This is a record of Germany and West Germany's results at the FIFA World Cup. The FIFA World Cup, sometimes called the Football World Cup, but usually referred to simply as the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the men's national teams of the members of FIFA, the sport's global governing body.
The tournament consists of two parts, the qualification phase and the final phase (officially called the World Cup Finals). The qualification phase, which currently takes place over the three years going to the Finals, is used to determine which teams qualify for the Finals. The current format of the Finals involves 32 teams competing for the title, at venues within the host nation (or nations) over a period of about a month. The World Cup Finals is the most widely viewed sporting event in the world, with an estimated 715.1 million people watching the 2006 tournament final, when Germany were the host. [1]
For Germany's World Cup history, FIFA considers only the teams managed by the Deutscher Fußball-Bund, comprising three periods: Germany (during Nazi era), West Germany and reunified Germany. The Germany national football team is one of the most successful national teams at the FIFA World Cup, winning four titles, earning second-place and third-place finishes four times each and one fourth-place finish. If you consider 3rd place or better for a winning campaign, Germany's 12 victories in 19 tournaments add up to at least three more than any other nation. In addition, Germany are the only team which has stood on the podium (3rd place or better) every decade there was a tournament held—1930s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s and 2010s. Along with Argentina, Brazil and Spain, they are one of the four national teams to win outside their continental confederation, with the title of the 2014 FIFA World Cup in South America. The team was present in 19 out of the 21 tournaments, the second most frequent, and only did not reach the quarterfinals twice, in 1938 and 2018. With this, Germany's 8th place or better (quarterfinals) in 17 out of 19 tournaments (89%) ranks highest in FIFA World Cup Finals history. It makes Germany the better team in the history of the tournament in terms of final positions, if points were awarded proportionally for a title, runner-up finish, third-place finish, semi-final and quarter-final appearances.
Only 14 days before the final, Germany played the favoured Hungarian Golden Team in the first round of the tournament and suffered a 3-8 loss, their highest World Cup defeat to this day. In the final, Hungary was up by two goals after only eight minutes, so it came as a surprise that the German team not only quickly equalized but turned the game around in the 84th minute with a goal scored by Helmut Rahn.
The strongly contested game between Germany and host nation England went into extra time after a score of 2-2 after 90 minutes. Geoff Hurst's goal in the 101st minute is one of the most controversial in football history: His shot bounced off the cross-bar onto the ground and back away from the goal. After a brief discussion with the Soviet linesman Tofiq Bahramov, referee Gottfried Dienst awarded the goal. With the Germans forced to press for the equalizer, Hurst converted a counterattack in the 120th minute and decided the match for England.
Germany reached the final as host nation in 1974 and were facing their neighbours and rivals from the Netherlands. After an early penalty scored by Johan Neeskens, Germany turned the game around to win their second World Cup trophy.
Paul Breitner became only the third player in World Cup history to have scored in two separate finals, but only after the Italians had already taken a 3-0 lead after 81 minutes.
With the highest attendance ever at a FIFA World Cup final, West Germany faced Argentina in Mexico City. Although the South Americans' star player Diego Maradona was closely guarded by the German team, he assisted the decisive 3-2 scored by Jorge Burruchaga, ensuring his country's second World Cup win. Late during the match, three yellow cards were given to Argentinians for time wasting.
For this re-match of the 1986 Final, Argentina played extremely defensively. Defender Pedro Monzón became the first player ever to receive a red card in a World Cup final, only to be joined by teammate Gustavo Dezotti 22 minutes later. Although West Germany was the dominating side with 23:1 shots, it is fitting that the rough match was decided by a penalty kick taken by Andreas Brehme.
Franz Beckenbauer achieved the feat to lose and then win a World Cup final each as player (1966, 1974) and manager (1986, 1990).
With only one goal against during the six matches leading up to the final, hopes were on the German defence to withstand Brazil's star quality strikers. Germany's playmaker Michael Ballack was suspended for the final after picking his second yellow card of the tournament in the semi-final against South Korea. Two goals from Ronaldo in the middle of the second half decided the match in favour of the South Americans and ensured their record fifth title.
Despite defeating host country Brazil 7–1, Germany was supported by the home fans due to Brazil's rivalry with Argentina . This record third match-up of two teams in World Cup finals saw good chances for both sides in regular time, but stayed goalless until substitute striker Mario Götze scored during the second half of extra time, in the 113th minute. The fourth title was the first since Germany's reunification in October 1990.
Lothar Matthäus is the FIFA World Cup's all-time record player. In addition, along with Antonio Carbajal and Rafael Márquez from Mexico, he is one of the few players to have been fielded in five FIFA World Cups.
Miroslav Klose, who is only one match behind, also holds the record for most victories at FIFA World Cups (17).
Since 2014, Miroslav Klose is the all-time top goalscorer at FIFA World Cup final tournaments. Gerd Müller used to be the holder of that record from 1974 until it was broken by Ronaldo in 2006.
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1930
1934
1938
1950
1954
1958
1962
1966
1970
1974
1978
1982
1990
1994
1998
2002
2010
2014
2018
2022
2026
Germany 5–2 Belgium 
Hungary 8-3 West Germany 
2' (pen.)
Czechoslovakia
Austria
Turkey
Yugoslavia
Northern Ireland
Spain
Soviet Union
Bulgaria
Peru
Australia
East Germany
Poland
Tunisia
Algeria
Scotland
Denmark
United Arab Emirates
Colombia
Bolivia
South Korea
FR Yugoslavia
Iran
Croatia
Republic of Ireland
Cameroon
Paraguay
Costa Rica
Poland
Ecuador
Italy
Serbia
Ghana
South Korea