East Germany national football team

East Germany

Shirt badge/Association crest
Nickname(s)	"Weltmeister in Freundschaftsspielen" (World champion in friendly games)
Association	Deutscher Fussballverband der DDR — DFV
Head coach	-
Most caps	Joachim Streich (98)
Top scorer	Joachim Streich (53)
FIFA code	GDR
First colours Second colours
First international
Poland 3 - 0 East Germany (Warsaw, Poland; 21 September 1952) Last International Belgium 0 - 2 East Germany (Brussels, Belgium; 12 September 1990)
Biggest win
Ceylon 1 - 12 East Germany (Colombo, Ceylon; 12 January 1964)
Biggest defeat
0 - 3, 12 times; 1 - 4, three times
World Cup
Appearances	1 (first in 1974)
Best result	Round 2, 1974
Appearances	(first in -)
Best result	-

Olympic medal record
Men’s Football
	1964 Tokyo	TeamTemplate:Fn
	1972 Munich	Team
	1976 Montreal	Team
	1980 Moscow	Team

The East Germany (national) football team was from 1952 to 1990 the football team of the German Democratic Republic, playing as one of three post-war German teams, along the Saarland and the (Federal Republic of) Germany which often was called West Germany. After the reunification of Germany in late 1990, the Deutscher Fußball Verband der DDR (DFV), and with it the East German team, joined the Deutscher Fußball Bund (DFB) and the DFB team that represents Germany since 1908.

East Germany was not as successful as its Western counterpart in World Cups or European Championships. It never qualified for the finals of the European Championship and only qualified for one World Cup, in 1974.

That tournament was staged in West Germany, and both German teams were drawn in the same group in the first round, too. With their games against Chile and Australia, both German teams had qualified early for advance to the second round. Despite this lack of pressure to succeed, the match on 22 June 1974 in Hamburg was politically and emotionally charged. East Germany beat (West) Germany 1-0, thanks to a goal by Jürgen Sparwasser, but the DFV team was eliminated in the second round. After their loss, the DFB team changed its line-up and eventually went on to win the tournament.

East Germany did however achieve significantly greater success in Olympic football than the amateur teams fielded by the NOC of West Germany. They won the gold medal in 1976, the silver medal in 1980, and two bronze medals in 1964 (representing a Unified team of Germany) and 1972.

Many East Germans moved to the West before the Berlin wall was erected in 1961, and some managed to escape also afterwards. All Germans received a (West) German passport automatically, but players who had caps for the DFV, like Norbert Nachtweih and Jürgen Pahl who flew in October 1976 at a U21-match in Turkey, were ineligible for international competition for the DFB due to FIFA rules. Lutz Eigendorf had escaped to the West in 1979 and died in 1983 in a mysterious car crash in which East German agents were involved.

After the reunification, players who had played for the East German team were allowed by FIFA to play for the now un-rivalled German team. See players with caps for both East Germany and unified Germany, like Matthias Sammer and Ulf Kirsten.

GDR v FRG

Over the years of their separate existence, the GDR and FRG played each other only a handful of times. The only notable meeting with professionals from the West was at the 1974 World Cup, which East Germany won 1-0. Three other games were played in Olympic Football where young non-professional represented the West. In the qualifying tournament for the 1964 Olympic Games, the two played a two-legged preliminary round tie - the GDR won their home leg 3-0, while the FRG won the return 2-1. In the 1972 Olympic Games, during the final tournament, the GDR and FRG, having qualified from their First Round groups, met in the Second Round, with the GDR winning 3-2.

Euro 92 Qualifying

The draw for the qualifying tournament of Euro 92 had seen East Germany drawn in Group 5 along with Belgium, West Germany, Wales and Luxembourg. However, the reunification process had advanced far enough that it was possible to cancel most of East Germany's games. The planning for the opening fixture away to Belgium was too far along to be cancelled, and so it was played as a friendly. It was also planned to keep East Germany's home fixture against West Germany, scheduled for November 14 1990 in Leipzig as a friendly to celebrate the unification of the DFB and DFV, but the game was cancelled due to rioting in East German stadia.

World Cup record

• 1950 - Banned
• 1954 - Did not enter
• 1958 to 1970 - Did not qualify
• 1974 - Round 2
• 1978 to 1990 - Did not qualify

European Championship record

• 1960 to 1988 - Did not qualify

Player records

Most capped players

Below is a list of the 25 players with the most caps for East Germany. The numbers are from the website of DFB, which include ten qualifying and final tournament games of the Olympics that are no longer counted by FIFA. The numbers counted by FIFA are shown in parantheses.

#	Player	East Germany career	Caps
1	Joachim Streich	1969-1984	102 (98)
2	Hans-Jürgen Dörner	1969-1985	100 (96)
3	Jürgen Croy	1967-1981	94 (86)
4	Konrad Weise	1970-1981	86 (78)
5	Eberhard Vogel	1962-1976	74 (69)
6	Bernd Bransch	1967-1976	72 (64)
7	Peter Ducke	1960-1975	68 (63)
8	Martin Hoffmann	1973-1981	66 (62)
=	Lothar Kurbjuweit	1970-1981	66 (59)
10	Ronald Kreer	1982-1989	65 (65)
11	Gerd Kische	1971-1980	63 (59)
12	Matthias Liebers	1980-1988	59 (59)
13	Reinhard Häfner	1971-1984	58 (54)
14	Jürgen Pommerenke	1972-1983	57 (53)
15	Rainer Ernst	1981-1990	56 (56)
=	Hennig Frenzel	1961-1974	56 (54)
17	Jürgen Sparwasser	1969-1977	53 (48)
18	Andreas Thom	1984-1990	51 (51)
19	Hans-Jürgen Kreische	1968-1975	50 (46)
20	Ulf Kirsten	1985-1990	49 (49)
21	Dieter Erler	1959-1968	47 (45)
=	Jörg Stübner	1984-1990	47 (47)
23	René Müller	1984-1989	46 (46)
=	Dirk Stahmann	1982-1989	46 (46)
25	Rüdiger Schnuphase	1973-1983	45 (45)

Top goalscorers

Below is a list of the 15 top goalscorers for East Germany. The numbers are from the website of DFB, which include goals scored in ten qualifying and final tournament games of the Olympics that are no longer counted by FIFA. The numbers counted by FIFA are shown in parantheses.

#	Player	Goals
1	Joachim Streich	55 (53)
2	Hans-Jürgen Kreische	25 (22)
=	Eberhard Vogel	25 (24)
4	Rainer Ernst	20 (20)
5	Hennig Frenzel	19 (19)
6	Martin Hoffmann	16 (15)
=	Jürgen Nöldner	16 (16)
=	Andreas Thom	16 (16)
9	Peter Ducke	15 (15)
=	Jürgen Sparwasser	15 (14)
11	Ulf Kirsten	14 (14)
12	Günter Schröter	13 (13)
13	Wolfram Löwe	12 (12)
=	Dieter Erler	12 (12)
15	Willy Tröger	11 (11)

Players with caps for both East Germany and Germany after 1990

The rules of FIFA prevented that players who had caps for the DFV team could play for the DFB team before official unification of DFB and DFV in 1990. The numbers are from the website of DFB.

Player	East Germany		Unified Germany		Overall
	Caps	Goals	Caps	Goals	Caps	Goals
Ulf Kirsten	49	14	51	20	100	34
Matthias Sammer	23	6	51	8	74	14
Andreas Thom	51	16	10	2	61	18
Thomas Doll	29	7	18	1	47	8
Dariusz Wosz	7	0	17	1	24	1
Olaf Marschall	4	0	13	3	17	3
Heiko Scholz	7	0	1	0	8	0
Dirk Schuster	4	0	3	0	7	0

Coaches

• 1952-1953 Willi Oelgardt
• 1954 Hans Siegert
• 1955-1957 János Gyarmati
• 1958-1959 Fritz Gödicke
• 1959-1961 Heinz Krügel
• 1961-1967 Károly Soós
• 1967-1969 Harald Seeger
• 1970-1981 Georg Buschner
• 1982-1983 Rudolf Krause
• 1983-1988 Bernd Stange
• 1988-1989 Manfred Zapf
• 1989-1990 Eduard Geyer

Notes

Template:Fnb East German players represented the United Team of Germany in 1964 as West Germans were ineligible as professionals

See also

• East Germany national under-21 football team

External links

• DFB statistics of the national team (contains information on East Germany caps and goalscorers)
• RSSSF archive of East Germany results
• RSSSF history of East Germany national team
• RSSSF record of East Germany international caps and goals