In just 20 years, the German DEL has grown to become one of the strongest hockey leagues in Europe. Eisbären Berlin won the 2010 European Trophy, and six clubs are now competing to win in the Champions Hockey League.

by Konstantin Bös

The Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL) has been the highest hockey league in Germany for more than 20 years now. It was founded in 1994 and currently includes 14 teams. The original idea of the new elite league was to create something similar to the North American National Hockey League (NHL). For that reason, the DEL is a closed league without a promotion-and-relegation system.

Origins and a split country

Although the DEL was formed in 1994, ice hockey has been played in Germany much longer, and most of the current teams' histories pre-date the league. The Augsburg Panther traces its history back to 1878, Germany became a member of the IIHF in 1909, and German clubs have competed for a national championship since 1912. The period before World War II was dominated by Berliner Schlittschuhclub (Berlin Skating Club), which won 17 domestic titles from 1912 to 1937.

After the war, two leagues, both called Oberliga, were formed in the newly-partitioned West and East Germany, respecitvely. The western league, which was re-named Bundesliga in 1958, was dominated by EV Füssen, which won 16 titles between 1949 and 1973 and went to the final of the very first European Cup in 1996, where it lost to Czech club ZKL Brno. The club still extists on the third tier of German hockey. In the East, a club from Weisswasser won 25 titles between 1951 and 1990. That club still exists in DEL-2 as Lausitzer Füchse.

The earliest title that any current DEL team can claim was that of the club now known as Krefeld Pinguine, which won the western crown in 1952. Clubs from Dusseldorf and Mannheim also won titles, and the club now known as Kölner Haie won six times in the pre-DEL era, including three in a row in 1986, '87 and '88. It also won a silver at the 1985 European Cup and a bronze in '89. A club called Dynamo Berlin won 15 eastern titles between 1966 and 1988 -- the club is now known as Eisbären Berlin.

The best-known German player of the 1970s and '80s was centre Erich Kühnhackl, who played for EV Landshut and Köln. He helped lead West Germany to a bronze medal at the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria, and scored 83 goals and 155 points in 48 games in 1979-80. He was offered a contract by the NHL's New York Rangers but turned it down. In 2000 he was named German ice hockey player of the century. It was Köln defenceman Uwe Krupp who became the first German-trained NHL player when he joined the Buffalo Sabres in 1986. He would become famous for scoring the triple-overtime Stanley Cup-winning goal for the Colorado Avalanche in 1996.

With the re-unification of Germany in 1990, the Bundesliga became a fully national league starting with the 1990-91 season. It existed for four seasons as the top German league before the formation of the DEL, with Düsseldorf completing a run of four straight titles in 1993 and Maddogs Munich winning the last title in 1994.

New league, new problems

In June 1994 the DEL started its first season with 18 teams. Eight of them are currently still playing in the league: Augsburg, Nürnberg, Düsseldorf, Köln, Schwenningen, Berlin, Krefeld and Mannheim. During its opening season the new league was hit with its first problems. Due to financial problems, the defending champion from Munich had cease operations in December. At the end of the season, Köln beat Landshut in the final 3 games to 2 for its seventh championship and the first-ever DEL title. One of the players on the winning team was defenceman Mirko Lüdemann, who still plays in Cologne. Including playoffs, Lüdemann has played in over 1000 DEL games.

Over the next few years, the number of teams, games, and playoff format changed almost annually. Due to financial problems, teams often voluntarily withdrew from the league. Since 2010, the DEL has consisted of 14 teams playing 52 games each, with 10 teams making the playoffs. The latest addition is the Wild Wings from Schwenningen, who took the spot vacated when the Hannover Scorpions withdrew to the third league in the summer of 2013. Schwenningen returned to the DEL after a 10-year absence.

Reaching a professional level

Currently, Eisbären holds the league record of seven championships (22 overall). From 2010 to 2013 they won three titles in a row. Besides Berlin, only Mannheim has managed it to win three times in a row, from 1996 until 1999.

Until 2012, pay-TV giant Sky held the DEL television rights. Then Servus TV, part of the Red Bull conglomerate, bought the license for DEL games. Usually Laola1tv shows one game every Friday on the internet, while Servus TV is broadcasts a Sunday game on free-to-air TV. The telestation also introduced the “Cable Guy” feature, which it also uses on its Austrian league telecasts. That means that players, coaches or referees wear microphones during the game, so viewers can hear them during the action.

In the summer of 2013, the DEL created its second league, the DEL2, with teams from the previous second-tier league. One of the plans for the future is to re-introduce a promotion-relegation system between the two leagues.

One of the highlights of the DEL's history is the Winter Game. In January 2013, Nürnberg and Berlin played the league's first outdoor game when they met in Nuremberg's Frankenstadion. In front of 50 000 fans, Berlin won the game 4-3. The next edition of the Winter Game is planned for 9 January 2015, in which Düsseldorf will host Köln at Esprit Arena. With that, it is hoped a new league attendance record can be set, surpassing the 2.5 million that came to watch around the league in 2013-14.

2014-15 clubs

"Top league" and "Titles" include the DEL and its predecessors.

Note: Eisbären Berlin (then Dynamo Berlin) spent 34 seasons in the top East German league, where they won 15 titles.

2013-14 individual leaders