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Far from being a dream come true: the birth of the Bundesliga was a difficult one
The Table Tennis Bundesliga (TTBL) has reason to celebrate: Germany's top league is in its 60th season and, to mark its anniversary, is more attractive and high-quality than ever before. Until its ‘birthday’ in September 2026, we will be regularly looking back at milestones in the development of the upper house into what is now the strongest league in Europe. To kick off our journey through six decades of Bundesliga history, we look back at the founding of today's TTBL.
In retrospect, the Table Tennis Bundesliga must be considered a stroke of luck. However, the new elite class of German table tennis was by no means a wanted child before its founding in 1966. Unsurprisingly, considering all the circumstances, debates and resistance, its introduction was more like a difficult birth.
In 1962, the creation of a new elite class called the Bundesliga for the best teams in the whole of Germany, replacing the four Oberligen (upper leagues) that were the highest classes in the country at the time, was rejected. The sports committee of the German Table Tennis Association (DTTB) and the sports officials of the regional associations rejected such a reform at their meeting in Frankfurt after initial discussion until further notice – for cost reasons.
However, the issue soon dominated the agenda in German table tennis once again. Above all, declining interest from spectators and the media increased the pressure on those responsible at the DTTB and the regional and state associations to establish a nationwide league as a new driving force.
Just one year after Frankfurt, the DTTB's Federal General Assembly (BHV) decided in 1963 to create an attractive upper house. But before the ‘child’ could finally learn to walk, three more years of teething troubles had to pass. Years in which, due to differences of a regional and association policy nature, the failure of the entire large-scale project seemed imminent more than once, as evidenced not least by the postponement of the introduction of the Bundesliga by the DTTB Sports Committee in 1964. Twelve months later, the state sports officials, despite some remaining regional reservations, and then the BHV in Borkum, voted in favour of founding a Bundesliga in 1966 with eight teams of six players.
Table tennis was therefore very much in vogue, so to speak. The term ‘Bundesliga’ exerted its full fascination on other team sports as well. The pioneer was – one might say ‘naturally’ – football, which had already established a Bundesliga in 1963. Because handball and basketball also introduced their Bundesliga leagues in 1966, table tennis would have fallen behind early on in the competition between sports for attention and talent without the decision made in Borkum – volleyball, for example, did not follow until 1974.
One month after the ‘Borkum decision’, the DTTB Sports Committee also established qualification criteria for the new upper house. Fixed places were reserved for the champions of the four future second-tier Oberligen, and the four remaining positions in the league table went to the four group winners of a qualifying tournament for the second to fourth-placed clubs in the Oberligen from four groups of three. The issue of higher travel expenses for the clubs, which had been controversial at the beginning of all discussions, was resolved by the DTTB granting a travel allowance.
On 10 September 1966, the following clubs finally kicked off the inaugural season of the Table Tennis Bundesliga: Oberliga champions VfL Osnabrück (North), SV Moltkeplatz Essen, SSV Reutlingen (South) and 1. FC Saarbrücken (Southwest), as well as qualification winners DJK TuSa Düsseldorf (second in the Oberliga North), TSV Milbertshofen (second in the Oberliga South), Post SV Augsburg (third in the Oberliga South) and TTC Mörfelden (second in the Oberliga Southwest).
Among the founding members, Osnabrück, which had also won the last Oberliga championship final, as well as Düsseldorf, Milbertshofen and Mörfelden had already won the title at least once. In addition to Düsseldorf and Osnabrück, Reutlingen and Saarbrücken were also to win championship honours in the future among the new elite of Bundesliga clubs.
Florian Manzke
