After the division of Germany in 1949, West Germany was declared Germany's official successor team. East Germany was accepted as a FIFA member only in 1952 and entered the qualification tournament for the first time for 1958, but finished last in their qualification group behind Czechoslovakia and Wales.
They appeared in the finals of the FIFA World Cup on one occasion in 1974. During the tournament they played West Germany, who were hosts in that year, for the first and only time at senior level, winning 1–0. East Germany was reunified with West Germany in 1990 and did not compete again after the 1990 World Cup.
| FIFA World Cup finals record | width=1% rowspan="15" | Qualifications record | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Round | Position | Squad | |||||||||||||||
 1954 | Did not enter | Did not enter | ||||||||||||||||
 1958 | Did not qualify | 3rd | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 12 | ||||||||||
 1962 | 3rd | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 6 | |||||||||||
| 1966 | 2nd | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 5 | |||||||||||
 1970 | 2nd | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 7 | |||||||||||
| 1974 | Second group stage | 6th | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 5 | Squad | 1st | 6 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 18 | 3 | ||
 1978 | Did not qualify | 2nd | 6 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 15 | 4 | ||||||||||
 1982 | 2nd | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 9 | 6 | |||||||||||
| 1986 | 3rd | 8 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 16 | 9 | |||||||||||
 1990 | 4th | 8 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 9 | 13 | |||||||||||
| Total | Second group stage | 1/10 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 5 | — | – | 47 | 22 | 8 | 17 | 87 | 65 | ||
| World Cup | width=110 | Round | width=150 | Opponent | width=60 | Score | width=50 | Result | width=120 | Venue | Scorers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1974 | Group stage | 2–0 | align=center bgcolor="#bbffbb" | W | Hamburg | C. Curran (o.g.), J. Streich | |||||
| 1–1 | align=center bgcolor="#ffffbb" | D | Berlin | M. Hoffmann | |||||||
| 1–0 | align=center bgcolor="#bbffbb" | W | Hamburg | J. Sparwasser | |||||||
| Second round | 0–1 | align=center bgcolor="#ffbbbb" | L | Hanover | |||||||
| 0–2 | align=center bgcolor="#ffbbbb" | L | Gelsenkirchen | ||||||||
| 1–1 | align=center bgcolor="#ffffbb" | D | Gelsenkirchen | J. Streich | |||||||
| FIFA World Cup matches (by team) | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Opponent | Wins | Draws | Losses | Total | Goals Scored | Goals Conceded | |
| 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | ||
| 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | ||
| 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | ||
| 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | ||
| width=165 | Team | width=20 | width=20 | width=20 | width=20 | width=20 | width=20 | width=20 | width=20 | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 1 | +3 | 5 | ||||||||||
| 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 1 | +3 | 4 | ||||||||||
| 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | -1 | 2 | ||||||||||
| 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 5 | -5 | 1 |
--------
| width=165 | Team | width=20 | width=20 | width=20 | width=20 | width=20 | width=20 | width=20 | width=20 | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 0 | +8 | 6 | ||||||||||
| 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 4 | ||||||||||
| 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 | -3 | 1 | ||||||||||
| 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 7 | -5 | 1 |
--------
| Rank | Player | Matches |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bernd Bransch | 6 |
| Jürgen Croy | 6 | |
| Martin Hoffmann | 6 | |
| Gerd Kische | 6 | |
| Jürgen Sparwasser | 6 | |
| Konrad Weise | 6 | |
| 7 | Harald Irmscher | 4 |
| Lothar Kurbjuweit | 4 | |
| Wolfram Löwe | 4 | |
| Joachim Streich | 4 | |
| Siegmar Wätzlich | 4 |
| Rank | Player | Goals |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Joachim Streich | 2 |
| 2 | Martin Hoffmann | 1 |
| Jürgen Sparwasser | 1 |