West Germany, second level. 20 teams in Bundesliga 2, four relegated to the regional leagues, three promoted up, but only the top two directly. Third placed moved to promotion/relegation play-off against the 18th in the Bundesliga.
Quite expected, newcomer TUS 07/10 Schloss Neuhaus finished last with 22 points.
FSV Frankfurt was 19th with 26 points.
SpVgg Furth – 18th with 31 points.
Unlucky FC Augsburg – 17th with 32 points, but going down on worse goal-difference. The last of the relegated.
Lucky Union Solingen – escaping relegation on better goal-difference and 16th with 32 points.
Wattenscheid 09 – 15th with 33 points.
Rot-Weiss Essen – steadily sinking lower and lower, left only with nostalgia. 14th with 33 points and ahead of Wattenscheid 09 on goal-difference.
BV 08 Luttringhausen – 13th with 34 points. The season was most likely judged successful – they managed to escape relegation and at least one more season in the second professional division secured.
Hannover 96 – nothing to brag about: instead of fighting for promotion, they had dangerous season, close to relegation. 12th with 36 points.
Following the path of Rot-Weiss Essen… one of the original Bundesliga members was now down in the middle of second division. 11th with 37 points.
VfL Osnabruck – 10th with 38 points. Not bad for unassuming club.
Alemannia Aachen – 9th with 39 points. Nothing new, they pretty much established themselves as solid second-division mid-table team. Third row from left: Montanes, Balke, Frenken, Mödrath, Buschlinger, Elser
Middle row: Ahmann, Buhtz, Vanhouttem, Rombach, Dörmann, Grabotin, Grünther, Dickert, Palm, Münzenberg
Front row: Bertrams, Wolf, W. Thomas, Dramsch, Koitka, Olck, Jansen
SC Freiburg – 8th with 42 points. Nobody imagined this club playing top league back then. And nobody called Joachim Low a genius…
Darmstadt 98 – 7th with 42 points.
Fortuna Koln – 6th with 43 points. Like Alemannia, Fortuna seemingly established itself as a solid second division club. But this season was one of their best ever.
Stuttgarter Kickers – 5th with 44 points. Another one of the ilk of Fortuna Koln and Alemannia Aachen and yet another evidence that no West German city was able to sustain two strong clubs: at best, the second club would be solid second-division member. Klinsmann was still learning his trade, still unknown.
Hessen Kassel – 4th with 45 points. By now Hessen had permanent low status, so the season would be seen as great. Yet, it was not a club to seriously try promotion.
Bayer Uerdingen – expected to be among the best team, possible candidate for promotion and expectations were generally fulfilled – 3rd with 48 points. Not directly promoted, but keeping high hopes, for there was still a chance. If they won the promotion/relegation play-off.
Kickers Offenbach – 2nd with 50 points. Not particularly great squad, but considering the relative weakness of the current second division, among the best formations. The South Korean Park was more or less exotica, but a helpful one. Looked like Kickers was coming back from its decline after 1975.
SV 07 Waldhof Mainheim won the championship with 52 points – 22 wins, 8 ties, 8 losses, 83-38 goal-difference. For a club like that, second division champions was a big victory, a title to be proud of. Moving up to the top league was wonderful, but… this squad was rather weak. That was the trouble with the other promoted clubs and something to worry about in general: the newly promoted did not appear able to challenge the establishment. Apart from local pride, there was no possible big contribution to the national football. And it was going on for quite some time…
Finally – the promotion/relegation play-off: Bayer Uerdingen met with the 18th in the Bundesliga, Schalke 04. Bayer won the home leg 3-1 and tied the away match 1-1. Another big name bit the dust… but there was great joy at Uerdingen. And possibly in the head-quarters of medical giant Bayer – now there to be two Aspirins in the Bundesliga, two bitter pills for others to swallow.