the Central German championship but national title games were not held. 1920 to 1933 In 1920, a new modus was employed to determine the Central champion. A group stage of six clubs, which played each other once, determined the winner. For the first time, no final game was held. The following season, the group stage was expanded to seven clubs, which was also the case in 1922. In 1923, the championship returned to a knock out system with seven clubs participating. This was drastically expanded to 27 clubs for 1924 because of the fragmented nature of the league system in Central Germany with a large number of local competitions. While subject to changes, the number of tier-one leagues operating in the region at that time stood at 27, compare to five in the larger and more successful region of Southern Germany at the time. This system remained in place until 1928, when only 26 took part. The season after, 1929, 27 clubs entered again. The following years, the number of clubs kept fluctuating around the strength of 25, depending on the number of leagues in the Gaue, the local geographical subdivisions in the region. From 1925, the runners-up, later the Central German cup winner instead, were qualified for the expanded German championship, too. Aftermath The Central German championship was replaced with the Gauliga Mitte and Gauliga Sachsen by the Nazis in 1933, two of 16 new tier-one football leagues in the country. In the era that followed, the clubs from Central Germany saw an improvement in their performance, which can be attributed to the de-fragmentation of league football in the region and the increased playing strength of the two new leagues. A Central German championship was never held again. After the end of the Second World War, Germany remained divided until 1991 and the former top-clubs of this competition, under new names, played in the DDR-Oberliga as part of the East German league system. After the reunion, the clubs from what was East Germany joined the united German football league system and the closest a competition now comes to covering the area of the former Central German championship is the tier-five NOFV-Oberliga Süd. Central German football champions German champions in Bold: 1 Dresdner SC refused to play in Leipzig, VfB Leipzig declared the winner. Further reading Stürmen für Deutschland: Die Geschichte des deutschen Fussballs von 1933, publisher: Campus Verlag References