Football in Berlin, the capital of Germany, has a long history. The city contributed 24 of the 86 founders of the DFB, the German Football Association. The DFB Cup Final has been held every year at the Olympiastadion since 1985.
The two main football clubs in Berlin are Hertha Berlin and Union Berlin. Hertha BSC, a founder of the DFB, played in the West German system during the Cold War. 1. FC Union Berlin played in the East German system.
The Olympic Stadium hosted the later stages of football at the 1936 Summer Olympics, with the other matches played at smaller grounds in the city. The ground was also a venue in the 1974 FIFA World Cup group containing both West and East Germany. The 2006 FIFA World Cup Final was held at Olympiastadion and saw Italy defeat France on penalties. In 2015 the UEFA Champions League Final was held in Berlin.
Football culture
Open Air gatherings of several hundred thousands spectators have become popular during international football competitions, like the World Cup or the UEFA European Championship. Many fans and viewers come together to watch the matches on huge video screens. The event is known as the Fan Mile and takes place at the Brandenburg Gate every two years.
Clubs
Hertha BSC
Hertha BSC were founded on 25 July 1892 and were a founding member of the German Football Association (DFB) in 1900. Hertha won its only two German championships in 1930 and 1931, the latter being the last DFB league title won by a Berlin club. Hertha was the most successful club in the Brandenburg football championship (1892–1933), winning on 12 occasions, including seven consecutive titles between 1925 and 1931 and the last season in 1932-33 before the VBB-Oberliga was abolished by the Nazi regime.
The club was a founder of the German Bundesliga in 1963, but has never won its title. They currently play in the Bundesliga following promotion after finishing champions of the 2. Bundesliga in the 2012–13 season. Hertha are a tenant of the Olympic Stadium.
In 1999–2000, Hertha were Berlin's first-ever representative in the UEFA Champions League, defeating Anorthosis Famagusta of Cyprus to qualify for the First Group Stage, where they advanced at the expense of Italy's AC Milan. In the Second Group Stage they were eliminated after finishing bottom.
1. FC Union Berlin
FC Olympia Oberschöneweide was established in 1906, from a merger of three smaller local clubs in Oberschöneweide (despite a team of a similar name winning the German title the previous year, Union 92 Berlin). The team were runner-up in the 1923 German football championship, where they lost 0-3 in the final to Hamburger SV.
After World War II the club was temporarily banned, and then re-established as SG Oberschöneweide. Located in the eastern part of Berlin, the club suffered badly from the division of the city. Due to Soviet authorities imposing a travel ban on the club, most players and coaches left for West Berlin in 1950 to form SC Union 06 Berlin. The remaining part carried on as SG Union Oberschöneweide, which was the name of the club since 1948. Following a series of name changes and mergers, the club was re-founded as football club 1. FC Union Berlin in 1966. Despite some early mild success in post-split Germany, Union were relatively unsuccessful in East Germany, frequently changing between the DDR-Oberliga and the second-tier DDR-Liga. Union won the FDGB-Pokal in 1968.
In the 1990s the club was present mostly in regional leagues (third division) and were promoted to 2. Bundesliga in 2001. After three years they were relegated twice to fourth division but won, after being promoted to third division again, 3. Liga in 2009 to reach 2. Bundesliga. Union reached the final of the 2000–01 DFB-Pokal before losing 2–0 in the final in Berlin to Schalke 04. Union were promoted to the Bundesliga for the first time in their history in 2019, following a 2–2 aggregate draw in the Promotion-Relegation Playoff with VfB Stuttgart, which Union won on away goals.
The club plays at Stadion An der Alten Försterei, which the club and its predecessors has occupied since 1920. The stadium has a capacity of 22,012 spectators, for the most part on standing terraces. The venue became also known for events like the annual "Weihnachtssingen" (Christmas Carols Event) and the "WM-Wohnzimmer" (World Cup Living Room) in 2014.
Union Berlin is well known for its fan-base and chant "Eisern Union" (Iron Union). The club is recognized as one of Germany's cult clubs, based on initiatives over the last two decades.
BFC Dynamo
SC Dynamo Berlin was founded as a sports club in East Berlin in 1954. In order to establish a competitive team in the East German capital, the team of SG Dynamo Dresden was delegated to East Berlin to play for SC Dynamo Berlin. SC Dynamo Berlin won the 1959 FDGB-Pokal, but was overshadowed by ASK Vorwärts Berlin in the 1960s. The team played its home matches at the large Walter-Ulbricht-Stadion during the first seasons. The football department of SC Dynamo Berlin was separated from the sports club in 1966 and re-organized as football club BFC Dynamo.
BFC Dynamo was developed into a flagship club of sports association SV Dynamo. It had the best material conditions in the league and the best team by far. BFC Dynamo won ten East German championships in succession between 1979 and 1988. It also won the FDGB-Pokal in 1988 and 1989 as well as the DFV-Supercup in 1989. BFC Dynamo is the only club in Berlin to have reached the semi-finals of the most prestigious European club competitions. The club reached the semi-finals of the 1971–72 European Cup Winners' Cup, before losing to Dynamo Moscow in a penalty shoot-out. BFC Dynamo became the first German team to defeat an English team in England in the European Cup when the team defeated Nottingham Forest under Brian Clough at the City Ground in the quarter-finals of the 1979–80 European Cup.
BFC Dynamo put a lot of focus on its youth work. Its successes during the East German era was built on an elaborate youth system. The club was able to recruit young talented players from training centers (TZ) across the whole of East Germany, including numerous training centers (TZ) of SV Dynamo. BFC Dynamo had the youngest team in the league in the 1975-76 DDR-Oberliga season with an average age of only 22,8 years. Most of its top performers of the 1980s came through its own youth teams, such as Andreas Thom, Frank Rohde, Bodo Rudwaleit and Rainer Ernst.
BFC Dynamo was the only first division club in the whole of Berlin when the Berlin Wall opened in 1989. The club was controversial for its connection to the Stasi and was re-branded FC Berlin on 19 February 1990. The club fell on hard times after German reunification and suffered a near bankruptcy in 2001. The club has since recovered and managed to qualify for the Regionalliga Nordost after a successful 2013–14 season. The team subsequently moved back to the stadium of its heyday, the Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Sportpark. BFC Dynamo is based in the locality of Alt-Hohenschönhausen of the borough of Lichtenberg. The Sportforum Hohenschönhausen is considered the spiritual home of the club. BFC Dynamo has youth teams in all age groups and operates an award-winning day care project.
FC Viktoria 1889 Berlin
BFC Viktoria 1889 was established in 1889 and was a founder of the DFB in 1900. The club emerged as the strongest football club in Berlin at the turn of the century, until World War I, and won two German championships (1907–08 and 1910–11). It was weakened by the division of Berlin during the Cold War, as only one club from West Berlin was permitted entry to the new Bundesliga in 1963, an honour given to Hertha. The club won the 1893–94 German Championship on 28 July 2007, in a two-legged final 113 years after their opponents FC Hanau 93 decided not to travel 400 km to Berlin on the original occasion.
The club announced its plans to merger with Lichterfelder FC in March 2013. The new club competes under the name FC Viktoria 1889 Berlin, and the full name of the new association is Fußballclub Viktoria 1889 Berlin Lichterfelde-Tempelhof e. V. The aim of the merger was to become the third club in the ongoing evolution of Berlin football, behind Hertha BSC and 1. FC Union Berlin. FC Viktoria 1889 Berlin qualified for the Regionalliga Nordost after the 2012-13 season. The club then qualified for the 3. Liga after a successful 2020-21 season. The club led 2020-21 Regionalliga Nordost when the season ended prematurely after eleven rounds played due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The team had won all eleven matches played during the short season.
Tennis Borussia Berlin
Tennis Borussia Berlin was founded in 1902 as Berliner Tennis- und Ping-Pong-Gesellschaft Borussia taking its name from its origins as a tennis and ping-pong club. Borussia is a Latinised version of Prussia and was a widely used name for sports clubs in the former state of Prussia. The club took up football in 1903 and quickly developed a rivalry with Berlin's leading side Hertha BSC.
After World War II and into the early 1950s, TeBe emerged as Berlin's top side but were unable to keep up their form and earn selection to the Germany's new professional league, the Bundesliga, formed in 1963. The team played in tier II leagues throughout the 60s and 70s with the exception of two short-lived forays into the Bundesliga in 1974–75 and 1976–77. Most of the 1980s were spent playing in the third tier Oberliga Berlin.
Through most of its history TeBe has been afflicted by financial problems but has always managed to hang on while many other of Berlin's clubs folded or disappeared in mergers.
Finally, in 2000, the club had adopted its current name "Tennis Borussia Berlin", as the club had always been known under this moniker and to avoid being mistaken as a tennis club.
Ethnic clubs Berlin's oldest Jewish football club, Bar Kochba Berlin, founded in 1898, merged with another, Hakoah Berlin in 1930 to form Bar Kochba-Hakoah. Under the Nazi regime, Jewish clubs were segregated in 1933 and dissolved in 1938. Jewish clubs competed in other sports from the end of the war, but it was not until 1970 that Bar Kochba-Hakoah were revived as a football club, as a member of the Maccabi World Union which encourages Jewish sport. Now competing as TuS Makkabi Berlin in the sixth-tier Berlin-Liga, the club made headlines in Germany and the Jewish State of Israel in October 2006. Despite the club's low profile and the increase in tolerance in German society, the club were subjected to anti-Semitic, Neo-Nazi chants from fans and players of VSG Altglienicke.
Türkiyemspor Berlin is another sixth-tier Berlin-Liga club, founded in 1978 and composed of Germans of Turkish descent. In 2010-11, it was relegated from the fourth-tier Regionalliga Nord. The name Turkiyemspor is used by other Turkish-centred clubs in Germany and abroad. Former Turkish international Ümit Karan began his career at the club. SV Yeşilyurt, another club founded by immigrants from İzmir and Istanbul, was founded in 1973 and wound up in 2007 when it merged with Berliner AK 07. AK, despite being founded in 1907, have merged with various Turkish-centred clubs in its history and since 2006 has been in partnership with the Turkish club Ankaraspor, taking on their name and colours for the 2006-07 season.