB-Pokal, runners-up Schalke 04 were given the European spot reserved for the domestic cup winners.

Results

Home \ Away	AAC	BSC	EBS	SVW	BVB	DUI	SGE	HSV	H96	FCK	KOE	BMG	M60	FCB	FCN	KOF	S04	VFB
Alemannia Aachen	—	0–0	1–4	2–1	0–1	4–0	4–2	2–0	2–0	1–0	2–1	2–1	4–0	2–4	4–2	1–2	4–1	1–3
Hertha BSC	0–1	—	0–0	1–0	0–0	1–1	2–0	3–2	2–1	1–0	2–1	2–1	1–2	1–2	2–0	1–0	1–0	0–1
Eintracht Braunschweig	2–0	3–3	—	0–3	4–3	0–0	1–0	1–0	3–3	3–0	2–1	0–0	2–1	2–3	0–2	2–2	3–0	1–2
Werder Bremen	1–2	2–0	2–1	—	2–1	2–1	0–1	1–1	3–2	2–1	3–1	6–5	4–1	1–0	3–3	2–0	1–3	1–0
Borussia Dortmund	3–1	2–2	2–1	3–2	—	2–1	0–1	3–1	1–1	2–3	1–1	1–3	2–0	0–1	3–1	3–0	0–1	1–0
MSV Duisburg	1–1	2–1	1–1	2–0	2–0	—	1–1	0–0	0–0	0–0	0–0	1–1	3–4	0–0	1–0	2–1	1–0	2–0
Eintracht Frankfurt	0–1	2–0	0–1	2–1	1–1	2–1	—	2–2	0–0	2–2	1–2	1–1	3–0	1–1	3–0	3–2	1–0	3–0
Hamburger SV	3–0	0–0	0–0	5–2	2–0	1–2	1–4	—	1–4	3–1	3–1	2–0	2–0	2–2	4–2	3–0	1–3	2–1
Hannover 96	5–2	1–1	1–1	1–0	1–1	1–1	1–2	2–2	—	0–2	3–0	2–3	3–2	1–0	2–2	2–2	1–0	1–0
1. FC Kaiserslautern	2–1	1–0	4–0	1–0	1–2	3–0	2–2	0–1	0–0	—	4–0	2–0	3–1	3–1	1–1	2–1	1–1	1–3
1. FC Köln	1–2	1–0	2–0	3–3	2–1	1–1	2–1	4–1	1–0	2–1	—	1–4	0–0	1–1	3–0	2–1	2–0	5–2
Borussia Mönchengladbach	2–2	0–1	1–1	1–1	1–0	1–0	2–3	1–2	3–2	4–0	2–1	—	3–0	1–1	1–1	4–1	3–0	4–4
1860 Munich	0–0	0–1	0–1	4–3	2–1	2–1	1–0	3–3	2–1	1–0	2–1	0–4	—	0–3	2–0	2–0	3–1	3–1
Bayern Munich	1–1	3–0	2–1	6–0	4–1	2–2	2–0	5–1	2–1	2–0	1–0	0–0	0–2	—	3–0	5–1	0–0	2–0
1. FC Nürnberg	1–4	3–0	2–0	1–1	2–2	1–1	1–0	0–0	1–2	1–0	0–1	4–0	3–0	2–0	—	2–2	1–1	1–1
Kickers Offenbach	1–1	1–0	0–1	0–3	4–3	0–0	4–2	1–1	1–1	4–1	3–1	1–0	2–3	0–0	2–1	—	1–0	2–1
Schalke 04	3–1	2–0	0–2	2–1	4–1	1–0	2–0	2–3	1–1	1–0	3–1	1–1	2–0	1–2	4–1	3–0	—	1–1
VfB Stuttgart	3–1	4–2	2–2	2–2	2–2	3–2	2–0	3–0	1–0	4–3	6–1	0–3	1–1	3–0	2–3	1–0	1–1	—

Source: DFB
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Top goalscorers

30 goals

Gerd Müller (FC Bayern Munich)

23 goals

Uwe Seeler (Hamburger SV)

17 goals

Josip Skoblar (Hannover 96)

15 goals

Werner Görts (SV Werder Bremen)
Herbert Laumen (Borussia Mönchengladbach)
Hartmut Weiß (Eintracht Braunschweig)

14 goals

Carl-Heinz Rühl (1. FC Köln)

13 goals

Bernd Rupp (SV Werder Bremen)

12 goals

Champion squad

FC Bayern Munich
Goalkeeper: Sepp Maier (34). Defenders: Werner Olk (34 / 1); Peter Pumm (34); Hans-Georg Schwarzenbeck (34); Franz Beckenbauer (33 / 2); Peter Kupferschmidt (22). Midfielders: August Starek (34 / 4); Franz Roth (34 / 2); Helmut Schmidt (21 / 2). Forwards: Rainer Ohlhauser (34 / 10); Dieter Brenninger (34 / 9); Gerd Müller (30 / 30); Gustav Jung (4). (league appearances and goals listed in brackets) Manager: Branko Zebec . On the roster but have not played in a league game: Fritz Kosar; Benno Zellermayer; Peter Stegmann; Albrecht Wachsmann; Reinhard Lippert.

References

^ "Archive 1968/1969 Schedule". DFB.
^ ^a ^b Grüne, Hardy (2001). Enzyklopädie des deutschen Ligafußballs, Band 7: Vereinslexikon (in German). Kassel: AGON Sportverlag. ISBN 3-89784-147-9.

External links

DFB Bundesliga archive 1968/1969

[table_note_res_ECWC10.50754164415763-3] As Bayern Munich also won the 1968–69 DFB-Pokal, runners-up Schalke 04 were given the European spot reserved for the domestic cup winners.

[1] "Archive 1968/1969 Schedule". DFB.

[Vereinslexikon-2] Grüne, Hardy (2001). Enzyklopädie des deutschen Ligafußballs, Band 7: Vereinslexikon (in German). Kassel: AGON Sportverlag. ISBN 3-89784-147-9.

[1]

[2]

[a]

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