The league was established in 1974 to reduce the number of second divisions in Germany from five to two and thereby allow direct promotion to the league winners. Along with the foundation of the 2. Bundesliga Nord, formed from clubs of the three former Regionalligas of
Nord,
Berlin and
West, went the foundation of the
2. Bundesliga Süd, which was created from clubs of the other two Regionalligas,
Süd and
Südwest. The league was created from twelve clubs from the West, seven from the North and one from Berlin, reflecting the playing strength of the old Regionalligas. The winner of the 2. Bundesliga Nord was directly promoted to the
Bundesliga, the runners-up played a home-and-away series versus the southern runners-up for the third promotion spot. The bottom four teams were relegated to the Amateurligas, after 1978 to the new
Oberligas. In 1979 only three teams were relegated. The winners of the Amateurligas/Oberligas had to determine the promoted teams by the way of a
promotion play-off. The league operated with 20 teams in its first six seasons, expanding to 22 in its last in 1981. Until 1978, below the 2. Bundesliga Nord ranked the following Verbandsligas and Oberligas: •
Oberliga Nord •
Oberliga Berlin •
Verbandsliga Mittelrhein •
Verbandsliga Niederrhein •
Verbandsliga Westfalen 1 •
Verbandsliga Westfalen 2 In 1978 these leagues were reduced to four: •
Oberliga Nord •
Oberliga Berlin •
Oberliga Nordrhein •
Oberliga Westfalen In 1981, the two 2. Bundesligas merged into one, country-wide division. Nine clubs from the south and eight from the north plus the three relegated teams from the Bundesliga were admitted into the new league, the
2. Bundesliga.
SG Wattenscheid 09,
VfL Osnabrück,
Alemannia Aachen,
SC Fortuna Köln and
SC Preußen Münster all played every single one of the seven seasons of the league. == Disbanding of the 2. Bundesliga Nord ==