22.11.15

Der Verband der Prager Deutschen Fußball-Vereine

The history of German domestic football is made very complex by the large number of regional competitions that fed into the National Championships. Another level of complexity emerges when we consider that there were actually clubs competing in the German National Championships that were from outside the borders of Germany itself. Prague was a part of the Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy- being in Bohemia,a province of the Austrian Empire. There were a number of football clubs in Prague that were associated with the German speaking community (which was in fact diminishing rapidly during this era- at the turn of the century about 10% of the population of the city were Germans).
In 1900 Der Verband der Prager Deutschen Fußball-Vereine was founded- an association of German football clubs in Prague (which in German is Prag).
When the Deutscher Fußball Bund was established in 1900 there were 2 Prague based clubs among the founder members- the very similarly named Deutscher FC Prag and Deutscher FC Germania Prag.

The first championship was held in the 1901-02 season. The following teams took part:

Deutscher FC Germania Prag
FC Austria Prag
FC Favorit Prag
FC Hellas 1900 Prag
Fußball Sektion der Lese- und Redehalle der Deutschen Studenten Prag
FuAC Sport Prag
FC Sturm Prag
Deutscher FC Prag

 Deutscher FC Germania Prag emerged as champions.


The club had been founded as Unitas Prag in 1898 by Heinrich Nonner, who had previously played for Regatta Prag and DFC Prag. For a short while the club was renamed Urania before becoming  Germania. It was  Nonner who represented the club at the first ever meeting of the Deutscher Fußball Bund.
1n 1902-03 only 3 clubs participated in the championship. It would appear that DFC Prag were selected to compete in the German national championships in rather a random manner as the Prague tournament was not conclusively decided.
In March 1903  DFC Germania Prag went out of existence.They faced financial problems and had lost their home ground, on which a church was to be built. The club relocated to Graslitz (which is now the Czech city of Kraslice).
This signalled the demise of  Der Verband der Prager Deutschen Fußball-Vereine , as only 2 active clubs remained. 
 Germany joined FIFA  in 1904, and consequently teams from outside the country were no longer allowed to play in the DFB competitions. 

Nonner