The 1942 German football championship, the 35th edition of the competition, was won by Schalke 04, the club's sixth championship, won by defeating First Vienna FC in the final.

[2] Schalke's Fritz Szepan was the 1942 championships top scorer with eight goals.

[3] The 1942 championship marked the last highlight of the golden era of Schalke 04 which had reached the semi-finals of each edition of the national championship from 1932 to 1942 and won the competition in 1934, 1935, 1937, 1939, 1940 and 1942 while losing the final in 1933, 1938 and 1941.

[6] In the following season, the German championship was played with twenty nine clubs.

From there it gradually expanded further through a combination of territorial expansion of Nazi Germany and the sub-dividing of the Gauligas in later years, reaching a strength of thirty one in its last completed season, 1943–44.