DFB-Pokal 2026/27 (M)

On 8 December 1935, 60,000 people packed Düsseldorf's Rheinstadion to watch 1. FC Nürnberg beat Schalke 04 2-0, Eiberger and Friedel scoring. The competition did not carry today's name then: it was the Tschammer-Pokal, named after the regime's sports chief, Hans von Tschammer und Osten. It ran until 1943, vanished with the war, and the federation revived it in 1952/53 under its present name. The first DFB-Pokal champions were Rot-Weiss Essen.

For three decades the final wandered from city to city — Hanover, Frankfurt, Hamburg. Since 1985 it has not left Berlin.

The honours list is crushed by Bayern's 21 titles. A long way behind sit Werder Bremen on 6 and a trio tied on 5: Schalke 04, Borussia Dortmund and Eintracht Frankfurt. Nobody has ever strung together three in a row; the last to manage two were RB Leipzig, in 2022 and 2023. And exactly one club from outside the top flight has lifted it: Hannover 96, then a 2. Bundesliga side, on 23 May 1992, after 120 goalless minutes and a shoot-out won 4-3 against Borussia Mönchengladbach. In Berlin, naturally.

Harry Kane scored all three. Minute 55, minute 80 and a penalty in the 92nd: Bayern took the 2026 final 3-0 against VfB Stuttgart on 23 May, in front of 74,036 at the Olympiastadion and without needing extra time. It was the club's 21st title and a settling of accounts, because Stuttgart arrived as holders after beating Arminia Bielefeld 4-2 in the 2025 final.

The shock of the season, though, had landed nine months earlier, and it was not a fallen giant but a Bavarian Swabian town of 18,000. FV Illertissen, of Regionalliga Bayern — the fourth tier — hosted 1. FC Nürnberg on 16 August 2025, drew 3-3 after extra time and won the shoot-out 6-5. The adventure lasted one more round: they went out 0-3 at home to 1. FC Magdeburg on 29 October.

From the Bundesliga, by contrast, only one fell at the first hurdle: Werder Bremen, beaten 1-0 at Bielefeld by an Isaiah Young goal in the 93rd minute. The first round does not claim a big scalp every year, but when it does nobody forgets it.

The draw was made on 6 June at the German Football Museum in Dortmund, and it left two ties stranded outside the calendar. Bayern and Borussia Dortmund contest the Franz Beckenbauer Supercup on 22 August, so their matches slide into September: Dortmund travel to Oberliga side HEBC Hamburg on the 1st, Bayern to VfL Osnabrück on the 2nd.

The rest run from the 21st to the 24th. Leverkusen open at SV Wehen Wiesbaden, Stuttgart at Hansa Rostock, Leipzig — two-time winners, 2022 and 2023 — at Eintracht Trier, and Eintracht Frankfurt at SC St. Tönis. Two trips carry real history: Schalke 04 land at Hallescher FC and, above all, Hertha Berlin go to 1. FC Saarbrücken, the club that reached the semi-finals from the fourth tier in 2020 and knocked Bayern out in 2023 with an injury-time goal.

One for the romantics: Rot-Weiss Essen, champions back in 1953, host St. Pauli. Bayern, Leverkusen, Leipzig, Stuttgart and Dortmund start as the five with squads deep enough to end up in Berlin. The other 59 are there to ruin it — and in this cup that plan works more often than you would think.

Sixty-three matches and it is over. Sixty-four teams, six rounds — first, second, last 16, quarter-finals, semi-finals and final — and never a second leg: level after 90 minutes means 30 more, and if the score holds, penalties.

The draw splits into two halves of 32. The top half holds the 18 Bundesliga clubs and the 14 best-placed 2. Bundesliga sides from the previous season. The bottom half takes the other 4 from 2. Bundesliga, the top 4 from 3. Liga and the winners of the 21 regional cups, plus three extra berths for the associations with the most registered teams: Bavaria, Westphalia and Lower Saxony. That is why VFB Krieschow, Westfalia Rhynern and Bahlinger SC share a first-round bracket with clubs who play in the Champions League.

Home advantage does not expire in August either. In the first two rounds it goes to the team drawn first, which is always the one from the smaller pot; from the last 16 onwards, DFB rules force the tie to be played at the amateur club's ground whenever it meets a professional side. The winner collects two prizes: the German Supercup against the Bundesliga champions and a European ticket. The final is set for 29 May 2027, kick-off 20:00.