Germany play host to the IHF Women’s World Championship for the fourth time after the country welcomed the global competition in 1965, 1997 and 2017, with the 2025 edition the first time the country will be co-hosting the event.

After the reunification of East and West Germany in the early 1990s, Germany took gold in their first World Championship (1993) as a unified nation, going on to win bronze twice, in 1997 and 2007, but since then, the medal cupboard had been empty, at continental, world and Olympic level.

In fact, for a country known around the world as one of the major players in handball, the German women’s team have only ever won one European medal (silver in 1994), plus those two bronze and one gold medals at World Championship level (not including those won by West and East Germany pre-unification).

However, signs are there for coach Markus Gaugisch that progress is happening. A first Olympic Games appearance since 2008 was secured with Paris 2024 last summer, while the world championship ranking has slowly increased in the past decade – a 13th-placed finish in 2015, gradually moving up to 8th (2019), 7th (2021) and 6th last time out (2023) – their best ranking in two decades.

And this top eight ranking is further cemented with three, consecutive seventh-placed finishes at the European Championship (2020, 2022, 2024).

“We have taken a step forward over the past six months. Now, with the world championship in sight, it is our aim is to build on that progress once again,” explained the German Handball Federation Chief Sports Officer Ingo Meckes.

“Our goal is clear: first, to perform successfully in the matches in Stuttgart; then to play a strong main round in Dortmund – and finally, with the full support of our fans, to deliver an incredible quarter-final. Strong results at the world championship are important to show how exciting and tactically fascinating women’s handball can be.”

Despite the recent competition rankings you should never underestimate the power of a home crowd with left wing Antje Doll, plus Xenia Smits – who is three games short of her 150th national team appearance – and Emily Vogel (nee Bolk) all motivated to put behind them the disappointment of their experience on home soil last time, in 2017, when their team finished a lowly 12th, their third lowest-ranking of all time.

“Our hopes are high,” said Doll to ihf.info about the upcoming global spectacular. “Playing a World or European championship on home ground is something you never forget and we want to get into a flow, boosted by our fans in the stands.”

As co-hosts, Germany have few opportunities for competitive games in the lead up to Germany/Netherlands 2025, playing friendly matches against top sides France, Denmark and Netherlands throughout the year, with 2026 European Championship qualification matches to come in October, at home against North Macedonia and away to Belgium.

Most recently, they faced the Dutch in a double-header in September losing the first match 35:31, but winning the second 27:22.

“We played quite well in the six test matches against France, Denmark and the Netherlands, but still we need to have more consistency, mainly in attack,” added Doll, who is a police officer. “I really hope that our fans carry us on their wings in Stuttgart and Dortmund – and then we will see how far they will bring us.”

The co-hosts will play their two European Championship qualification games as part of an October training camp, with further friendlies lined up – against Switzerland – in November, before moving into the world championship. Preparations have been taking place in Krefeld with sessions focused on using a variant of four backcourt players in addition to the usual 6-on-6 with a line player.

Germany throw-off the home part of their Germany/Netherlands 2025 campaign in Stuttgart against Iceland followed by Uruguay and ending with Serbia.

Their head-to-head record against all three sides is positive. They have played 14 times against Iceland, resulting in 13 draws and just one defeat – coming in the Brazil 2011 preliminary group stage in Santos, which saw Iceland take a 26:20 victory.

Most recently, the two teams met at the 2024 European Championship in Austria, the Germans clearly winning 30:19 in their preliminary group clash.

Their clash against Uruguay will be the first meeting between the two teams, with Uruguay featuring one player (Catalina Tournier) who plays for club side Alemán (German School) in Uruguay – the team name referencing the roots of the sport in the country.

And Serbia are well-known in German women’s handball, especially at world championship level. In total, the two sides have met eight times, the Germans winning five, drawing two and losing one.

Most recently, Denmark/Norway/Sweden 2023 saw Germany ease to a main round 31:21 win, while Japan 2019 featured that sole defeat, a tight 29:28 main round loss in Kumamoto. The two also met at Germany 2017 and were unable to be separated, playing out a 22:22 draw in their preliminary round meeting in Leipzig.

“Though we have a quite young squad, we are well-rehearsed, as we have almost been playing with the same players for the past 18 months,” said Gaugisch, who cannot call upon goalkeeper Dinah Eckerle or line player Julia Behnke who have both retired since the last edition of the IHF Women's World Championship.

“We showed some highlights like winning at Denmark and at home against the Netherlands, but definitely, we still have some work ahead – and we still need to improve. Our first goal is proceeding from the preliminaries with a clean record, then we hope on the ‘magic of Westfalenhalle Dortmund’ to qualify for the quarter-finals.

“It is our dream to continue in Rotterdam for the final weekend, but to make it there, we have to beat opponents ahead of us in the rankings.”

Gaugisch’s young squad could include a number of world championship debutants, with Nicole Roth, Alexia Hauf, Nina Engel, Nieke Kühne, Aimée von Pereira, Marie Steffen and Jolina Huhnstock all named in his list for the European qualifiers and the next generation waiting in the wings behind them – the junior women’s team won the 2025 U19 European Championship in Montenegro in June.

And one name which will be on everyone’s lips is Viola Leuchter, who was named as the first-ever winner of the ‘Best Young Player Powered by Lidl’ award at the 2023 IHF Women’s World Championship.
 
The then 19-year-old right back scored 25 goals before sustaining a knee injury in the 5/6 placement match against the Netherlands, later receiving her award at the 2024 European Championship in Cologne.

This had come after making the Paris 2024 Olympic Games squad and playing in all six games, scoring eight times, as Germany lost to the hosts in the quarter-finals. After scoring 66 times for German champions HB Ludwigsburg in the EHF Champions League Women last season, she has since moved to Danish champions Odense Handbold.

“Many things happened within a little time,” said Leuchter to ihf.info in October. It’s been two years now since the world championship, where maybe it was the time where things started to get rolling. After that, I changed to Ludwigsburg and, sometimes, I am still pinching myself, what happened in so little time; good things and bad things.

“It's always hard to say on which place we're going to end up,” added the 21-year-old about her expectations for the upcoming home tournament. We're looking so much forward to it and I see a very, very good development during the last months and years for our team.

“I'm very, very positive that if we manage to play our level and to play our game what we are capable of, it's going to be a very good outcome for our team. Seeing sold out arenas in Stuttgart and Dortmund clearly makes us very happy. Every handball player knows that it's just amazing to play with fans in the back.”

Key players: Katharina Filter (goalkeeper), Xenia Smits (left back), Alina Grijseels (centre back), Emily Vogel (left back), Viola Leuchter (right back)

Coach: Markus Gaugisch

Qualification for Germany/Netherlands 2025: Co-hosts

History in tournament: 1957: 4th**, 1962: 8th**, 1965: 3rd**, 1971: 5th**/1st*, 1973: 11th**/9th*, 1975: 1st*, 1978: 8th**/1st*, 1982: 9th**/4th*, 1986: 7th**/4th*, 1990: 4th**/3rd*, 1993: 1st, 1995: 5th, 1997: 3rd, 1999: 7th, 2003: 12th, 2005: 6th, 2007: 3rd, 2009: 7th, 2011: 17th, 2013: 7th, 2015: 13th, 2017: 12th, 2019: 8th, 2021: 7th, 2023: 6th

*East Germany **West Germany

Group at Germany/Netherlands 2025: Group C (Germany, Serbia, Iceland, Uruguay)