The draw in Dortmund

Former Bundesliga referee Deniz Aytekin, who ended his career after the past season, conducted the draw in Dortmund on Saturday evening. He pulled 32 pairings that will kick off the new cup campaign. The draw paired top-flight clubs with opponents from every tier of German football, from five Bundesliga clubs facing lower-league sides to a traditional duel between Waldhof Mannheim and 1. FC Kaiserslautern.

Highlight fixtures

Several Bundesliga clubs drew away trips to amateur sides. Eintracht Frankfurt will travel to fifth-tier SC St. Tönis, Bayer Leverkusen to third-division SV Wehen Wiesbaden and Borussia Mönchengladbach to fifth-division TSV Schott Mainz. RB Leipzig, a Champions League participant, was drawn at Eintracht Trier. Union Berlin faces the toughest possible second-tier opponent – Eintracht Braunschweig, who finished 15th in the 2. Bundesliga last season. Horst Heldt, Union’s managing director of men’s professional football, said:

“With Braunschweig as a second-division club, we of course got a difficult draw. Eintracht only clinched survival late and will certainly prepare in a focused way for the new season, so it won’t be an easy game for us. The positive thing is that it’s not too far a trip for our fans.”

Hertha BSC travel to 1. FC Saarbrücken, a third-division side that famously beat Bayern Munich and reached the semi-finals in 2023/24.

Later start for Supercup participants

Bayern and Dortmund will play their first-round ties on 1 and 2 September, a week after the rest of the field. The two clubs meet in the Franz Beckenbauer Supercup at Signal Iduna Park on 22 August (20:30 CEST, live on Sat.1 and Sky). Bayern won last season’s cup by beating VfB Stuttgart 3–0 in the final on 23 May 2026. Stuttgart will start their campaign at Hansa Rostock.

Debutants and regional clashes

Three clubs make their DFB-Pokal debut: Oberliga Westfalen champions Westfalia Rhynern host Dynamo Dresden, Brandenburg state cup winners VfB 1921 Krieschow welcome FSV Mainz 05, and SC St. Tönis (runners-up in the Niederrhein cup) face Eintracht Frankfurt. Each debutant receives a participation premium of around €200,000. The derby between Waldhof Mannheim and 1. FC Kaiserslautern adds a historic regional edge to the round.

Prize money and progression

All 64 clubs are now one win away from the second round. The final takes place on 29 May 2027 at the Olympiastadion Berlin, where the next cup winner will be crowned. The first-round matches are scheduled for 21–24 August, with the two exceptions noted above.