East Germany national football team
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| Nickname(s) | "Weltmeister der Freundschaftsspiele" (World champion in friendly games) |
|---|---|
| Association | Deutscher Fussballverband der DDR — DFV |
| Confederation | UEFA (Europe) |
| Most caps | Joachim Streich (102) |
| Top scorer | Joachim Streich (55) |
| Home stadium | Various |
| FIFA code | GDR |
| First international | |
 Poland 3–0 East Germany  (Warsaw, Poland; 21 September, 1952) Last International  Belgium 0–2 East Germany  (Brussels, Belgium; 12 September, 1990) |
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| Biggest win | |
 Ceylon 0–8 East Germany (Colombo, Ceylon; 12 January, 1964) |
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| Biggest defeat | |
East Germany 0–7 Czechoslovakia  (Leipzig, East Germany; 25 May, 1957) |
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| World Cup | |
| Appearances | 1 (first in 1974) |
| Best result | Round 2, 1974 (Ranked 6th) |
| Olympic medal record | ||
|---|---|---|
| Men’s Football | ||
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1964 Tokyo | GER1 |
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1972 Munich | GDR |
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1976 Montreal | GDR |
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1980 Moscow | GDR |
| 1 as United Team of Germany | ||
The East Germany national football team was from 1952 to 1990 the football team of East Germany, playing as one of three post-war German teams, along with Saarland and West Germany.
After German reunification in 1990, the Deutscher Fußball Verband der DDR (DFV), and with it the East German team, joined the Deutscher Fußball Bund (DFB) and the West German national football team that had just won the World Cup.
In 1949, before the GDR was founded and while regular private clubs were still banned under the Soviet occupation, efforts were made to play football anyway. Helmut Schön coached selections of Saxony and the Soviet occupation zone before moving to the West. On 6 February 1951, the GDR applied for FIFA membership, which was protested against by the German Football Association, which was already a full member. FIFA accepted the GDR association (later called DFV) on 6 October 1951 as a provisional member, and on 24 July 1952 as a full member.
The first international game, not competitive but rather a display of good will, took place on 21 September 1952 against Poland in Warsaw, losing 3-0 in front of a crowd of 35,000. The first home game was on 14 June 1953 against Bulgaria, a 0-0 in front of a crowd of 55,000 at Heinz-Steyer-Stadion in Dresden. Only three days later, the Uprising of 1953 in East Germany would have prevented the permitted assembly of that many Germans. On 8 May 1954 games resumed, with a 1-0 loss against Romania. The East Germans had not even considered to enter the World Cup which was won by the West Germans two months later. This caused much euphoria not only in the West, and the GDR tried to counter this by abandoning their policy of presenting a group of socialist role models of their "new German state"; instead, players were selected purely according to ability. The GDR entered the qualification for the WC 1958 and were hosts to Wales on 19 May 1957 at the Zentralstadion in Leipzig. 500,000 tickets were requested, officially 100,000 were admitted, but 120,000 in the crowded house witnessed a 1-0 victory.
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