It is considered the second-most important club title in German football after the Bundesliga championship.

The Tschammer-Pokal was suspended in 1944 due to World War II and disbanded following the demise of Nazi Germany.

In 1952–53, the cup was reinstated in West Germany as the DFB-Pokal, named after the DFB, and was won by Rot-Weiss Essen.

(FDGB-Pokal, the East German equivalent, started in 1949 and operated through the 1991 season, when it merged with the DFB-Pokal).

Of the remaining slots, 21 are given to the cup winners of the regional football associations, the Verbandspokale.

[3] The only exception is that reserve teams (e.g. Bayern Munich II) are ineligible to enter.

[3] Extra time will be played if the scores are level after 90 minutes, with a penalty shootout following if needed.

If the score was still level after 120 minutes, the game was replayed with the home field right reversed.

In the 1939 Tschammer-Pokal, the semi-final between Waldhof Mannheim and Wacker Wien was played to a draw three times before the game was decided by lot.

The German Football Association decided to hold a penalty shootout if the replay was another draw after a similar situation arose in the 1970 cup, when the match between Alemannia Aachen and Werder Bremen had to be decided by lot after two draws.

FC Köln and Hertha BSC) had to be replayed, leading to great logistical difficulties.

In the aftermath, the DFB opted not to replay cup finals in the future, instead holding a penalty shootout after extra time.

[8] Originally, the DFB-Pokal was a competition open to clubs from the top divisions of German football only.

From the start, the new match ups between Bundesliga and amateurs (most usually third division clubs) became a source of surprises.

Hamburger SV's second round loss to VfB Eppingen in 1974 was often titled the "mother of all cup upsets" (German: Die Mutter aller Pokalsensationen),[9][10] the first instance of an amateur side knocking out a Bundesliga club.

It took until 1990 for a fourth division side to achieve the same, when SpVgg Fürth took Borussia Dortmund out of the competition.

In 1997, Eintracht Trier proved too strong for both the UEFA Cup and Champions League winners, knocking Schalke 04 and Borussia Dortmund out of the competition.

FC Magdeburg became the first fourth division side to eliminate two Bundesliga clubs in one season.

[citation needed] Surprise results in the cup attract strong media coverage in Germany and, at times, abroad.

[13] For countries without broadcasting rights, all matches will be live via the German Football YouTube channel and DFB Play.