From: smk@dcs.ed.ac.uk (Stefan Kahrs)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.soccer
Subject: Berlin (was: Re: Norwegian results from July (*long*))
Date: 22 Jul 92 12:40:18 GMT
Distribution: rec
Organization: University of Edinburgh, LFCS
In-reply-to: larsaa@ifi.uio.no's message of 21 Jul 92 17:47:45 GMT

In article <CMM.0.90.2.711740865.larsaa@holmenkollen.ifi.uio.no> larsaa@ifi.uio.no (Lars Thore Aarhus) writes:

LTA    My second game was in Berlin last Saturday when Hertha BSC took on
LTA   St.Pauli from Hamburg in the first round (of 46 !!) in the 2.Bundesliga.
LTA   Up until the match-day I thought that Hertha played at the big
LTA   Olympic-stadium and that I finally should get an opportunity to watch
LTA   a game in a really BIG stadium (> 80.000) but it wasn't to be. By some reason 
LTA   the game was played in the former East-Berlin in Jahn-sportpark 
LTA   which had a capacity of only 25.000 and used to host clubs like
LTA   Dynamo Berlin (now FC Berlin) and Union Berlin from former
LTA   East-Germany I guess. The stadium was nevertheless more than big

The Jahn-Sportpark used to host BFC Dynamo Berlin, but
1.FC Union Berlin always had its own stadium. Those two clubs (and their
fans) were not very friendly to each other -- Union Berlin was
the club of the underdogs, Dynamo Berlin the club of the security police.

Hertha BSC went to there some time ago,
because the team was not longer able to (even remotely)
fill the Olympia-Stadion, so this was a cheaper alternative.

LTA   enough for the occation since only 11.500 spectators from this 
LTA   milion-city found it worth while turning up. Despite this small
LTA   attendance the ticket-system was a mess, which resulted in me missing
LTA   the first quarter of the game after queueing for 30 minutes. This
LTA   was in sharp contrast to the other German stadiums I've visited
LTA   (Niedersachsen (Hannover 96) and Olympic-stadium in Munich (Bayern
LTA   Muenchen)) where everything went very smoothly despite much larger
LTA   crowds as well. 
LTA
LTA    The game itself was dominated by Hertha which got an 2-0 lead early
LTA   on. St.Pauli pulled one back right before the break and equalised
LTA   three minutes from time on a slightly dubious penalty which sent the
LTA   homefans up from their seats screaming at the referee. This reaction
LTA   summed up the game to me, overall the crowd was rather hostile at
LTA   least by Norwegian standards constantly raising from their seats and 
LTA   yelling at the St.Pauli-players and the referee. I wonder if all 
LTA   German matches are like this, to me it was a bit frightening. One
LTA   other thing I noticed was the exceptionally large number of policemen
LTA   for an ordinary 2.Bundesliga-game. After the game finished (it ended
LTA   2-2) there were policemen and sirens everywhere so I deceided to
LTA   keep a low profile and just walked back to the centre. According to
LTA   the newspaper 50 policecars packed with policemen were present to take
LTA   care of the only 400 travelling St.Pauli fans. I though that the
LTA   St.Pauli-fans had a reputation ,despite their location ,as a friendly
LTA   bunch of people genuinely interested in football, or is it the 
LTA   Hertha-fans which are violent ? I know about the crowd-trouble in
LTA   the former East-Germany and especially with FC. Berlin a few years ago,
LTA   but is this usual in German football or is Berlin the exception ? 
LTA   I can't remember anything like this neither in Hannover nor Munich. 
LTA   Any comments from readers in Germany are most welcome.

The Hertha-fans have traditionally a very bad reputation in Germany.
Also the old Dynamo fans might still go to their old stadion --
remember they are now unemployed security policemen;
moreover, they are not used to referees who don't favour their team.

So I guess the attention of the police was more due to Berliners,
but it is always easier for the police to concentrate on the guests
to avoid any conflict with the home crowd.

--
Stefan Kahrs