Germany national football team
German men's national association football team
The Germany national football team (German: Deutsche Fußballnationalmannschaft) represents Germany in men's international football and played its first match in 1908. The team is governed by the German Football Association (Deutscher Fußball-Bund (DFB)), founded in 1900, by members the single largest national sports federation in the world. Between 1949 and 1990, separate German national teams were recognised by FIFA due to Allied occupation and division: the DFB's team representing the Federal Republic of Germany (commonly referred to as West Germany in English between 1949 and 1990), the Saarland team representing the Saar Protectorate (1950–1956) and the East Germany team representing the German Democratic Republic (1952–1990). The latter two were absorbed along with their records; the present team represents the reunified Federal Republic. The official name and code "Germany FR (FRG)" was shortened to "Germany (GER)" following reunification in 1990.
Germany is one of the most successful national teams in international competitions, having won four FIFA World Cups (1954, 1974, 1990, and 2014), tied with Italy, and only one fewer than the most successful team, Brazil. They have been runners-up at the World Cup four times and have a further four third-place finishes. They are the only national football team to achieve this. Having won three European Championships (1972, 1980, and 1996) Germany is second behind Spain, the record holder in that international competition with four. Germany also won the FIFA Confederations Cup in 2017.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Germany national football team” is german men's national association football team. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Germany, national and football, not as a finished interpretation.
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The phrase “german men's national association football team” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Contemporary correspondence, administrative files and participant testimony can test how later narratives organized the event or institution. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q43310. VIAF identifies the subject as 130961346. 1 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1908, 1900, 1949 and 1990.
Later summaries often reconcile disputed chronology or motive more neatly than the contemporary record permits. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Germany national football team” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.