22 September 1950 - Welcome Back, DFB

On 22 September 1950, FIFA reinstated the German football association - the Deutscher Fußball-Bund, or DFB - to full membership.

Originally founded in 1900, the DFB is the governing body of all German football, including the Bundesliga and the German national team. During World War II, the DFB fell out of favor with the Third Reich, who dissolved the organization in 1940. After the war, in November 1945, although the DFB was still defunct, FIFA banned both it and the Japanese football association from international competition.

Following appeals from the FAs of Switzerland and England, FIFA partially lifted the ban in 1948, but only as it applied to German clubs. Two years later, in January 1950, the DFB officially re-formed, though only for the West German territories. At the FIFA congress in June of that year, Switzerland again petitioned FIFA to lift the ban and, on 22 September, FIFA did so. As West Germany, the DFB resumed international competition later that year and went on to win the 1954 World Cup.

When Germany reunited in 1990, the DFB absorbed the former East German football association to become the governing body for all of Germany.