historically the number of participants in the main tournament has varied between four from 1956 until 1960 and 128 from 1973 through 1982 resulting in tournaments of two to seven rounds. since the inception of the bundesliga in 1963 all clubs from the bundesliga are automatically qualified for the dfb-pokal as are all clubs from the 2. bundesliga since its inception in 1974. reserve sides for most of the time were allowed to participate in the dfb-pokal but have been excluded since 2008.