so. A Western German Championship was not played again until 1920. 1920 to 1933 As a consequence of the lost war, a strip of land along the German - Belgian border was awarded to the later, with the cities of Eupen and Malmedy becoming part of Belgium. These were the only territorial changes within the area of the Western championship. The Western German championship was restarted in 1920 with eight clubs in a knockout system. The eight clubs represented the following regions: Berg/Mark Hesse/Hannover North Rhine Ruhr South Rhine South Westphalia Westphalia West Rhine The following year, a return to a five-team group stage was made to determine the champion. In 1922, this was expanded to six clubs. Western German football took a very different approach to its football championships from 1922 to 1924, expanded the local competitions to last over two years. The German championship still being an annual event, a Western championship was nevertheless needed in order to determine the club who would participate in the national finals. The seven top-of-the-table sides at the time therefore played a knockout competition to do so in 1923, something of an oddity. The 1924 championship, with seven clubs and a single round of games in a league format, was the proper Western German championship for 1922–24. In 1925, a seven-team league was once more employed to determine the champion. The German championship had now been enlarged to sixteen clubs and for the West this meant, it could send three clubs to the national finals from now on. Until 1928, the format of the Western championship did not change, but in 1929, the championship was enlarged to eight clubs in two groups of four. The two top-teams in each group then moved on to a four-team finals group. All games were played as single round, not home-and-away. This system remained in place until 1931. In 1932 and 1933, eight clubs played in a knockout format once more. It was after this last edition of the Western championship, that the first German title went to the West, when Fortuna Düsseldorf beat FC Schalke 04 3–0. After 30 years of little national success, the clubs from the west, led by Schalke, would dominate the German championship from now on. Aftermath The Western German championship was replaced with four regional Gauligen by the Nazis in 1933, a quarter of the 16 new tier-one football leagues