Borussia Dortmund boss Niko Kovac lamented watching his side cede control of the match early on to Bayern Munich, who won the Franz Beckenbauer Supercup at their expense on Sunday.
First-half goals from Nathaniel Brown and Michael Olise were enough for the Bundesliga champions, as Fabio Silva's 75th-minute effort failed to inspire a comeback.
Maximilian Beier had a fabulous chance to make it 2-2 in the 93rd minute, just moments after Olise himself failed to finish a counter at the other end, but slammed a shot over the bar.
Adding insult to injury was a red card for Ramy Bensebaini, who got sent off running his studs into Ismael Saibari, leaving the BVB with a man down for the stoppage-time action.
Kovac later admitted that his team lost control of the proceedings early on which let Bayern steal a march over them following which Dortmund had to play catch-up.
"It was an intense game from both teams. There were chances on both sides. We got off to a solid start, but then we let Bayern gain the upper hand with a few mistakes, and we had to defend a lot. Bayern had two more good chances at the end of the first half."
Bayern found the breakthrough in the 28th minute after Olise raced inside the box and an attempted clearance from Bensebaini saw it fall to Brown, who took a touch and slammed it home for 1-0.
Luis Diaz then saw a powerful effort parried away by BVB custodian Gregor Kobel before Brown came closing to scoring once more, but fired it narrowly wide as the Bavarians were breathing fire at the Signal Iduna Park.
In the first added minute of the opening stanza, Olise doubled Bayern's advantage by pouncing on a loose backpass from Jobe Bellingham and prancing inside the box before bundling it beyond Kobel as Kovac described it 'frustrating' to watch.
"The second goal before halftime, in stoppage time, was frustrating. When you go into halftime down 0–1, you still have a chance to come back in our stadium. The second half was really good. We took more risks. We had more possession, were more dangerous, and were more aggressive."
Fabio Silva reduced the arrears midway through the second half from a well-worked team-move that also involved debutant Giannis Konstantelias, but it ultimately failed to inspire BVB's comeback although Beier wasted a glorious chance to equalize deep in stoppage-time.
The defeat means Dortmund's wait for a first silverware since 2021 continues, while Bayern completed a domestic swoop, adding the German Supercup to their Bundesliga and DFB-Pokal triumphs earlier this year.
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