Germany is one of the most prominent football nations in the world, boasting more combined men’s and women’s World Cup wins than any other country. Now, it is with some irony that German football was forged by the English.
In 1874, a school teacher brought over an English round football to kick off the first German football game, with his opponent of the day later publishing the first German rule book.
That same year, the first modern football club in Germany was created by English workers in Dresden, and over the next couple of decades, the sport boomed up and down the country.
Still, it took until 1962 for the Bundesliga as we know it today to be founded, and in its 62 years of operation to date, Bayern Munich have taken the crown 33 times.
So, behind the Bavarian team, which football clubs rank among the biggest in Germany?
Biggest Clubs in German Football
-
Bayern Munich
-
Borussia Dortmund
-
Eintracht Frankfurt
-
Borussia Mönchengladbach
-
VfB Stuttgart
Germany has such a strong following for its teams across the country that the top five of the biggest clubs in Germany can fluctuate.
Helping to find the top five are publically-available figures that show how many members each team has; in 2024/25, Bayern Munich led with 360,000 members, while RB Leipzig ranked bottom with 1,050 members.
As well as this, domestic success, time spent in the top division of German football, and the popularity and fame of clubs in and beyond the country were all considered when choosing the biggest football clubs in Germany.
This left us with one club from Bavaria, two from the North Rhine-Westphalia, one from Baden-Württemberg, and another from the Hesse state, with all selected teams having won the national title at least once.
5) VfB Stuttgart
Boasting a 131-year history, VfB Stuttgart remains among the biggest football clubs in Germany despite enduring a rather rocky spell in the 2010s.
Since winning 2. Bundesliga in 2017, getting relegated, but then coming back up again in 2020, VfB Stuttgart have reasserted themselves as a major team in Germany’s top flight and even finished second in the league in 2023/24.
With their most recent Bundesliga shield coming in 2006/07, the club boasts five national titles, three German Cup triumphs, and finished as runners-up in the 1988/89 UEFA Cup.
As of the end of last season, VfB Stuttgart rank fourth in the all-time Bundesliga table having competed in the top flight for what is now 59 seasons.
4) Borussia Mönchengladbach
Now in the midst of their 58th Bundesliga campaign, Borussia Mönchengladbach were once the most dominant force in German football.
The team’s trophy room is presided over by the successes of the team throughout the 1970s.
In this decade, Die Fohlen won the Bundesliga five times, finished second twice, won the DFB-Pokal, finished as the runners-up in the European Cup, and claimed the UEFA Cup twice.
After this spell of dominance, Gladbach remained a top-tier club but would eventually fade into 2. Bundesliga. They were relegated in 1999 to the second tier, came back up in 2001, but went back down in 2007.
In the 16 seasons since coming back up in 2008, the 1900-founded club have finished in the top half of the table 11 times and in the top five places six times, keeping them a regular feature in European competitions.
3) Eintracht Frankfurt
Founded in Hesse in 1899, Eintracht Frankfurt is one of the oldest and most consistently well-supported clubs in European football. Next year, the 125-year-old club will celebrate its centenary at Waldstadion with its 58,000-strong crowd.
It’s very rare that Eintracht Frankfurt haven’t been in the Bundesliga, with this season marking Die Adler’s 57th stint in the top tier that they helped found, but the club’s reach goes far beyond football.
Eintracht Frankfurt, as an entity, spans 50 sports with some 14,000 active athletes on the books, making them the world’s biggest multi-sports club that also boasts a professional football team.
On the football pitch, Eintracht Frankfurt have picked up the German title, five German Cups, the UEFA Cup, and the Europa League in 2021/22.
Sitting third in the league after nine games, they’ve had many live betting backers since proving themselves early this season, as well as a few more speculative bets on them to keep Bayern Munich away from a 34th league win.
2) Borussia Dortmund
One of the most iconic sights in European football is the imposing Yellow Wall at the massive 81,000-seater home of Borussia Dortmund, the Westfalenstadion (now Signal Iduna Park for sponsorship purposes).
BVB haven’t been out of the Bundesliga in 50 years (the second-longest streak of any German club), with five of their eight total German titles coming during the Bundesliga era – the most recent of which was in 2011/12.
Along with those league wins, the 1909-founded club won the UEFA Champions League in 1996/97 and has claimed five German Cup triumphs.
Such is their prominence as the second biggest football club in Germany that their meetings with Bayern Munich each season are hailed as Der Klassiker – the German Clásico.
1) Bayern Munich
Winners of the German first division 33 times and the favourites in the Bundesliga odds to do so again in 2024/25, Bayern Munich are the undisputed biggest football club in Germany.
Few clubs in the top leagues of Europe can compare to the imperious legacy of Die Roten, which also includes 20 Cup wins, two FIFA Club World Cups, the UEFA Cup, and the UEFA Champions League three times.
Through their industrious reign in Germany, which includes an 11-season title streak that was only snapped by an undefeated Bayer 04 Leverkusen last season, Bayern have earned huge followings in countries all over the world.
It would take decades or a complete annihilation of the organisation itself for Bayern Munich to be usurped as the biggest club in Germany, but many of the other top five places can more easily be argued in multi-year brackets.
*Credit for the photos in this article belongs to Adobe*
