West Germany The West German team's greatest success came in 1976 at the
Winter Olympics, when the team went 2–3–0 and won the bronze medal. The Swedish and Canadian teams, traditionally two hockey powerhouses, had boycotted the 1976 Games in protest of the amateur rules that allowed
Eastern Bloc countries to send their best players while keeping Western nations from doing the same. West Germany's wins in the 1976 Games came against the United States (4–1) and
Poland (7–4). In 1980, the team did not do as well and only won one game in the preliminary round, which kept them from advancing. They finished 10th out of 12. In 1984, the team was invited to the
Canada Cup. By 1991, the
reunification of East and West Germany meant the inclusion of players from the former
East Germany.
Post-unification The team is considered to be nearly as elite as
Canada, the
Czech Republic,
Finland,
Russia,
Sweden and the
United States; they are ranked 9th in the world (2022) by the
IIHF. Since
re-unification, their best recent results include finishing in 6th place at the 2003 World Championships where they lost a close quarter-final match in overtime to Canada, and 4th at the 2010 World Championships where they lost to Sweden in the bronze medal game. Previously, they finished third in the European Group and qualified for the quarter-finals at the
1996 World Cup after a surprising 7–1 victory against the Czech Republic. In the
1992 Olympics, they lost to Canada 4–3 in an overtime shoot-out in the quarter-finals. Germany has never won an international competition, and their most recent medal was
silver in the
2018 Olympic Winter Games, when they lost to the
Olympic Athletes From Russia 4–3 in overtime. It was the first time that Germany had reached the gold medal game at the Winter Olympics. This was their best result, tied with a silver medal at the
1930 World Championships. There are 25,934 registered players in Germany (0.03% of its population). Team Germany finished in 4th place at the
2010 IIHF World Championship, their best placement since 1953. File:1993 IIHF World Championship FIN-GER.jpg|
Finland and Germany in the
1993 World Championships File:Deutsche-nationalmannschaft-wm-2005-20050509007.jpg|The German national team at the
2005 World Championship ==Competition results==