It was founded in 2000 in cooperation with the national hockey associations.
Its objective is to educate and care for young German ice hockey players, as well as to serve as an introduction into the German professional leagues of the sport, including the Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL).
For the 2010/11 season, the age groups were frozen for the first time, and U19 teams then played in the DNL.
After the age groups were frozen again for the 2018/19 season, U20 teams have been taking part since then.
This ice hockey article is a stub.