Kreisliga Bayern

The league was formed in a move to improve the organisation of football in Southern Germany in the early 1900s. Within the structure of the Southern German football championship, four regional leagues were gradually established from 1907, these being:

• Ostkreis-Liga, covering Bavaria
• Nordkreis-Liga, covering Hesse
• Südkreis-Liga, covering Württemberg, Baden and Alsace
• Westkreis-Liga, covering the Palatinate, Lorraine and the southern Rhine Province

In 1909, a first Ostkreis-Liga (English: Eastern District League) was established, consisting of only four clubs and playing a home-and-away season, these clubs being:^[1]

• Bayern Munich
• 1. FC Nürnberg
• MTV 1879 München
• SpVgg Fürth

The winner of this competition, Bayern Munich, advanced to the Southern German championship, which in turn was a qualifying competition for the German championship. The Bavarian clubs from the Palatinate never played in the same league as the clubs from the "mainland", instead, they were part of the Westkreis-Liga. Previous to the new Ostkreis-Liga, regional competitions with a finals round were played but this was not truly an all-Bavarian competition as only clubs from the major cities took part.

The following season, 1910–11, a proper league with ten clubs was established, the teams again playing a home-and-away season. Parallel, the other three Southern Kreisligas were organised in a similar fashion with the four regional winners playing for the southern title.^[2] In the following season, the league was expanded to eleven teams but the modus remained the same.^[3]

For the 1912-13 season, the league was reduced to eight teams.^[4] It remained unchanged for its last pre-First World War season in 1913-14.^[5]

The outbreak of war in August 1914 lead to a suspension of all football competitions. Initially it was thought that the war would not last long but when it became evident that this was not so, competitions were restarted with players too young or too old to be drafted to the military. In any case, a 1914-15 championship was not held.^[6] A 1915-16 championship was held on regional level with a Bavarian final rather than a league,^[7] a system in place for 1916-17 ^[8] and 1917-18 as well.^[9]

With the collapse of the German Empire in 1918, no Bavarian championship was played in 1918-19 but football returned to a more organised system in 1919, similar to the one used before the war.

Southern Germany, now without the Alsace region, which had to be returned to France, was sub-divided into ten Kreisligas, these being:

• Kreisliga Hessen
• Kreisliga Nordbayern
• Kreisliga Nordmain
• Kreisliga Odenwald
• Kreisliga Pfalz
• Kreisliga Saar
• Kreisliga Südbayern
• Kreisliga Südmain
• Kreisliga Südwest
• Kreisliga Württemberg

Bavaria was sub-divided into two Kreisligas, north and south, with ten clubs each.^[10] Both league winners advanced to the Southern championship. This system applied for the 1919-20 and 1920-21 season.^[11]

In 1921-22, the two regional divisions were in turn split into two groups of eight, increasing the number of tier-one clubs in Bavaria to 32. The four league winners then played a semi-final and final to determine the Bavarian champion.^[12] This "watering down" of Bavarian football lasted for only one season, in 1922-23, the number of top clubs was halved and the league returned to a northern and southern division, now with eight clubs each. The two league winners played a Bavarian final once more.^[13]

In 1923, a league reform which was decided upon in Darmstadt, Hesse, established the Southern German Bezirksligas which were to replace the Kreisligas.^[14] The best four teams each from the north and south of Bavaria were admitted to the new Bezirksliga Bayern.

Qualified teams and their success:

• 1910:
  • Bayern Munich, Runners-up
• 1911:
  • Bayern Munich, Runners-up
• 1912:
  • SpVgg Fürth, 3rd place
• 1913:
  • SpVgg Fürth, 4th place
• 1914:
  • SpVgg Fürth, Southern German champions
• 1916:
  • 1. FC Nürnberg, Southern German champions
• 1917:
  • SpVgg Fürth, Runners-up
• 1918:
  • 1. FC Nürnberg, Southern German champions
• 1920:
  • 1. FC Nürnberg, Southern German champions
• 1921:
  • 1. FC Nürnberg, Southern German champions
• 1922:
  • Wacker München, Southern German champions
• 1923:
  • SpVgg Fürth, Southern German champions

• 1914:
  • SpVgg Fürth, German champions
• 1920:
  • 1. FC Nürnberg, German champions
• 1921:
  • 1. FC Nürnberg, German champions
• 1922:
  • Wacker München, Semi-finals
  • 1. FC Nürnberg, Runners-up
• 1923:
  • SpVgg Fürth, Semi-finals

• Bold denotes Bavarian champion (when determined).

• Fussball-Jahrbuch Deutschland (in German) (8 vol.), Tables and results of the German tier-one leagues 1919-33, publisher: DSFS
• Kicker Almanach, (in German) The yearbook on German football from Bundesliga to Oberliga, since 1937, published by the Kicker Sports Magazine
• Süddeutschlands Fussballgeschichte in Tabellenform 1897-1988 (in German) History of Southern German football in tables, publisher & author: Ludolf Hyll

• The Gauligas (in German) Das Deutsche Fussball Archiv
• German league tables 1892-1933 (in German) Hirschi's Fussball seiten
• Germany - Championships 1902-1945 at RSSSF.com