German Bowl

German Bowl

German Bowl XXX in 2008, Braunschweig Lions vs Kiel Baltic Hurricanes
First meeting	Frankfurt, 10 November 1979
Latest meeting	Berlin, 8 October 2016
Next meeting	2017
Statistics
Meetings total	38
Most wins	Braunschweig Lions (11)

The German Bowl is the annual national championship game in the sport of American football in Germany. It is contested by the two best teams of the German Football League.

The Braunschweig New Yorker Lions are the record winners of the German Bowl, with eleven successful participations out of sixteen overall. The Düsseldorf Panther and the Berlin Adler both have six titles to their name, but Berlin has the best win-loss record of all clubs, 75 percent. Altogether, as of 2016, eleven clubs have won a German Bowl, while a further four clubs have reached the finals game but never won it. The most-played match up in the history of the game is the Braunschweig Lions versus the Hamburg Blue Devils, having been played six times, last in 2005.

Apart from the German Bowl, a Junior Bowl has also been contested in Germany since 1982. A Ladies Bowl was introduced in 1990. Other, related, national championship games in Germany include the German Flag Bowl (est. 2000), German Junior Flag Bowl (1999) and a German Indoor Flag Bowl (2000).

In 1979, the American Football Bundesliga, later to be renamed the German Football League, was formed, consisting of six clubs, the Frankfurter Löwen, Ansbach Grizzlies, Düsseldorf Panther, Munich Cowboys, Berlin Bears und Bremerhaven Seahawks. Of those six, the top two teams would contest the first ever German Bowl on 10 November 1979.

The early years of the league were dominated by two teams, Frankfurt and Ansbach, who met each other in the first three editions of the German Bowl. Of those, Frankfurt won the first two and Ansbach the last. The era of the Frankfurter Löwen was thereby ended and the club went defunct in the mid-1980s, while the Ansbach Grizzlies continued to be an outstanding team, playing in all of the first eight German Bowls. Unlike the first season, play-off semi finals were played in 1980 and 1981 to determine the two German Bowl contestants. From 1982, the play-offs were enlarged to include a quarter final round as well.