1938 World Men's Handball Championship

Tournament details
Host country	Germany
Venue(s)	1 (in 1 host city)
Dates	5–6 February
Teams	4
Final positions
Champions	Germany (1st title)
Runner-up	Austria
Third place	Sweden
Fourth place	Denmark
Tournament statistics
Matches played	6
Goals scored	53 (8.83 per match)
Attendance	56,000 (9,333 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Hans-Werner Obermark Hans Theilig Yngve Lamberg (6 goals each)
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The 1938 World Men's Handball Championship was the first ever handball World Championship. It was played in Germany on 5 and 6 February 1938. Contested by just 4 national teams, the tournament was won by hosts Germany.

Only two years before at the fourth IAHF congress the first international rules for indoor handball were created. The only game between indoor handball national teams had been played between the Danish and Swedish teams in Copenhagen on 8 March 1935. Sweden had won 18 to 12. In Germany and Austria indoor handball was not regularly played and they had no international appearance yet. An unofficial German national team like team played at tournament in Copenhagen on 28 August 1934.

All games were played in the Deutschlandhalle in Berlin. The court had the dimensions 50 × 25 meter (today 40 × 20 meter) and the games were 2 × 15 minutes (today (2× 30 minutes).

Berlin	Berlin
Deutschlandhalle
Capacity: 8,764

One referee from Denmark and two from Germany were refereeing the games.

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
	Germany (H, C)	3	3	0	0	23	9	+14	6		—	5–4	7–2	11–3
	Austria	3	2	0	1	16	11	+5	4		—	—	5–4	7–2
	Sweden	3	1	0	2	8	13	−5	2		—	—	—	2–1
4	Denmark	3	0	0	3	6	20	−14	0		—	—	—	—

5 February 1938 21:05	Germany	11–3	Denmark	Deutschlandhalle, Berlin Attendance: 8 000
	Theilig 4 Obermark 3 Mahnkopf 2 Ortmann & Schauer 1	(4–3)	S. Madsen, W. Madsen & Nielsen 1
		Report Denmark

5 February 1938 21:50	Sweden	4–5	Austria	Deutschlandhalle, Berlin Attendance: 8 000 Referees: Carl F.H. Sörensen (DNK)
	Lamberg 3 Åblad 1	(2–2)	Perwein 2 Cerny, Tauscher & Volak 1
		Report Sweden

6 February 1938 20:15	Denmark	1–2	Sweden	Deutschlandhalle, Berlin Attendance: 10 000 Referees: Hans Schwinietsky (GER)
	W. Madsen 1	(1–1)	Lamberg 2
		Report Denmark Report Sweden

6 February 1938 20:45	Germany	5–4	Austria	Deutschlandhalle, Berlin Attendance: 10 000
	Obermark 2 Ortmann, Mahnkopf & Theilig 1	(4–2)	Houschka, Perwein, Schmalzer & Tauscher 1

6 February 1938 22:20	Denmark	2–7	Austria	Deutschlandhalle, Berlin Attendance: 10 000
	Jørner & Piasecki 1	(0–3)	Tauscher 3 Volak 2 Houschka & Perwein 1
		Report Denmark

6 February 1938 22:45	Germany	7–2	Sweden	Deutschlandhalle, Berlin Attendance: 10 000 Referees: Carl F.H. Sörensen (DNK)
	Ortmann 2 Hömke, Obermark, Schauer, Theilig & Zimmermann 1	(3–1)	Åblad & Lamberg 1
		Report Sweden

Rank	Name	Nation	Goals
1	Yngve Lamberg	Sweden	6
	Hans-Werner Obermark	Germany
	Hans Theilig
4	Rudolf Tauscher	Austria	5
5	Günther Ortmann	Germany	4
	Jaroslav Volak	Austria
7	Kurt Mahnkopf	Germany	3
	Anton Perwein	Austria
9	Sven Åblad	Sweden	2
	Hans Houschka	Austria
	Walter Madsen	Denmark
	Gerd Schauer	Germany
13	8 players		1

Gold	Silver	Bronze
Germany	Austria	Sweden
Karl Herbolzheimer Herbert Scmidt Gerard Brüntgens Walter Homke Hans Keiter Kurt Lubenow Kurt Mahnkopf Hans Obermark Günther Ortmann Gerd Schauer Will Steininger Hans Theilig Adolar Woczinski Philipp Zimmermann	Franz Axmann Otto Cerny Hans Houschka Zdenko Kucera Robert Leu Otto Licha Ferdinand Mantler Anton Perwein Alfred Schmalzer Alois Schnabel Rudolf Tauscher Jaroslav Volak Leopold Woh	Sven Åblad Torsten Andersson Erik Floberg Åke Forslund Stig Hjortsberg Sture Hultberg Åke Kallerdahl Yngve Lamberg Roland Nilsson Allan Rollander Sigfrid Schönning Tage Sjöberg Gustaf Adolf Thoren

Besides the World Men's Handball Championship there was also a city tournament played. Berlin won the city tournament.

5 February 1938 20:15	Frankfurt	5–6	Munich	Deutschlandhalle, Berlin Attendance: 8 000

5 February 1938 20:40	Berlin	11–7	Königsberg	Deutschlandhalle, Berlin Attendance: 8 000

5 February 1938 22:20	Munich	v	Königsberg	Deutschlandhalle, Berlin Attendance: 8 000

5 February 1938 22:45	Berlin	v	Munich	Deutschlandhalle, Berlin Attendance: 8 000

6 February 1938 21:15	Munich	v	Königsberg	Deutschlandhalle, Berlin Attendance: 10 000

6 February 1938 21:55	Berlin	v	Frankfurt	Deutschlandhalle, Berlin Attendance: 10 000

• International Handball Federation Archived 2010-11-26 at the Wayback Machine
• Games of Sweden
• Games of Germany (Helmut Laaß and Stephan Müller)
• "Wer wird Weltmeister?" [Who becomes World Champion?]. (Wiener) Sporttagblatt (in German). 72 (35/36): 5. 5 February 1938.
• "Die Weltmeisterschaft im Hallen-Handball" [The World Championship in Indoor-Handball]. (Wiener) Sporttagblatt (in German). 72 (37): 4. 7 February 1938.
• "Die erste Weltmeisterschaft im Hallen-Handball" [The first World Championship in Indoor-Handball]. (Wiener) Sporttagblatt (in German). 72 (38): 4. 8 February 1938.
• "Oesterreichs zweiter Platz" [Austrians second place]. (Wiener) Sporttagblatt (in German). 72 (39): 4. 9 February 1938.
• "Weltmeisterschaft im Hallenhandball" [World Championship in Indoor-Handball]. (Wiener) Sporttagblatt (in German). 72 (40): 3–4. 10 February 1938.
• "Titelkämpfe in der Halle...". Geschichten des internationalen Handballs (in German). Bern: International Handball Federation. 1960. pp. 27–28.