Ice hockey in Germany

[3] The men's national ice hockey team stands seventh in the world on the current IIHF rank list.

Games similar to ice hockey were popular in winter time not only in the Alps but also at lakes and rivers all over Germany for centuries.

On 19 September 1909 Germany became the sixth member nation of the predecessor organization of the IIHF, the "Ligue International de Hockey sur Glace" (LIHG).

By 1910, when Germany participated in the first Ice Hockey European Championships, a city league with ten teams was already playing in Berlin.

The 1936 Winter Olympics saw a contentious issue arise when the Nazi party were forced to include a Jewish player, (Rudi Ball), on the team.

The Oberliga was replaced 1958 by the reintroduced Ice Hockey Bundesliga, before 1963 the Deutsche Eishockey-Bund was created, which remained under the umbrella of the Deutschen Eissport-Verbandes.