1996–97 2. Bundesliga

2. Bundesliga

Season	1996–97
Champions	1. FC Kaiserslautern
Promoted	1. FC Kaiserslautern VfL Wolfsburg Hertha BSC
Relegated	SV Waldhof Mannheim VfB Lübeck Rot-Weiss Essen VfB Oldenburg
Matches played	306
Top goalscorer	Angelo Vier (18 goals)
Average attendance	8,952
← 1995–96 1997–98 →

The 1996–97 2. Bundesliga season was the twenty-third season of the 2. Bundesliga, the second tier of the German football league system.

1. FC Kaiserslautern, VfL Wolfsburg and Hertha BSC were promoted to the Bundesliga while SV Waldhof Mannheim, VfB Lübeck, Rot-Weiss Essen and VfB Oldenburg were relegated to the Regionalliga.

Final standings

For the 1996–97 season VfB Oldenburg, Rot-Weiss Essen, FC Gütersloh and Stuttgarter Kickers were newly promoted to the 2. Bundesliga from the Regionalliga while 1. FC Kaiserslautern, Eintracht Frankfurt and KFC Uerdingen 05 had been relegated to the league from the Bundesliga.

Cologne

Essen

Frankfurt

Gütersloh

Hertha BSC

Jena

Kaiserslautern

Leipzig

Lübeck

Mainz

Mannheim

Meppen

Oldenburg

Stuttgart

Uerdingen

Unterhaching

Wolfsburg

Zwickau

Locations of the participating teams of the 1996–97 season

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	1. FC Kaiserslautern (C) (P)	34	19	11	4	74	28	+46	68	Promotion to Bundesliga
2	VfL Wolfsburg (P)	34	14	16	4	52	29	+23	58
3	Hertha BSC (P)	34	17	7	10	57	38	+19	58
4	Mainz 05	34	14	12	8	50	34	+16	54
5	Stuttgarter Kickers	34	14	11	9	38	27	+11	53
6	SpVgg Unterhaching	34	11	16	7	35	29	+6	49
7	Eintracht Frankfurt	34	13	9	12	43	46	−3	48
8	VfB Leipzig	34	12	10	12	53	54	−1	46
9	KFC Uerdingen 05	34	13	5	16	46	44	+2	44
10	SV Meppen	34	10	14	10	44	48	−4	44
11	Fortuna Köln	34	11	9	14	52	47	+5	42
12	Carl Zeiss Jena	34	9	15	10	44	49	−5	42
13	FC Gütersloh	34	12	9	13	43	51	−8	45
14	FSV Zwickau	34	12	6	16	34	48	−14	42
15	Waldhof Mannheim (R)	34	10	10	14	45	56	−11	40	Relegation to Regionalliga
16	VfB Lübeck (R)	34	8	12	14	32	53	−21	36
17	Rot-Weiss Essen (R)	34	8	5	21	47	74	−27	29
18	VfB Oldenburg (R)	34	6	9	19	33	67	−34	27

Source: Bundesliga.de
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored
VfB Lübeck, and VfB Oldenburg were relegated to Regionalliga Nord. Waldhof Mannheim was relegated to Regionalliga Süd. Rot-Weiss Essen was relegeated to Regionalliga Südwest.
(C) = Champion; (R) = Relegated; (P) = Promoted; (E) = Eliminated; (O) = Play-off winner; (A) = Advances to a further round.
Only applicable when the season is not finished:
(Q) = Qualified to the phase of tournament indicated; (TQ) = Qualified to tournament, but not yet to the particular phase indicated; (RQ) = Qualified to the relegation tournament indicated; (DQ) = Disqualified from tournament.

Top scorers

The league's top scorers:

Goals	Player	Team
18	Angelo Vier	Rot-Weiss Essen
17	Steffen Heidrich	VfB Leipzig
15	Axel Kruse	Hertha BSC Berlin
14	Pavel Kuka	1. FC Kaiserslautern
13	Christian Claaßen	SV Meppen
12	Abderrahim Ouakili	1. FSV Mainz 05
	Jürgen Rische	1. FC Kaiserslautern
11	Rainer Krieg	Fortuna Köln
10	Sven Demandt	1. FSV Mainz 05
	Horst Elberfeld	VfB Oldenburg
	Wolfram Klein	Rot-Weiss Essen
	Olaf Marschall	1. FC Kaiserslautern
	Dirk van der Ven	FC Gütersloh
	Mark Zimmermann	FC Carl Zeiss Jena

External links

• 2. Bundesliga 1996/1997 at Weltfussball.de (German)
• 1996–97 2. Bundesliga (German) kicker.de