Until the mid-Sixties German domestic football was split into regional leagues, a system that worked well for many years, that was until the national side began to underperform at major tournaments.
Realising that a single professional league would make the whole of German football stronger it was decided that a huge overhaul was necessary. And so in 1963 the Bundesliga was born.
In the sixty years since we have witnessed Borussia Mönchengladbach dominate the Seventies, and Hamburger SV and Borussia Dortmund have their moments.
But really, in the modern era at least, it’s almost entirely been about Bayern Munich and their indomitable rise.
Annually priced up as hot favourites in the Bundesliga odds, Die Roten have claimed an astonishing 18 titles in the 21st century alone.
We have also gasped in shock and awe at some remarkably one-sided football matches.
TSV 1860 Munich 9 – 0 Karlsruher SC (1965)
1860 Munich were admitted into the Bundesliga two years ahead of their Bavarian neighbours Bayern, a detail that should not surprise given that Die Lowen (The Lions) were much the stronger force at the time.
Three months after this remorseless hammering of yo-yo club Karlsruher, 1860 took on West Ham at Wembley in the European Cup Winners Cup final. A year later they were crowned Bundesliga champions for the first and only time.
Their brief Sixties pomp soon gave way to struggle and even relegation, but for a short while they were a behemoth in the making.
Bayern Munich 9 - 0 Kickers Offenbach (1984)
By the Eighties it was very clear who the biggest club in Munich was. Indeed who the biggest club in Germany was.
Die Roten had won six Bundesliga titles at this point and three European Cups, the latter courtesy of a famed collective led by Franz Beckenbauer, with Gerd Muller scoring all the goals.
Here it was Karl-Heinz Rummenigge who was the star of the show, converting five times and assisting Bayern’s eighth for good measure.
As for Kickers this was a solitary season spent in the top-flight, with a swift return to 2.Bundesliga awaiting them. A year later financial strife saw them penalised and demoted several leagues over to a regional amateur division.
Bayern Munich 9 - 0 Tennis Borussia Berlin (1976)
The Violets were simply outclassed on this September afternoon, having no answer to a fearsome Bayern frontline that featured Gerd Muller in his prime and a young Kark-Heinz Rummenigge. The former bagged five, the latter a hat-trick.
Tennis Borussia Berlin – or TeBe for short – were relegated by the season’s end as gravity inevitably took hold. They presently reside in the sixth tier, after encountering all manner of financial turmoil.
Borussia Mönchengladbach 10 - 0 Borussia Neunkirchen (1967)
It is the Foals’ Seventies incarnation that enjoys the legendary status. After all, it was they who secured all of the silverware, a copious amount both domestically and on the European stage.
This Borussia however certainly gave big clues as to what was to come, tearing into the Bundesliga, just two seasons after gaining promotion, with a tactical blueprint that had never been seen before in Deutschland.
Devised by Hennes Weisweiler – who went on to become one of the most successful European coaches of his time – Fohlenelf, as it became known, was a variation of Total Football, allowing players to stray from their principle position and affording them greater freedom.
It was also a set-up designed to attack first and defend if they must. Poor Neunkirchen can attest that when it worked well it could be devastating.
Borussia Mönchengladbach 10 - 0 Eintracht Braunschweig (1984)
After selling too many of their marquee names to stay financially afloat, Borussia’s glory days were now consigned to the past but they could still compete with the very best of them.
Just four months earlier, the Foals ended their 1983/84 campaign level on points with Stuttgart and Hamburger SV. They came out worst on goal difference.
And again here, they were in the reckoning for the most part, ultimately undone by poor Spring form.
Earlier that autumn though Saxony side Braunschweig endured a battering, as six different scorers ran riot. Borussia were five up just 25 minutes in.
Borussia Dortmund 11 – 1 Arminia Bielefeld (1982)
As if a 11-1 rout isn’t incredible enough there is another detail to this hopeless mismatch that truly amazes. The score was 1-1 at the break.
What is remarkable too about the ten goals that subsequently flew in – at a rate of a goal every four and a half minutes – was how relatively even these sides were in stature at the time.
Dortmund were solid mid-table fare season on season, a whole decade away from their golden period. Bielefeld were perennial relegation candidates who often punched above their weight.
By their end of this bizarre drubbing however Die Blauen were more punch-drunk, pummelled into submission by a five-goal spree by Manfred Burgsmuller.
Bayern Munich 11 – 1 Borussia Dortmund (1971)
Bayern smashed several records in 1971/72 as they easily secured a second Bundesliga title. Goals scored. Points won. You name it, they smashed it.
They began the campaign as second favourites in the football odds, behind Mönchengladbach. Come May it was quite clear that a magnificent machine had whirred into life, and nobody knew where the off switch was.
The roll-call of goal-scorers on this chilly November day is like a who’s who of German greats, from Beckenbauer to Muller, Breitner to Hoeness.
It was an achievement for Dortmund to notch even a consolation.
Borussia Mönchengladbach 11 – 0 Schalke 04 (1967)
The Foals racked up 70 league goals in this season, a high number for the era, with 16% of them coming in this merciless deconstruction of Schalke.
A couple of years prior, Die Knappen had only avoided relegation due to the league being expanded and though better days waited them as the Seventies commenced here they were the proverbial lambs to slaughter.
The sublime duo of Jupp Heynckes and Gunter Netzer ran proceedings through, the former helping himself to a hat-trick as a glittering era for the Foals dawned.
Borussia Mönchengladbach 12 – 0 Borussia Dortmund (1978)
Borussia went into the final day of the season level on points with FC Koln but considerably behind on goal difference.
Having won the previous three league titles – not to mention reaching the European Cup final the summer before – this would be the most stringent test yet of their all-out attacking philosophy. Only a massacre of Dortmund would suffice.
Which they duly achieved, with six goals converted in the first-half alone, but alas for the Foals it was all in vain. Across the country, Koln put five past St Pauli, putting them three goals out of reach.
*Credit for the photos in this article belongs to Adobe*
