The epidemics of fungal pathogens, such as Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici (PS), Puccinia triticina (PT), and Blumeria graminis f. sp. tritici (BGT), due to the emergence of new devastating races with altered virulences, as well as the complex virulence of Fusarium culmorum (FC) has been an ongoing challenge for wheat breeding during the last five decades. In order to quantify the success of resistance breeding and to reveal breeding innovations a panel of 178 German winter wheat cultivars differing by year of release (1965 to 2013) were tested in a three-years, two-factorial (fungicide and nitrogen level) field trial representing four different production systems for resistance against four fungal pathogens (PS, PT, BGT, FC). Additionally, seedlings of cultivars with an increased level of resistance were tested for the presence of specific resistance genes using single spore isolates of PS and PT showing different virulence/avirulence patterns. N fertilization (N) significantly increased the susceptibility to all pathogens. While cultivar (G), year (Y) and its interaction (G x Y) had a highly significant impact on resistance to all fungal pathogens, G x N interaction and the complex G x N x Y interaction was only significant for FC. Resistance was significantly improved over the past 50 years as susceptibility decreased strongly against PS (-1.02 %/a), PT (-1.11 %/a), and BGT (-1.44 %/a) and slightly against FC (-0.35 %/a) on a relative basis. Detailed genomewide association studies (GWAS) based on field data and isolate-specific seedlings assays revealed highly significant QTL against all pathogens. The Triticum ventricosum-introgression on chromosome 2AS, carrying the resistance genes Yr17 and Lr37, was present in 26.9% of all cultivars. It co-localizes with QTL for both, seedling resistance and adult plant resistance against all PS isolates tested. In virulence assays the presence of Lr37 and Yr17 was validated and some unknown rust resistances were detected.