Ice hockey in Germany
| Ice hockey in Germany | |
|---|---|
| Federation | Deutscher Eishockey-Bund |
| Established | 1963 (From 1912 to 1962 the Deutschen Eissport-Verband organised) |
| IIHF-member since | September 11, 1909 |
| First WC participation | 1930 |
| First Olympic participation | 1928 |
| Medal Wins |
WC: 2xSilver, 2xBronze OG: 2xBronze |
| First National Champions | 1912 |
| First National Champions | Berliner Schlittschuhclub |
| Current National Champions | EHC München (2015) |
| Top League | Deutsche Eishockey Liga |
Ice hockey is one of the more popular sports in Germany, however it still ranks far behind football in spectator favour and meaning. Ice hockey is organized today in Germany by the Deutsche Eishockey Liga, the highest professional league, and by the Deutschen Eishockey-Bund ice hockey federation, which is the sport's federation in Germany and a member of the International Ice Hockey Federation.
The Men's German national ice hockey team stands eighth in the world on the current IIHF rank list. Since they were eighth before the 2004 World Cup of Hockey, they automatically qualified for the Olympic Ice Hockey tournament.
Games similar to ice hockey were popular in winter time not only in the Alps but also at lakes and rivers all over Germany since centuries. The traditional food Eisbein is called after a bone which is used for making ice skates. In Frankfurt opened during a patent exhibition in 1881 the third artificial ice skating rink in the world (after London and New York) with a size of 520 m²; only 10 years later also opened the first permanent artificial ice rink in Frankfurt.
A noticed very game similar to ice hockey was probably played as early as February 4, 1897 on the Halensee Lake in Berlin. The participants were Akademischer SC 1893 Berlin and a team of students.
1901 saw the first German club create its own ice hockey department, the Berliner Schlittschuhclub. As a consequence, further ice hockey associations or departments developed first in Berlin and then in other large German cities. In 1908 ice hockey was taken up as section of the Deutscher Eissport-Verband. On September 19, 1909, Germany became the sixth member nation of the predecessor organization of the IIHF, the "Ligue International de Hockey sur Glace" (LIHG).
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