Football
3. Liga history
How the competition came to look the way it does.
Twenty clubs, the professional floor
The division was formed to create a single national third tier between the professional leagues and the regional game.
Its finances are the tightest of the professional divisions, and club insolvencies have shaped several title and relegation races.
Promotion from here changes a club's economics more than any other step in German football.
Season-by-season champions, records and historical tables need a licensed historical data source. Until we have one, this page carries written history only.