On May 23, 1992, Hannover 96 won the cup for the first time. In the course of the competition, the Lower Saxony had won six first division clubs in a row with VfL Bochum, Borussia Dortmund, KFC Uerdingen, Karlsruher SC, Werder Bremen and in the final Borussia Mönchengladbach.

As a result of the integration of the clubs from the former GDR, the 2nd Bundesliga split into a southern and a northern group for the 1991/92 season. In the last Hannover 96 took fifth place. This season was characterized less by the league games and more by the successful appearance in the DFB Cup: Under the leadership of coach Michael Lorkowski, the club was the first second division team to win the cup. The team defeated five Bundesliga teams: VfL Bochum, Borussia Dortmund, Karlsruher SC, Werder Bremen and Borussia Mönchengladbach in the final. Goalkeeper Jörg Sievers became the cup hero and he saved several penalties both in the semifinals against Bremen (7:6 after penalties) and in the final (4:3 after penalties). In the semifinals he also converted the decisive penalty for Hannover himself.

The players who won the DFB Cup final for Hannover were: Jörg Sievers – Roman Wójcicki, Jörg-Uwe Klütz, Axel Sundermann – Michael Schjønberg, Oliver Freund, Jörg Kretzschmar, Karsten Surmann, Bernd Heemsoth (119. Matthias Kuhlmey) – Miloš Đelmaš, Michael Koch (68. Uwe Jursch).