Football in Berlin
The football in Berlin came early preceded by some club-ups. As early as 1885, the first Berlin football club, BFC Frankfurt 1885 , was formed, which initially still played according to rugby rules, but soon switched to association football . BFC Germania 1888 followed three years later , today the oldest still existing football club in Germany.
In contrast to most German cities, the capital already had an abundance of clubs in the early 1890s that would later become significant: First in 1889, Viktoria, the most successful Berlin soccer team before the First World War , was founded. This was followed by Alemannia and Vorwärts (both 1890), Britannia , Hertha and Union (all 1892), Minerva (1893) and Prussia (1894), to name just the most important clubs.
The Berlin clubs knew how to take advantage of this time advantage over most other cities, as before the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 they were just as often in the finals of the German football championship as VfB Leipzig : first, the BTuFC Britannia reached the finals in 1904 ( when the final against VfB Leipzig was not played) and in 1905 (when Britannia won the first championship title in the history of Berlin football). Between 1907 and 1911, the BTuFC Viktoria 1889 took part in the finals four more times, and during this period it won two championship honors. Thus, the Berlin clubs, like VfB Leipzig, recorded a total of six finals in this period and were just as successful with three titles as the Saxons .
In the 1920s, three Berlin clubs were able to qualify a total of six times for the final of the German championship, but always had to leave the field as losers. It was not until 1930 and 1931 that Hertha BSC (who had qualified for the finals six times in a row between 1926 and 1931) won further championship titles. After that, however, Berlin football clearly lost touch. Since then no Berlin club (with the exception of the East Berlin “system clubs” Dynamo and Vorwärts , which were massively funded in the GDR and which together were able to book a total of 16 championship titles in the GDR Oberliga ) has ever won a championship title again.
Nevertheless, Berlin football set some remarkable records. For example, Berlin is the only city that has already been represented by a total of five clubs in the Bundesliga . In the GDR league, Berlin was the only city that was temporarily represented with three clubs in the top division at the same time.
History of Berlin football
The first decades
The most successful Berlin soccer team before World War I was provided by the Berlin Thorball and Soccer Club Viktoria von 1889 (BTuFC Viktoria 89), which won the soccer championship organized by the DFuCB five times in a row between 1893 and 1897 . After moving to the Berlin soccer championship organized by the VBB , Viktoria also became the record champions of this league, which existed until 1911 , with five titles . In the first three seasons after moving into the VBB-Liga (1898), Viktoria was runner-up behind BFC Preussen three times in a row .
The Berlin champions were automatically qualified for the finals of the all-German football championship , which was held under the patronage of the DFB from the 1902/03 season. The first participant was the Berlin TuFC Britannia 92 , who lost in the first round in 1903 against the eventual champions VfB Leipzig (1: 3). In 1904 the Britannia could qualify for the final, in which they would have met the defending champion VfB Leipzig again. Due to a protest by the Karlsruher FV , who lost against Britannia in the first round , the DFB canceled the final, so that no German champions were determined this year.
In the following year , the Berlin Thor and Football Club Union 1892 , which merged with the Berlin football club Vorwärts 1890 to form Blau-Weiß 90 Berlin in 1927 and won its only Berlin football championship in the same year , brought the all-German championship to Berlin for the first time.
In the 1905/06 season , today's most important Berlin football club, Hertha BSC (then still known as BFC Hertha 92) won its first Berlin championship title, the next title of which was not to follow until 1915 , when the First World War was already underway. In the final round of the German championship in 1906 , Hertha failed in the semi-finals at VfB Leipzig, which later celebrated its second championship title at national level. Union 92 also failed in the semi-finals, as the defending champion was also allowed to take part in the finals.
In 1907 , 1908 and 1909 , the aforementioned BTuFC Viktoria 89 won the Berlin city championship three times in a row and in each of the subsequent finals for the German football championship reached the final, which was only successfully contested in 1908 .
After BFC Preussen won the city championship in 1910 , but failed in the final round of the German football championship against the later champions Karlsruhe FV , Viktoria succeeded in winning the second German championship title after winning the Berlin championship again in 1911 .
The next finals were only played by Berlin clubs in 1921 and 1923 , when Vorwärts 90 Berlin and Union Oberschöneweide were defeated by 1. FC Nürnberg and Hamburger SV .
Hertha BSC set a special record between 1926 and 1931 , when the final of the German soccer championship was reached six times in a row. However, Hertha lost the first four finals and only crowned their performance with the championship title in 1930 and 1931. At the same time, these successes marked the end of successful Berlin football. From now on, no Berlin club was able to win a championship title until the Second World War , in divided West Germany ( West Berlin ) or subsequently in later reunified Germany . Only in the east of the city did the heavily state-sponsored teams from Vorwärts ( Army ) and Dynamo ( Ministry for State Security ) win six and ten championship titles in the GDR Oberliga, respectively .
East Berlin football clubs in the GDR
When the GDR Oberliga was first played in the 1949/50 season , no Berlin club was represented in the top division because at that time all Berlin clubs (from East and West) were still playing separately in the Berlin City League . Only with the introduction of the contract player status according to the West German model (i.e. the payment of the players and thus a first, still weakened form of professional football ) in the city league, the GDR authorities withdrew the East Berlin teams from this league and integrated them into their league system. The newly formed team of SG Union Oberschöneweide (almost the entire team had fled to the West and founded SC Union 06 Berlin there; details can be found in the next chapter) was accepted into the top division for the 1950/51 season . Two seasons later , the ASG Vorwärts team, transferred from Leipzig, joined the Kasernierte Volkspolizei . But at the end of the same season, both Vorwärts and the city rivals, now trading as BSG Motor Oberschöneweide , descended into the second division , so that in the 1953/54 season again no Berlin club was represented in the top division. While forward immediately rose again in terms of sport, the team from Oberschöneweide had to wait until 1966 (when the team was re-established as 1. FC Union) for their return to the top division. Instead, the Dynamo team delegated from Dresden was added as the second Berlin club during the 1954/55 season , which appeared in its new home under the new name SC Dynamo Berlin . Dynamo was relegated in 1956 , but immediately rose again. In 1958 Vorwärts became GDR champions for the first time and two years later , for the only time in the history of the GDR Oberliga, two Berlin clubs occupied the first two places in the final table, when Vorwärts won its second title and Dynamo came second. After Vorwärts won three more championship titles in the next few years ( 1962 , 1965 and 1966 ), the rise of 1. FC Union (previously Oberschöneweide) in 1966 meant that three capital city clubs were represented in the top division for the first time in the 1966/67 season . With sixth place, Union even achieved the best placement of all Berlin clubs in that season, while defending champion Vorwärts took eighth place and Dynamo landed in 13th place and thus relegated. After Dynamo succeeded in the immediate resurgence, three Berlin clubs were again represented in the top division in the 1968/69 season , at the end of which Vorwärts celebrated their sixth (and last) championship title and Union relegated to the second division. After Union also succeeded in the immediate resurgence, three capital city clubs played in the GDR league for the third and last time in the 1970/71 season . This era ended when Vorwärts was delegated to Frankfurt (Oder) for the 1971/72 season . While Union remained an elevator team that got up and down several times, the “ Stasi ” club Dynamo developed into a series champion.
The situation in West Berlin
In the first post-war years, sports clubs were not permitted in any of the four sectors of Berlin. Introduced the Municipal Sports and initially played in football the best Berlin sports groups still together in the Berlin city league , the first in its two sweeps of West Berlin teams ( in 1946 the SG Wilmersdorf and 1947 the SG Charlottenburg ), and in 1948 from the east of the city settled SG Oberschöneweide was won.
With the resumption of the games for the German football championship in the 1947/48 season , an East German club, SG Oberschöneweide, was even allowed to participate, but failed already in the quarter-finals with 0: 7 at FC St. Pauli . With the (one-off) increase in the number of finalists to 16 in the 1949/50 season , even the Berlin runner-up was eligible to participate. Again this was the SG Oberschöneweide, now again as "Union", since the re-admission of the sports clubs had meanwhile taken place. This time, however, the East Berlin association was forbidden from participating by the GDR authorities. The decisive point for this negative decision on the part of the GDR authorities was probably the introduction of the contract player status based on the West German model (i.e. the payment of the players and thus a first, still weakened form of professional football ) for the city league. In this context, the East Berlin soccer teams were withdrawn from the previous joint game operation of the city league and the lower classes and - as far as first class - integrated into the GDR upper league founded a year earlier at the beginning of the 1950/51 season . The majority of Unioners moved to the western part of the city in March 1950 and established SC Union 06 Berlin there . Under the new name, the team from the former SGO, now based in West Berlin, traveled to Kiel , where they were also defeated by Hamburger SV 7-0. In the 1952/53 season , SC Union 06 succeeded in winning the city league, which was won by Tennis Borussia in the three previous seasons , which were also successful again in 1958 and with a total of five titles (including the 1946/47 season , as TeBe initially had to compete as SG Charlottenburg) are the record champions of this league that existed between 1945/46 and 1962/63. Otherwise, the last seven seasons of this league (before the introduction of the Bundesliga ) were dominated by the clubs Hertha BSC and Tasmania Berlin , which were successful there for the first time in those years, and each was able to enter three times on the list of winners.
With their victory in the last season 1962/63 , Hertha qualified for the opening season 1963/64 of the newly created Bundesliga. With just one point ahead of the relegated Preußen Münster , the Herthaners managed to stay in the league. Also in the following season 1964/65 Hertha would have managed to stay in the league (one point ahead of the actual relegated Karlsruher SC ), but did not receive a new license and was transferred to the Regionalliga Berlin for the 1965/66 season . Instead, the two last-placed teams (Karlsruher SC and Schalke 04 ) were allowed to keep their place in the Bundesliga and with the inclusion of a Berlin “substitute club” (Tasmania 1900) the Bundesliga was expanded to 18 participants for the 1965/66 season . However, the initially unforeseen and apparently insufficiently prepared SC Tasmania in the top division was overwhelmingly overwhelmed and set a number of negative records that are still valid today. With just two wins (both at home against relegated Borussia Neunkirchen and Karlsruher SC, who barely escaped relegation) and four draws and a goal difference of 15: 108, Tasmania landed 14 points behind the table penultimate and rose again immediately from. It had actually started promisingly. Because on the first day of play Tasmania defeated KSC 2-0 and was (together with Eintracht Frankfurt ) in second place in the table.
In the following two seasons, no Berlin club was represented in the Bundesliga before Hertha BSC managed to return to the 1968/69 season . A special season from Berlin's point of view was the 1974/75 season , when for the first time two clubs in the city were represented in the Bundesliga at the same time. In addition, Hertha BSC took second place that season, their best position in the Bundesliga to date. Neighbor Tennis Borussia, however, finished 17th in the end and was immediately relegated. TeBe managed to return to the upper house of football for the 1976/77 season , but this season, too, was immediately relegated.
After Hertha BSC was relegated to the second division again at the end of the 1979/80 season , the Bundesliga took place largely without Berlin participation in the 1980s. Only for the 1982/83 season did Hertha manage to return to the upper house for one season, and in the 1986/87 season , Berlin's fourth club, Blau-Weiß 90, entered the Bundesliga (the other cities with more than only one Bundesliga club - Munich , Hamburg , Stuttgart , Cologne and Bochum - only have two clubs each). But his participation was limited to just one season. Apart from Hertha BSC, no club in Berlin managed to be first class for more than one season in a row and of these three only Tennis Borussia came to a second Bundesliga season.
But after the next promotion in 1990, Hertha BSC could not hold the class and rose again at the end of the 1990/91 season . Thus, of all things, in the first Bundesliga season 1991/92 after German reunification, no Berlin club was represented in the top division in which clubs from the former GDR were allowed to participate for the first time. In the 1991/92 season these were Dynamo Dresden and Hansa Rostock .
The clubs in reunified Berlin
Not only in the first Bundesliga season 1991/92 after the reunification, which was also completed in a sporting way, no Berlin club was represented in the top division. The absence of Berlin clubs lasted for much of the 1990s and only changed in 1997 when Hertha BSC managed to return to the Bundesliga. In the meantime, only the existing of a "gang of mechanics, students and schoolboys' amateur team of Hertha had caused a sensation, in the 1992/93 season moved as the first amateur team of the German Cup history in the final and the final opponents Bayer 04 Leverkusen by a Ulf Kirsten lost a late goal with 0: 1. After an eleventh place in the first 1997/98 season after the promotion, Hertha always landed among the six best-placed teams in the next five seasons and was able to qualify several times for a European competition. After a disappointing twelfth place in the 2003/04 season , Hertha reached three places among the top six teams and twice tenth place in the next five seasons. But in the 2009/10 season , relegation followed once more. The immediate return was followed by relegation to the second division in 2011/12 . After a convincing round in the second division season 2012/13 with only two defeats (1: 3 at FSV Frankfurt and 0: 1 at Dynamo Dresden ) and in the final table a nine-point lead over the runner-up Eintracht Braunschweig , Hertha BSC succeeded Championship and the associated return to the top division, to which one has belonged again continuously since then. At the moment the club was able to qualify twice for the European competition.
Until 2019, no other Berlin club had made it into the Bundesliga since reunification. Only 1. FC Union was able to establish itself as a "second force" in Berlin football after considerable start-up problems in the new millennium. After the "Iron" were denied promotion to the 2nd Bundesliga several times in the 1990s - for both sporting and licensing reasons - they not only achieved their first promotion to the second-highest division of the reunited Germany, but also the qualification for the DFB Cup final , which was lost against FC Schalke 04 by a one- two hit by Jörg Böhme 0-2. But Union rose already three years later again in the third-class Regionalliga Nord from where the "iron" in the following 2004/05 season in the Oberliga Northeast were passed. In the local season north they succeeded in the 2005/06 season straight away the championship and thus the immediate return to the regional league. In the first season 2006/07 the relegation was only possible because of the better goal difference. With fourth place in the following 2007/08 season , the FCU qualified for the third league , which was newly introduced from the coming 2008/09 season and ended with the title win in the opening season. This made it possible to return to the second division, to which the "Iron" belonged without interruption until their promotion in 2019 . Other Berlin clubs play no role in top-class football. Only in the fourth-class regional soccer league Northeast are five Berlin teams represented with BFC Dynamo , FC Viktoria 1889 Berlin , Berliner AK 07 , SV Lichtenberg 47 and Hertha BSC II (as of the 2019/20 season )
Hertha and Union
During the division of Germany, there were contacts - across the wall - between the fans of Hertha BSC and 1. FC Union, who among other things brought out various joint fan articles that expressed their solidarity. One example was a patch that said “Hertha and Union - one nation”. It was at the same time a commitment on both sides against the division of Germany.
At that time, Hertha fans traveled to East Berlin to attend Union home games and Union fans accompanied Hertha to their European Cup appearances in the Eastern Bloc. But in the reunified Germany this former bond has crumbled. In the reunited Berlin, 1. FC Union is in constant competition with the apparently overpowering city rivals in the battle for audience and media approval. In addition, with the atmosphere in the Olympic Stadium, which is characterized by advertising trailers and breaks, the Hertha symbolizes an unconditional opening to event marketing, which the Union fan, who is based on traditional values, categorically rejects.
In the Bundesliga season 2019/20, both clubs will meet for the first time in the top German division.
Overview of the most important Berlin football clubs
The clubs that are still at least fourth class are marked in red, those in yellow that play in lower class today, those that no longer exist (in Berlin) and of which no (official or unofficial) successor club exists are marked in yellow. |
| society | origin | founding | Greatest successes | particularities |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alemannia | Reinickendorf | 1890 |
Märkischer Meister (1905 and 1907) Berlin Champion (1924) Finalist for the German Amateur Championship (1957) |
since 1975 only active in the lower class |
| Berlin AK 07 | center | 1907 | Promotion to the Regionalliga Nordost 2011, 4-0 victory in the first main round of the DFB Cup against TSG 1899 Hoffenheim in 2012 | |
| Berlin BC 03 | Tempelhofer Feld | 1903 | Berlin Master (1914) | 1921 merged to form BBC Brandenburg in 1892 |
| Blue-white 90 | Mariendorf | 1927 |
Gaumeister Berlin-Brandenburg (1939, 1942) Bundesliga team (1986/87) |
Blau-Weiß was created in 1927 through the merger of Vorwärts 90 and Union 92 . The association went bankrupt in 1992 and was re-established . |
| Britannia / BSV 1892 | Schmargendorf | 1892 |
Berlin Champion ( 1898, 1903, 1904 , 1946, 1949 and 1954 ) Gaumeister Berlin-Brandenburg (1936, 1938, 1943) Finalist for the German Championship (1904) |
Founded in 1892 as BTuFC Britannia, renamed Berliner SV 1892 in 1914 |
| dynamo | Prenzlauer Berg | 1954 | GDR champion (ten times in a row from 1979 to 1988) | Dynamo Berlin was founded in 1950 as SG Volkspolizei Dresden and was delegated to East Berlin at the beginning of the 1954/55 season . |
| Germania | Tempelhof | 1888 | Berlin Master (1891) | Germania players and officials were involved in founding the DFB and BFV as well as in the first international matches. |
| Hertha BSC | Healthy well | 1892 |
Berlin champions ( 1915, 1917, 1918, 1925, 1926, 1927, 1928, 1929, 1930, 1931, 1933 , 1957, 1963 ) Gaumeister Berlin-Brandenburg (1935, 1937, 1944) German champions (1930 and 1931) and long-time Bundesliga team (Runner-up 1974/75 ) DFB-Pokal finalist ( 1977 , 1979 , amateurs 1993 ) UEFA-Pokal (semi-finals 1978/79 ) Vice-record winner of the Berlin State Cup (14 times) |
Since the 1920s, Hertha BSC has been the most successful (West) Berlin soccer team for long stretches. |
| Kickers | Schöneberg | 1900 | Finalist for the German championship (1927) | since 1975 only active in the lower class |
| Minerva | Moabit | 1893 | Finalist for the German championship (1932) | Although only active in the lower class since World War II , the club's youth department produced some talents, such as Bernd Patzke (24-time national player and 1966 German champion with 1860 Munich ). |
| Prussia | Lankwitz | 1894 |
Berlin Masters ( 1899, 1900, 1901, 1910 and 1912 ) Finalists for the German championship (1910 and 1912) |
|
| Tasmania | Neukölln | 1900 |
Märkischer Meister (1909, 1910 and 1911) Berlin champions : 1959, 1960 and 1962 finalists for the German championship (1909, 1910, 1911, 1959, 1960 and 1962) Bundesliga team (1965/66) Participants in the trade fair cup ( 1962/63 ) |
Tasmania is considered the worst Bundesliga team of all time . In 1973 the club went bankrupt. Tasmania Berlin is the unofficial successor . |
| Tennis Borussia | West end | 1902 |
Berlin champions ( 1932 , 1947, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1958 ) Gaumeister Berlin-Brandenburg (1941) Final round of the German championship (1928, 1929, 1930, 1931, 1932, 1941, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1958) Bundesliga team ( 1974/75 and 1976/77) German amateur champion (1998) Record winner of the Berlin State Cup (16 times) |
Most successful Berlin club of the 1950s |
| Union 92 | Tempelhofer Feld , Mariendorf | 1892 | one Berlin master and one German master (1904) | The association merged with Vorwärts 90 to become Blau-Weiß 90 in 1927 . |
| 1. FC Union | Koepenick | 1906 |
Berlin champions ( 1920, 1923 and 1948 ) Gaumeister Berlin-Brandenburg (1940) German runner-up (1923) FDGB Cup winner (1968) DFB Cup final (2001) Participant in the UEFA Cup (2001/02) Promotion to the 2019 Bundesliga |
Founded in 1906 as SG Oberschöneweide , today's name since 1966 |
| Victoria | Tempelhof | 1889 | 15 times Berlin champions, twice German champions (1908 and 1911) |
Viktoria 89 Berlin is the most successful football team before the first World War . With five titles each, the club is both the record champions of the DFuCB championship held between 1892 and 1902 and the VBB championship held between 1898 and 1911 . In 2013 Viktoria merged with LFC Berlin to form FC Viktoria 1889 Berlin . |
| ASK forward | Prenzlauer Berg | 1952 | six-time GDR champion (1958, 1960, 1962, 1965, 1966 and 1969) | The army sports club Vorwärts was founded in Leipzig and at the beginning of the 1952/53 season was delegated to East Berlin . After the 1970/71 season , the club was transplanted to Frankfurt (Oder) . |
| Forward 90 | Tempelhof | 1890 |
Berlin master ( 1898, 1899, 1900, 1901 and 1921 ) Märkischer master (1902 and 1903) German runner-up (1921) |
The association merged with Union 92 to form Blau-Weiß 90 in 1927 . |
| SV Lichtenberg 47 | Lichtenberg | 1947 |
East Berlin Masters (1955, 1964, 1970, 1971, 1981, 1983, 1990 and 1991)
FDGB district cup winners (East Berlin) : 1960 (second team), 1965, 1966 and 1971 Berlin champions : 2001 Promotion to the Football Regionalliga Nordost 2019/20 |
The big Berlin stadiums
 |
Berlin football stadiums with a capacity of 10,000 spectators or more: the stadiums that still have at least 10,000 spectators today are marked in green; yellow those that have been reduced in size in the course of their existence and are below today; gray are the stages that no longer exist. |
The most important sports facility in the city is the Berlin Olympic Stadium , which was built for the Summer Olympics that were held in the first half of August 1936 . It was the first venue in 1937 for the German Cup final for the 1936 Tschammerpokal (which VfB Leipzig won 2-1 against FC Schalke 04 ) and five times in a row it was a regular final venue for the competitions from 1938 to 1942. Since 1985 (as Bayer 05 Uerdingen won 2-1 against FC Bayern Munich ) it is once again a regular venue for the DFB Cup finals .
Berlin was one of the venues for both of the football world championships held in Germany, but not at the European football championship in 1988, given the political sensitivities of the Eastern Bloc associations .
In 1974 , Berlin was the venue for all three encounters of Chile in preliminary group 1, in which the national teams of the host , the GDR and Australia also played. The opening match of Group 1 between the Federal Republic of Germany and Chile (1: 0) was attended by 81,100 visitors, making this encounter the most spectators of the entire World Cup.
At the 2006 World Cup , Berlin was the venue for one match each of the preliminary round groups A, B, F and H, including the game of defending champions Brazil against Croatia (1-0) and host Germany against Ecuador (3-0). The quarter-finals between Germany and Argentina and the final between Italy and France were also played here. Both games ended 1-1 after regular time and also after extra time , so both had to be decided by a subsequent penalty shoot-out .
On June 6, 2015, Berlin hosted the final of the 2014/15 UEFA Champions League for the only time so far , which FC Barcelona won 3-1 against Juventus Turin .
The "Prestigestadion" in east Berlin was the stadium of the world youth , which opened in 1950 as the " Walter Ulbricht Stadium " and was demolished in 1992. From 1975 to 1989 it served as a regular venue for the finals for the FDGB Cup .
The SC Dynamo Berlin soccer team (from which BFC Dynamo emerged in 1966 ) played their home games in the Walter Ulbricht Stadium until 1961 . FC Vorwärts Berlin, which was based in Berlin until 1971, also moved to this sports facility for some European Cup matches. Starting in 1976, all were Oberliga - derbies between the BFC Dynamo and its local rivals 1. FC Union Berlin played in the World Youth Stadium. The 1. FC Union also had to move to Berlin-Mitte for a few home games in 1981, as renovations were being carried out at the home stadium at An der Alten Försterei .
Individual evidence
- ↑ cf. Jörn Luther, Frank Willmann: And never forget - Iron Union! (BasisDruck Verlag GmbH, Berlin 2000), p. 34 f .; ISBN 3-86163-106-7
- ^ The first day of the Bundesliga season 1965/66 at fussballdaten.de
- ↑ 20 years "Hertha-Bubis": The final (article from January 16, 2018)
- ↑ Jörn Luther, Frank Willmann: And never forget - Iron Union! , P. 135
- ↑ cf. Berliner Morgenpost: Berlin football card - This is how Hertha and Union share the capital
- ↑ cf. Sven Goldmann (Der Tagesspiegel): Hertha and Union - Where love no longer falls (article from September 3, 2012)
- ↑ cf. Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation: Four Nations Tournament (West-Berlin, West Germany 1988)