East Germany - International Results 1952-1990

A short history of East German national teams

Germany was divided in four zones as a result of World War II, each one administered by one of the victorious powers: France, USA, Great Britain and the Soviet Union. On October 7 1949 in the Soviet or Eastern zone an independent state was founded, the GDR. Like for all other things, a governing body for soccer had to be founded. On ..., the Deutsche Fussballverband (German Football Federation, DFV) was founded as official football association of the GDR. As wellas the establishment of a domestic league and domestic cup a national selection had to be established. On September 21 1952 the GDR's history of a national squad started with a friendly match between Poland and the GDR in Warsaw. In the following years the GDR took part in all international competitions but only once survived the qualification. In 1974 they took part in the World Cup Finals in West Germany, playing the most remembered match in its history. It was the only match between East and West Germany resulting in a 1-0 victory of the East German team. Unfortunately, this victory placed them in round two in one group with Brazil, the Netherlands and Argentina. All opponents were finally to strong. The last appearance of a East German national team in an international competition was the qualification for the World Cup 1990. The hopes of a second appearance in World Cup finals ended with a defeat by 3-0 (all 3 goals made by Toni Polster) in the last match in Vienna on November 15 1989 and so the history of the GDR in international competitions. But in this time nobody knew this. The GDR still took part in the draw for the qualification for the European Championship 1992. The team was drawn in Group 5 together with the FRG, Belgium, Wales and Luxembourg. But history was faster then the schedule. On October 3 in 1990 both German states re-unificated and with them their football associations. The scheduled matches of the East German team were cancelled, except of two matches. The match against Belgium remained due to organisational problems but was played as a friendly match on September 12 1990 at Brussels. On that day the history of the East German national team ended with a 2-0 victory. And again nobody knew it. The match between East and West Germany remained also on the schedule. It was scheduled to be played on November 14 1990 in Leipzig to celebrate the unification of the two German football associations. Due to repeated riots of the spectators in East German stadiums this match was also cancelled. And so the history of the East German national team ended with a cancelled match.
More success had the East German football in Olympic Tournaments peaking on July 31 in 1976. On this day the Olympic squad of the GDR won the final of the XXI. Olympiad at Montreal 3-1 against Poland, winning the only international competition. The East German Olympic squad also reached the final match of the XXII. Olympiad at Moscow. But lost 1-0 against Czechoslovakia.

Some explanations about this archive

I included all matches I found in "official" statistics mentioned as "A" internationals. In fact, I used two books as sources of the data beside some input from other sources.
Currently the matches # 108, # 109, #110, #111, #154, #155, #157, #158 are in question regarding a recent decision by the FIFA no longer count matches during the qualification and final stage of an Olympic tournament as "A" matches. But they remain in this archive.
In the header the opponents, the final score and the score at halftime are shown. If the match was played during the qualification or the final stage of a international competition this fact will be mentioned beneath the header. The second line consists of the date and venue of the match. In the third line the line-up of the home team is shown followed by the names of the away team (both if available). A "C" behind the name marks the team captain (if available).
The next lines consist of the name of the referee and the attendance of the match. In the last line the names of the scorers and the minute they scored are mentioned. (pen = penalty, og = own goal).

Acknowledgements

The main source of the data were these two books:

"Fussball informativ" ("Football informative"), Sportverlag der DDR, 1987

"Fussball in der DDR, Teil 2: Die Nationalmannschaft" (""Football in the GDR, Part II: The national team"), Agon Sportverlag, 1998

These people helped me with missed data and corrections:

Federação Portuguesa de Futbol

Misha Miladinovich

Pawel Mogielnicki

Erwin Bramer

David A. Litterer

Christopher S. Allen

Gwidon S. Naskrent