Eintracht Frankfurt moved up to fourth in the Bundesliga with a four-goal second-half salvo to down Werder Bremen 4-1 at the Waldstadion.
After a goalless first half, Alexander Meier scored his 10th goal of the season to give Armin Veh's side the lead.
Nils Petersen brought Bremen level soon after, but two goals in a minute from Pirmin Schwegler and Stefan Aigner put Frankfurt in the driving seat before Takashi Inui rounded off the win in the last minute.
Vedad Ibisevic's hat-trick lifted Stuttgart to fifth in the table - their highest position of the season - and level on points with opponents Schalke following a 3-1 win at the Mercedes-Benz Arena.
The Bosnian struck twice in the first half and again in the second period to earn Bruno Labbadia's side three points, with former Stuttgart striker Ciprian Marica on target for the visitors.
Both teams ended the game with 10 men. Stuttgart full-back Gotoku Sakai was first to depart in the 67th minute and he was followed six minutes later by Schalke midfielder Jermaine Jones.
Sebastian Polter and Markus Feulner scored the goals which gave Nurnberg three Bundesliga points by beating Fortuna Dusseldorf 2-0 in their last game at the Frankenstadion in 2012.
Feulner was in sparkling form for the hosts, setting up Polter for the opening goal in the 27th minute before sealing the win himself in stoppage time at the end of a one-sided match.
Fabian Giefer did his best to keep Dusseldorf in the game, but there was little he could do to prevent
Freiburg posted a narrow 1-0 win over Greuther Furth to leave the Bundesliga debutants rooted to the foot of the table approaching the midway stage of the season.
Daniel Caligiuri's 15th-minute strike was enough to earn Christian Streich's side all three points at the Dreisamstadion and take them up to eighth, just two points behind fourth-placed Schalke.
Friday, Frank Kramer's first match in charge of Hoffenheim ended in defeat as a 2-0 win for Hamburg took Thorsten Fink's side to their highest league position of the season so far.
A goal in either half from Artjoms Rudnevs was enough to earn the northerners victory over the struggling southerners, who remain inside the bottom three following the change in coach after Markus Babbel's dismissal during the week.
Hamburg now lie sixth and are on course for a place in Europe next season after spending much of the first few weeks of the season alongside Hoffenheim in the lower regions of the league.
