The Verbandsliga Südbaden is currently the 6th tier of the German football league system

German football league system

The German football league system, or league pyramid, refers to a series of hierarchically interconnected leagues for association football clubs in Germany that consists of over 2,300 men's divisions, in which all leagues are bound together by the principle of promotion and relegation...

. Until the introduction of the 3rd Liga

3rd Liga

The 3rd Liga is the third division of football in Germany. The league started with the beginning of the 2008–09 season, when it replaced the Regionalliga as the third tier football league in Germany. In the German football league system, it is positioned between the 2...

 it was the 5th tier of the league system.
The Verbandsliga Südbaden was formed in 1945, then called Landesliga Südbaden, in the southern half of the then state of Baden

Baden

Baden is a historical state on the east bank of the Rhine in the southwest of Germany, now the western part of the Baden-Württemberg of Germany....

, which is now the western half of the German state

States of Germany

Germany is made up of sixteen which are partly sovereign constituent states of the Federal Republic of Germany. Land literally translates as "country", and constitutionally speaking, they are constituent countries...

 of Baden-Württemberg

Baden-Württemberg

Baden-Württemberg is one of the 16 states of Germany. Baden-Württemberg is in the southwestern part of the country to the east of the Upper Rhine, and is the third largest in both area and population of Germany's sixteen states, with an area of and 10.7 million inhabitants...

. It was originally a feeder league to the Oberliga Südwest (southern section)

Oberliga Südwest (1945-63)

The Oberliga Südwest was the highest level of the German football league system in the southwest of Germany from 1945 until the formation of the Bundesliga in 1963. It covered the two states of Rheinland-Pfalz and Saarland.-Overview:...

 and therefore the second tier of the football league system in the southwest of Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 until 1950, when the clubs from Südbaden left the southwest league system and returned to the southern system where they geographically belong.