A trip to watch Dynamo Berlin.

Brandenburg Gate.

You don’t have to log on to social media sites for very long these days to see somebody taking pictures of their holiday and pronouncing their destination as “their happy place”. Normally this is by a pool somewhere or some sun drenched island. Up till October last year my happy place and city of choice, if I had to get away somewhere (and cash was no object) was Pittsburgh. Now the city of champions has been joined by another. Berlin.

I have visited Germany more than any other country. My first trip was back in 2009 when we went to watch the Imps take on Tus Celle FC on a pre-season tour. Through my work on the Woman’s World Football Show I took in trips to Düsseldorf and Koln in 2015 and 2017 respectively.  Although these cities were great I have to say they are not a patch on Berlin. I have to admit I wasn’t in a great place mentally when I was in Koln so maybe I am being unfair to that city and even though I thoroughly enjoyed Düsseldorf I didn’t get the same vibe as I did when I spent six days in Berlin.

So why have I taken two trips to Berlin in the past six months? Well a number of factors and the first one may seem shallow at first but who cares? Berlin is very affordable and there are plenty of teams to see if watching football is your thing. Although Berlin is the capital of Germany it doesn’t dominate the country the way London or Paris does. In Germany, Munich and Frankfurt are the most expensive cities to visit, followed by Hamburg and Stuttgart and then finally Berlin. I was tempted to visit Munich last year to see Bayern Munich’s woman’s team, but then after a spot of research I found that a six night stay in Berlin cost the same as three in Berlin. No brainer as they say.

Secondly, as I have grown older I have become more and more interested in the Cold War and the Warsaw Pact. I can’t really put a reason on why but part of it comes from the fact that it was a period in which I grew up in but knew nothing about. I was 10 when the Berlin wall came down and thus remember nothing about it or how significant a moment it was in history. Given that I am now 40 now I feel that it is definitely the most important event that has happened in my lifetime. I almost feel cheated that I didn’t realise what was going on. Most people in the UK and US will tell you that World War 2 ended in 1945 but ask people who lived behind the Iron curtain and they will tell you it really ended in 1989 and the more you research the Cold war era the more you find that to be true.

There are plenty of football clubs to watch in Berlin. Hertha Berlin is seen as the biggest club in the city and were the pride of West Berlin. Over in the East of the city you have Union Berlin who play in the second division and during the time of the DDR were the team of the people. In addition to the big two, you have a handful of clubs that play in the 4^th and 5^th divisions so you are never short of a game to watch on any given weekend. However there is one team that I wanted to see play and have fascinated me ever since I started visiting Germany and collecting Cold War football badges and programmes of the once feared and (still deeply unpopular in some quarters) Dynamo Berlin or to give them their current name Berliner FC Dynamo.

Across the eastern bloc many clubs were assigned to a certain working profession. Anything with Lokomotive in the name was for the railway workers, CSKA for the army and the most common one Dynamo for the secret police. Dynamo Berlin were the team of the Stasi, one of the most feared secret police services the world has ever seen. The Head of the Stasi and also the President of Dynamo Berlin was a chap by the name of Erich Mielke who had huge influence in East Germany and to be frank was a person who normally got his way and somebody you really didn’t want to piss off.

Currywurst. Looks awful,tastes fantastic.

After watching Dynamo Dresden dominate East German football but fail to make much of an impact in the European Cup, Mielke decided it was time for BFC to dominate instead and ordered the best players in Dresden to be transferred to Berlin and let “His Boys” have a go at bringing the European Cup to the DDR.  Domestic dominance was easily secured and Dynamo won the league for ten years in a row. Some say this was down to the club getting the pick of the best players and some questionable referring decisions, basically an East German version of Juventus. Like Juventus however they failed to make much impact on the European Cup with only three quarter final appearances being the best results. They did go on better in the Cup Winners Cup however making a semi final appearance in 71/72 before losing to the KGB (aka Dynamo Moscow) on penalties. One can only imagine the phone calls between East Berlin and Moscow during the build up to the second leg in that tie.  Although Dynmao never looked like winning the European Cup the club enjoyed fantastic nights against the likes of Liverpool ,Roma, Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest during the glory times. For the big games the club used the Friedrich Ludwig Jahn Sportpark close by to the wall. The stadium has changed very little since the heyday of the GDR and this and the Stasi connection is what made me want to learn much more about the club and take in one of their games. It is getting harder and harder to find proper old school stadiums across the Eastern Bloc nowadays sadly so that makes Dynamo a must see for anybody who truly appreciates historic football venues and clubs with real history.

Since the fall of the DDR times have been tough for BFC. The club went into rapid decline being placed in the 3^rd division after reunification and at times dropping down to the 5^th tier and filing for bankruptcy.  

Amazing as it is given my good looks January marked my 40^th year on this planet and to celebrate a jolly boys trip to Berlin was planned with a trip to watch Dynmao being one of the highlights. Most games kick off at 1.30 PM in Germany which is perfect as it gives you time to get to the nearest pub to watch the afternoon Bundesliga games before hitting the pubs for real in the evening.

The morning was spent checking out the East Side Gallery which is the longest section of complete Berlin wall left in the city. The wall has been decocted with graffiti by artists from all over the world with some though provoking messages and images. We were all feeling delicate after the night before and the sight of somebody casually strolling past the wall with a pint in hand at 9.45 AM in the morning didn’t make us feel much better.

After a stroll around Alexandraplatz the centre of the former East Berlin for some Currywurst it was finally time to head to the game. To reach the stadium you need to grab the U2 U-Bahn from Alexnarapaltz to Eberswalder Str which is three stops along the line, although I can’t remember the exact journey time it is less than ten minutes. If your inner German takes over and you want to know the precise journey time then just look at one of the maps of the lines at the station and it will tell you the journey time between the stop you are at and any other on the line which is pretty helpful and accurate. Public transport in Germany is world class and puts the crock of shite we get here to shame. The fact it is much cheaper as well is the final kick in the teeth! On all of my trips to the fatherland I have never had a problem with the U-Bhan,S-Bhans or trams whereas I can’t remember the last time that I went to London and all of the underground was fully working with no problems on the network. And don’t get me started on Northern Fucking Rail...

Anyway we arrived at the stadium with plenty of time to spare so we took a stroll around the area. The ground is very close to where the wall once ran and is next door to Mauer Park (Wall Park in German.) The ground is raised up on a hill and given that the weather wasn’t great there were very few people about and no pubs open. The outer wall of the stadium, like much of Berlin is covered in graffiti but I have to say that for the most part this actually works with some great images and designs and not the standard “Anna gives head” etc that you get around these parts. Next to the stadium is an indoor stadium that appears to be home to the local handball team as well as a concert venue. What’s shocking here is that German legend David Hasselhoff’s gig in October has yet to sell out. Apparently the gig is part of his World Tour which features dates in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and.... that’s it!

As you approach the stadium tickets are on sale for €12 and €8 for concessions at a little hut on your right hand side. Normally Dynamo fans are seated in the sections opposite the main stand however with crowds being poor this season, for most games in the second half of the season the home fans are located in the lower tier of the main stand, which is somewhat of a bargain as it normally costs €18 to sit here. In the clubs heyday you would imagine this section of the stadium being full of Stasi top brass watching on as Dynamo took the pitch to contest European Cup games. As you go through the security and walk up the steps a couple of girls were selling programmes for €2, it was a decent enough effort and was a double issue that covered today’s match and also the midweek game against league leaders Chemmitzer.

Stadium approach.

The stadium is all seated with a running track around it. Below us some of the Dynamo fans were pinning up an impressive range of flags and banners. Amongst them was the flag of East Germany which is not something you see every day in Germany. At the moment there is a debate in Germany as to whether it is right to fly the old flag. In my view the only people whose views count on this matter are the former citizens of the DDR. Many people are still proud of their former country and fear that history is being taken from them. I get the feeling a lot of people in the east don’t really feel they are seeing the benefit of reunification. The banned flag of East Germany would be seen by them as yet another attack upon themselves by people who understand very little about life in the East post 1989. Away from the flags, the beer and food stalls are setting up and doing a steady trade. Normally I am first in the queue for a beer at a football game in Germany but a combination of a hangover from the previous night and the cold and wind made the thought of a beer far from appealing. Thankfully the club shop was located inside the stand and had a great range of merchandise for sale. I bagged a scarf to match the hat a bought the last time I was in Berlin and I was ready to go.  

It has to be said that the game wasn’t a classic and to be fair looking at the league standings it was never going to be. Dynamo have been struggling this time around after finishing second last season but following the winter break they have slowly started to pull away from the relegation zone. The same cannot be said for their opponents Optik Rathanhow who have been rock bottom all season long and taken a grand total of 2 points away from home all season up to this point (they have improved slightly since this). The whole game really was a case of attack versus with Rathanhow placing eleven men behind the ball all match. Even when Dynamo took the lead (after missing a hatful of chances) the visitors approach didn’t change and it almost felt as if they were just happy to keep the score down and get out of Berlin as soon as possible. They did come into the game a little more in the second half as Dynamo continued to make and miss chances but in truth they never really looked like getting anything from the game. The final score of 1-0 to the home team didn’t reflect their total dominance.

Half time refreshments came in the shape of a brockwurst. A lot of people when they first encounter one of these wonder why the sausage is longer than the bread and there is a simple answer to this. The bread’s main function is to stop you burning your hand while you eat the sausage nothing more nothing less. It was also the only food on sale so if you didn’t want one then it’s tough, but at only €2.50 it’s a total bargain.

I have been looking forward to this visit for a while but before-hand I did have one slight concern. I had read on various sites that Dynamo had a right wing element in their support that can be quite nasty. Thankfully I can say that I didn’t experience any of that on this trip and although there were one or two people looked a tad on the scary side, the fan-base was a good mix of folks across the social spectrum. This was a low key game but the fans still tried to get the chants going even though the weather and the game weren’t really conducive to getting an atmosphere going.

Overall this was a great experience and one that if you love historic clubs - you have to visit. I would love to see Dynamo get into the 3^rd division then maybe the fans would return as would visits from bigger clubs which in turn would hopefully help get a few more home fans through the gate. Dynamo will probably never again reach the top division let alone add to their ten championships and appearances on the European stage but they will always have those memories that the fans hold dear as the club motto “A light that never goes out” implies.