Champions Bayern Munich opened the 60th Bundesliga season on Friday with an emphatic statement victory at Eintracht Frankfurt, thrashing the Europa League winners 6-1 thanks to a stunning first half.
Bayern have won the last 10 titles and sent early warning to their rivals the departure of star striker Robert Lewandowski has not left them vulnerable.
Joshua Kimmich's free-kick opened the scoring in just five minutes and Benjamin Pavard, Sadio Mane, Jamal Musiala and Serge Gnabry all struck before the break.
Hapless Frankfurt were lucky it wasn't more as Bayern had also hit the woodwork three times by this point.
Randal Kolo Muani did grab a consolation midway through the second half by pouncing on Manuel Neuer's error but Bayern already had their thoughts on hosting Wolfsburg next weekend even before Musiala completed the scoring.
"The energy you could feel was outstanding," Bayern coach Julian Nagelsmann told broadcaster Sat1.
"The first half was excellent and good to watch," Kimmich added to DAZN but admitted: "One point of criticism, as always, is that we didn't manage to keep a clean sheet again."
Frankfurt meanwhile will hope for an immediate response in the European Super Cup against Real Madrid in Helsinki on Wednesday.
"It was an absolute debacle in the first half," admitted Frankfurt captain Sebastian Rode.
The Bundesliga first round continues Saturday with a Union v Hertha Berlin derby and Bayern's potential title rivals Borussia Dortmund v Bayer Leverkusen.
Frankfurt will compete in the Champions League this season, courtesy of their Europa League win, but were a sharp wake-up call of what to expect at the highest level.
Goalkeeper Kevin Trapp expected Kimmich to cross a free-kick only to be deceived at his near post and Pavard smashed in a corner to double the lead in the 11th minute.
Gnabry and Müller somehow spurned a two-on-zero, with the latter hitting the post, but Mane, the only one of Bayern's summer signings to start, soon nodded in the third regardless.
Musiala had seen Trapp turn his shot onto the bar moments before though Frankfurt had enjoyed a brief rally with Tuta hitting the bar at a corner and Jesper Lindstrøm barging through only to shoot wide.
Musiala turned in the fourth from Müller's cut-back and Gnabry clipped the fifth through Trapp as the punch-drunk Eintracht stumbled into the interval.
Bayern, well used to opening the season as champions, may have wondered if they could match the eight scored past Schalke in 2020 but instead took their foot off the pedal.
World Cup winner Mario Götze was anonymous on his Bundesliga return but his Frankfurt did offer more after the restart. They had one goal disallowed for offside and in the 64th did have one count when Kolo Muani robbed Neuer to find the empty net.
But Bayern ended the game on a high when Musiala added a late sixth from substitute Leroy Sane's pass.
