The championship play-off of the 1952–53 DDR-Oberliga took place on 5 July 1953 at the Walter-Ulbricht-Stadion in East Berlin between Dynamo Dresden and Wismut Aue.
Wismut Aue also went winless in two home in their antepenultimate and penultimate matches against Motor Oberschöneweide (losing 3–4) and Vorwärts Berlin (drawing 2–2), respectively.
On 31 May, it was up to Rotation Babelsberg and Wismut Aue to decide how the season would end, as the rest of the teams had finished their matches.
Aue were two points behind Dynamo Dresden, and would need a victory against Babelsberg to keep their title chances alive and force a playoff.
Dynamo Dresden decided not to bring along any of their own fans, but Wismut Aue, on the other hand, brought their supporters in several special trains.
Dynamo immediately went on the offensive and had a great chance after five minutes through Karl-Heinz Holze, but the right-winger shot the ball too close to the Wismut goalkeeper, who deflected it over the goal.
The Dynamo defence, organised by Herbert Schoen, had no problems with Aue, who were constantly pushing forward.
Aue's best player up until then, centre-forward Willy Tröger, received a cross from the outside-left winger Kurt Viertel and was able to overcome Dresden goalkeeper Heinz Klemm with a low shot into the right corner.
A header from Dresden's Schoen landed to Wismut striker Karl Wolf, who immediately passed to Armin Günther, who was standing free in front of the Dynamo goal.
For Dresden, Wolfgang Hänel replaced centre-forward Gerhard Hänsicke, and for Aue Alfred Gräfe came on for the left-outside winger Viertel.