While the name Gauliga is not in use in German football any more, mainly because it is attached to the Nazi past, some sports in Germany still have Gauligen, like gymnastics and faustball.

The Gauligen were largely formed along the new Gaue, designed to replace the old German states, like Prussia and Bavaria, and therefore gain better control over the country.

In August 1939, a meeting was to be held to decide on the creation of a league system of six Gauligen as a transition stage to the Reichsliga, but the outbreak of the Second World War shortly after ended this debate, too.

[5] With the outbreak of the Second World War, football continued but competitions were reduced in size as many players were drafted to the German Wehrmacht.

The last season, 1944–45, was never completed, as large parts of Germany were already under allied occupation and the German unconditional surrender on 8 May 1945 ended all sports competitions, the last official match having been played on 23 April.

In the semi-final, teams received 20% of the net income (that is, after rent, administrative and travel costs had been deducted), and in the final their share was reduced to 15%.

The new Oberligen took the place of the Gauligen from 1945, when six new leagues were gradually formed in what was left of Germany: With the rise of the Nazis to power, the German Football Association came fully under the party's influence.

[7] Additionally, clubs with strong connections to Jews were punished and fell into disfavor, like Bayern Munich, who had a Jewish coach (Richard Dombi) and chairman (Kurt Landauer).

The players of Bayern Munich for example were heavily criticised for greeting their former chairman Landauer at a friendly at Servette Geneva in Switzerland.

Despite this, the number of active players and clubs declined in regions like the Ruhr area, where the workers' movement was traditionally strong.

[11] The fact that some famous players, like FC Schalke 04's Tibulski, Kalwitzki, Fritz Szepan, and Ernst Kuzorra, had less-than-German-sounding names and were mostly descendants of Polish immigrants, was ignored by the Nazis.

The situation was different in Western Europe, where clubs from Alsace, Lorraine, and Luxembourg took part in the Gauliga system under Germanised names.

Also, a Luxembourgian club, Stade Dudelange (renamed FV Stadt Düdelingen), managed to reach the first round of the championship and cup in 1942.

The Gauliga Elsaß was completely made up of French clubs from Alsace, who had to Germanise their names, like RC Strasbourg, which became Rasen SC Straßburg.

Das große Spiel (The big game), a movie about a fictitious German football team, Gloria 03, directed by Robert Stemmle, released in 1942.