Didier Ya Konan scored twice as Hannover bounced back from their exit from the Europa League with a resounding 5-1 victory over Hamburg.
Mame Biram Diouf opened the scoring in the seventh minute for Hannover before Rafael van der Vaart equalised from the spot in the 13th minute.
Szabolcs Huszti converted a penalty for Hannover in the 39th minute and Ya Konan made it 3-1 in the 45th minute before deciding the match for good with his second goal after 68 minutes.
Mohammed Abdellaoue added a fifth in the 85th minute.
The result saw Hannover continue their strong home form to improve to 33 points while Hamburg saw their modest two-match winning streak snapped to remain on 34 points.
Augsburg earned a 2-1 home victory over Hoffenheim in the battle against relegation.
Ji Dong-Won scored in the 45th minute for Augsburg and Sascha Molders made it 2-0 in the 79th minute before Igor de Camargo made things interesting with his goal two minutes into injury time.
Augsburg have lost just one of their last seven matches to improve to 18 points and overtake Hoffenheim, who have just one win in their last 13 matches and remain on 16 points.
Stuttgart were held to a 1-1 draw at home by Nurnberg as their Europa League exertions perhaps caught up with them.
Ibrahima Traore gave Stuttgart the lead six minutes into the second half but they failed to hold on with Markus Feulner grabbing the equalizer after 77 minutes.
The result helps both sides move further away from the relegation zone, but it was clearly Nurnberg who were happier at the final whistle.
Wolfsburg earned a 1-1 draw despite playing with 10 men for an hour at Mainz, who missed a chance to make up ground in the fight for the European spots.
Niki Zimling gave Mainz the lead after five minutes and Naldo equalized in the 15th minute but Wolfsburg then went a man down at the half-hour mark when Alexander Madlung was shown the red card.
Mainz have lost just one of their last seven home matches to move to 33 points, one point from a Europa League qualification spot.
Wolfsburg, who have collected five away victories this season, improved to 27 points, nine points clear of the relegation ranks.
The sixth and final game on Saturday also produced goals for both sides, with Schalke seeing off Fortuna Dusseldorf 2-1.
Defender Joel Matip gave Schalke the lead in the 29th minute and won it nine minutes from time, after Axel Bellinghausen had equalized for the visitors 11 minutes into the second half.
