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60 free Bundesliga trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
The Bundesliga was created in Dortmund in 1962 and kicked off in August 1963, later than the other big European leagues but with its own character: standing terraces, cheap tickets, the highest crowds in football and a rule that keeps clubs in the hands of their members. This quiz covers the league's whole history, from 1. FC Köln's first title and Bayern's exclusion from the founding sixteen, through Tasmania Berlin's dreadful season, the 1971 bribery scandal, Kaiserslautern's title as a promoted club and Bayern's eleven in a row, to Bayer Leverkusen's unbeaten championship under Xabi Alonso. There are questions on the Meisterschale and its 'salad bowl' nickname, the Torjägerkanone, the 50+1 rule and its exceptions, the Revierderby and Der Klassiker, and the record holders: Gerd Müller's 365 goals, Robert Lewandowski's 41 in a season and five in nine minutes, Charly Körbel's 602 appearances, Thomas Müller's 178 assists, Manuel Neuer's clean sheets and Udo Lattek's eight titles as a coach. If you want the continental picture, our Champions League quiz picks up where this one leaves off. About a third of the questions are easy for anyone who follows German football, a third are medium and the rest are for people who know which goalkeeper scored 26 penalties. Every answer is checked against the league's reference and record pages, and each question carries its source.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01How many clubs play in the Bundesliga each season?
18
That makes 34 matchdays; the league briefly had 20 clubs in 1991-92 to absorb the East German teams.
Q 02Which newly elected DFB president presided over the Bundesliga's creation in July 1962?
Hermann Gösmann
He had been elected that very day; play began in 1963-64.
Q 03Which 1962 World Cup result helped spur the creation of a national league in West Germany?
A 1-0 quarter-final loss to Yugoslavia
National coach Sepp Herberger had long argued Germany needed to catch up with the centralised leagues of Italy, Spain and England.
Q 04How many clubs were selected for the first Bundesliga season in 1963-64?
16
Forty-six applied; the sixteen were picked on results, finances and regional representation from five Oberligen.
Q 05Who were the first Bundesliga champions in 1963-64?
1. FC Köln
Meidericher SV, now MSV Duisburg, and Eintracht Frankfurt were joint runners-up.
Q 06Bayern missed the founding sixteen in 1963 partly because which local rival had just won the Oberliga Süd?
1860 Munich
Bayern, national champions in 1932, only came up in 1965 and had hired and fired 13 coaches since the war.
Q 07How many Bundesliga titles had Bayern Munich won by the end of 2025-26?
34
That is more than all their rivals combined and includes eleven in a row from 2013 to 2023.
Q 08How many consecutive titles did Bayern win between 2012-13 and 2022-23?
11
Bayer Leverkusen finally broke the run in 2023-24.
Q 09The Bundesliga trophy is officially the Meisterschale. What is its colloquial nickname?
Salad bowl
The 'hubcap' is the second-division shield; the Meisterschale replaced the Viktoria, which vanished at the end of the war and resurfaced after reunification.
Q 10After its 2026 expansion, the Meisterschale has room for names until which year?
2056
It was enlarged in 1981, 2009 and 2026, and carries every German champion since 1903.
Q 11The '50+1 rule' requires Bundesliga clubs to be majority-owned by whom?
The club's own members
It is designed to keep control away from single outside investors and is one reason German clubs carry so little debt.
Q 12Which two clubs are exempt from 50+1 because they were founded by corporations as works teams?
Bayer Leverkusen and VfL Wolfsburg
Bayer AG and Volkswagen founded them; Hoffenheim is a third exception thanks to SAP co-founder Dietmar Hopp's long support.
Q 13Which was the last founding club to be relegated for the first time, in May 2018?
Hamburger SV
Q 21VfL Wolfsburg's only Bundesliga title, in 2008-09, came under which coach?
Felix Magath
Magath is the only man to win the title with three clubs as player and coach combined: Hamburg, Bayern and Wolfsburg.
Q 22Who scored a record 365 Bundesliga goals, all for Bayern Munich?
Gerd Müller
'Der Bomber' also won the top-scorer award seven times, a record later equalled by Robert Lewandowski.
Q 23Robert Lewandowski's 41 goals in 2020-21 broke a single-season record that had stood since which season?
1971-72
Gerd Müller's 40 in 1971-72 had lasted 49 years; both records were set for Bayern.
Nicknamed 'the Dinosaur', they had run a stadium clock counting their unbroken top-flight years.
Q 14Which club had the worst-ever Bundesliga season in 1965-66, with two wins and ten points from 34 games?
Tasmania Berlin
They also lost 9-0 at home to Duisburg and went 31 games without a win, still the record.
Q 15Which club's president exposed the 1971 Bundesliga bribery scandal by playing a tape at his 50th birthday party?
Kickers Offenbach
Horst-Gregorio Canellas's tape led to bans for 52 players; Schalke's players swore false oaths and were nicknamed 'FC Perjury' by rivals.
Q 16Which club won the 1977-78 Bundesliga on goal difference after finishing level with Mönchengladbach on 48 points?
1. FC Köln
Gladbach won 12-0 against Dortmund on the final day, still the biggest home win in league history, but fell three goals short.
Q 17Which two former East German clubs were placed straight into the Bundesliga after reunification in 1991?
Dynamo Dresden and Hansa Rostock
The league expanded to 20 clubs for one season to fit them in.
Q 18Which club is the only one to win the Bundesliga in the season immediately after promotion, in 1997-98?
1. FC Kaiserslautern
Otto Rehhagel was the coach; Nürnberg managed the opposite trick, going down the season after winning the 1968 title.
Q 19Bayer Leverkusen's four second-place finishes and 2002 'treble horror' earned them what nickname?
Neverkusen
In 2002 they lost the league, the cup final and the Champions League final within weeks.
Q 20Who coached Bayer Leverkusen to their first title in 2023-24, the first unbeaten Bundesliga season?
Xabi Alonso
It was his first senior job; the 51-game unbeaten run ended only in the Europa League final against Atalanta.
Q 24How long did Lewandowski need to score five goals as a substitute against Wolfsburg in September 2015?
8 minutes 59 seconds
Bayern were 1-0 down when he came on; the burst ended Wolfsburg's 14-match unbeaten run.
Q 25Who scored 36 goals in 2023-24, the most ever in a debut Bundesliga season?
Harry Kane
It won him the Torjägerkanone but Bayern still finished behind Leverkusen.
Q 26Who holds the record for Bundesliga appearances, 602, all for Eintracht Frankfurt?
Charly Körbel
He played 93 per cent of Frankfurt's possible games between 1972 and 1991 and now runs the club's academy.
Q 27Which coach has taken charge of the most Bundesliga matches, 836?
Otto Rehhagel
Nearly 500 of them were with Werder Bremen; Heynckes has the most as player and coach combined, 1,038.
Q 28Which coach has won the most Bundesliga titles, eight?
Udo Lattek
He won them with Bayern Munich and Borussia Mönchengladbach.
Q 29Which two Bayern players share the record of 13 Bundesliga titles?
Thomas Müller and Manuel Neuer
Müller also holds the assists record with 178; Neuer has the most clean sheets, 245.
Q 30Which goalkeeper scored 26 Bundesliga goals, all from penalties?
Hans-Jörg Butt
Lehmann and Rost are among the few keepers to score from open play, both with late headers.