BFC Germania 1888
BFC Germania 1888 was founded by 17-year-old Paul Jestram, his three brothers, and a number of their schoolmates from Askanischen Gymnasium at a time when football was not yet common in Germany, the first football games having been played in Berlin and Hamburg in the winter of 1881–82 by expatriate Englishmen. No football pitches had yet been built so "BFC" played on the Tempelhofer field where an airport would later be constructed.
List of German football champions
Brought to the country by English expatriates, the sport had taken root in the cities of Berlin, Hamburg, Stuttgart, and Leipzig in the 1890s, leading to the growth of city, regional, and academic leagues, each with their own championships. Following the establishment of the German Football Association (Deutscher Fußball Bund) in 1900, the first recognized national championship match was hosted by Hamburg club Altona 93 in 1903 in which VfB Leipzig defeated DFC Prag 7–2, and was awarded the Viktoria, the championship trophy from 1903 to 1944. Before the formation of the Bundesliga in 1963, the championship format was based on a knockout competition, contested between the winners of each of the country's top regional leagues. Since 1963, the first-place finisher in the Bundesliga has been recognized as the national champion.