The 1949 German football championship, the 39th edition of the German football championship, was the culmination of the 1948–49 football season in Germany. VfR Mannheim were crowned champions for the first time after a one-leg knock-out tournament. It was both sides' first appearance in the final.^[1][2]

The tournament was expanded so that ten teams were to take part in the final stage which was played as a one-leg knock-out tournament, with the matches played on neutral ground. The five regional Oberliga winners, along with VfR Mannheim and Wormatia Worms, automatically qualified for the quarter finals, while the remaining three teams played qualifying rounds to clinch the eighth place.

The 1949 championship was the first to see a new trophy for the champions awarded. The pre-Second World War trophy, the Viktoria, had disappeared during the final stages of the war and would not resurface until after the German reunification. The new trophy, the Meisterschale, was not ready for the 1948 season but was finished in time to be awarded to the 1949 champions.^[3][4]

The clubs qualified through the 1948–49 Oberliga season: