Early years - Germany

Between 1899 and 1901 there were five unofficial international matches between different German and English selection teams, which all ended as large defeats for the German teams. Eight years after the establishment of the German Football Association (DFB), the first official match of the Germany national football team was played on 5 April 1908, against Switzerland at Basel, with the Swiss winning 5-3. The players were selected by the DFB as there was no coach at that time.

The first coach of the Germany national team was Otto Nerz, a school teacher from Mannheim, from 1923 to 1936. Germany finished third in the 1934 World Cup in their first ever World Cup appearance. Two years later, Sepp Herberger took over as coach.

After Austria was made part of Germany in 1938 in the Anschluss, Austrian players from Rapid Wien were ordered to join the German team on short terms for political reasons. In the 1938 World Cup, the "united" German team was knocked out in the first round, the only time this has happened in a World Cup ever since.