The majority of Gauligas returned to their pre-war single-division format, having been split into regional sub-divisions for the first war season.
The league champions entered the 1941 German football championship, won by SK Rapid Wien who defeated FC Schalke 04 4–3 in the final.
[2] The number of Gauligas, twenty, increased by two compare to the previous season because of the introduction of the Gauliga Danzig-Westpreußen, named after the city of Gdańsk (German: Danzig) and the former Prussian province of West Prussia and formed by clubs from the Free City of Danzig and Pomeranian Voivodeship, annexed from Poland, and Gauliga Elsaß, formed in the Alsace (German: Elsaß) region which was annexed by Nazi Germany from France.
[3][4] In the part of Czechoslovakia incorporated into Germany in March 1939, the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, a separate Czech league continued to exist which was not part of the Gauliga system or the German championship.
VfL Köln 99, Dresdner SC, FC Schalke 04 and SK Rapid Wien won their championship groups and advanced to the semi-finals with the latter two reaching the championship final which Rapid won.