FC Energie Cottbus is a German football club based in Cottbus, Brandenburg. It was founded in 1963 as SC Cottbus in what was East Germany. After the reunification of Germany, Energie played six seasons in the third tier of the German football league system before floating between the 2. Bundesliga and Bundesliga for 17 years between 1997 and 2014. From 2014 to 2016, the club played in the third tier, 3. Liga, and were then relegated to the Regionalliga Nordost. In 2018, they were promoted back into the 3. Liga, only to be relegated again the next season.
The DDR-Oberliga was the top-level association football league in East Germany.
1. FC Magdeburg is a German Association football club based in Magdeburg. The club was founded in 1965 from the football department of the sports club SC Magdeburg and has been one of the top teams in the DDR-Oberliga, winning three championships and seven cup titles. By winning the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1974, the club became the only East German club to win a European trophy and also achieved the greatest success in its history. After German reunification, the club fell on hard times but returned to professional football in 2015 with the promotion to the 3. Liga. Afterwards the team managed in 2018 to climb up to the second division, in which the team plays today.
FC Carl Zeiss Jena is a German football club based in Jena, Thuringia. Founded in 1903 it was initially associated with the company Carl Zeiss. From the 1960s to the 1980s it was one of the top-ranked clubs in East Germany, won the DDR-Oberliga and the FDGB-Pokal three times each and reached the 1981 European Cup Winners' Cup Final. Since the German reunification in 1990, the club has competed no higher than the second tier. Since the 2021–22 season, Jena is playing in the Regionalliga Nordost.
SV Babelsberg 03 is a German association football club based in Potsdam-Babelsberg, on the outskirts of Berlin. The team was founded as Sport-Club Jugendkraft 1903 and again as SG Karl-Marx Babelsberg in 1948 as successor to the pre-war side SpVgg Potsdam 03.
Torsten Gütschow is a German football manager and former player who played as a striker. He is most associated with Dynamo Dresden, with whom he had two successful spells, playing top level football in East Germany and after reunification. In between these he played for three other German clubs, and spent six months with Galatasaray of the Turkish Süper Lig. A strong and instinctive goalscorer, Gütschow was top scorer in each of the last three seasons of the DDR-Oberliga, and was the last East German Footballer of the Year. He won three international caps for East Germany, scoring two goals between 1984 and 1989. Since retiring he has taken up coaching, and has been manager of TuS Heeslingen.
Eduard "Ede" Geyer is a German former professional football player and manager. He was the last manager of the East Germany national team.
Rocco Milde is a German former professional footballer who played as a forward. Milde had a much-travelled career, but is best remembered as a Dynamo Dresden player, having had three separate spells with the club.
FSV Optik Rathenow is a German association football club who compete in the Oberliga. The club is situated in the city of Rathenow, near Berlin, and play their home games at the Vogelgesang.
The Regionalliga Nordost is the fourth tier of German football in the states of Berlin, Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony and Thuringia. These comprise the states of former East Germany as well as West Berlin.
The NOFV-Oberliga Süd is the fifth tier of the German football league system in the southern states of the former East Germany. It covers the German states of Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, Saxony and southern Brandenburg. It is one of fourteen Oberligas in German football. Until the introduction of the 3. Liga in 2008 it was the fourth tier of the league system, and until the introduction of the Regionalligas in 1994 the third tier.
The NOFV-Oberliga Mitte was the third tier of the German football league system in the central states of former East Germany and West Berlin. The league existed from 1991 to 1994. It covered the German states of Berlin, Brandenburg and Saxony-Anhalt.
The DDR-Liga was, prior to German reunification in 1990, the second level of football competition in the DDR, being roughly equivalent to the 2. Bundesliga in West Germany.
Jörn Lenz is a German former professional footballer who played as a defender. Lenz had four different spells with BFC Dynamo during his professional playing career and has continued to serve as part of the club's backroom staff since retiring in 2008. Lenz played a total of 374 matches for BFC Dynamo between 1988 and 2008. He made two appearances for BFC Dynamo in the 1989-90 European Cup Winners' Cup.
Mike Jesse is a former professional German footballer.
Detlef Irrgang is a German former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder. He is best remembered for his two spells with Energie Cottbus, spanning 22 years, over 400 appearances, and the reunification of Germany.
Kay Wehner is a German former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper.
German reserve football teams compete at all levels of league football within the German football league system apart from the top two divisions, the Bundesliga and 2. Bundesliga. The highest league these teams can currently enter is the 3. Liga, set at the third tier of the league system.
The Bischofswerdaer FV 08 is a German association football club from the town of Bischofswerda, Saxony.
