The World Men’s Handball Championship has been organized by the International Handball Federation since 1938.
In 1938, the first indoor World Championship in team handball for men was played in the so-called Deutschlandhalle in Berlin, Germany on February 5, 1938 as well as on February 6, 1938. This very first tournament which was played as a Single-Group-Tournament without a knockout-system took place with only four teams participating in the whole Championship. In the end Germany was celebrated the champion of the World Championship in team handball for men. Strictly speaking Germany succeeded in defeating each of its opponents. One of Germany’s competitors was its neighboring country Austria which would become a part of Germany itself only a month later. The other opponents were Sweden and Denmark.
Fact is that at this point in time, strictly speaking around 1938, indoor handball was popular only in Scandinavia. There had only been held one single official international match before the start of the World Men’s Handball Championship in 1938. In Germany, however, the indoor game was almost unknown, although Germany was determined to be the venue of the World Championship in team handball for men. In spite of all the Deutschlandhalle in Berlin was attended by 18,000 visitors within the two days, February 5, 1938 and February 6, 1938. The majority of them were excited about the fast model of handball.
The first World Men’s Handball Championship can be considered an obscure spectacle with the purpose to provoke pure entertaining for the visitors. Matches between two teams lasted only 20 minutes (10 minutes per half-time). Furthermore the players got recruited from field handball teams which were searching for an opportunity to perform and practice their sport also during winter. So the first field handball World Championship took place in July of the very same year in Berlin as well as other German cities. This first field handball World Championship was also won by Germany who was then celebrated as the Olympic champions in 1938.
Both World Championships in team handball for men, the indoor as well as the field handball World Championship, were administered by the IAHF (International Amateur Handball Federation). The IAHF was the forerunner organization of the IHF which was founded in 1946 at the initiative of Denmark and Sweden by the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and Poland.
Five months after the foundation of the IHF, the first official international tournament was held under its aegis on November 6, 1946 in Gothenburg, Sweden. The match ended with Sweden beating Denmark 9-7. In those days, the classic and original eleven-a-side outdoor game of so-called field handball as well as the up-and-coming sport of seven-a-side handball played indoors, especially in Scandinavia, turned out to be equally popular. Both disciplines got admired by their fans. So in 1955, almost 50,000 visitors watched the final match of the field World Championship in team handball for men between Germany and Switzerland (25-13) in Berlin. However, the indoor final match between Sweden and Czechoslovakia, which took place in East Berlin in 1958 and ended 22-12, was also held in a packed hall in front of 6,500 fans.
