Berliner FC Dynamo

Berliner FC Dynamo

logo
Full name	Berliner Fussball Club Dynamo e.V.
Nickname(s)	"The Wine Reds", "The Hohenschönhausners"
Founded	1953, 1966
Ground	Dynamo-Sportforum, Friedrich Ludwig Jahn Sportpark
Capacity	10,000/ 20,000
Chairman	Mario Weinkauf
Manager	Nico Thomaschewski
League	NOFV-Oberliga Nord (IV)
2005-06	6th
Home colours Away colours

Berliner FC Dynamo (commonly Dynamo Berlin) is a German football club and is the successor organization to the club that played in East Berlin as Dynamo Berlin from 1953 to 1966.

History

Founding and Stasi patronage

A predecessor side to the current-day club was established as SpVgg Dynamo Berlin on March 27, 1953 and then re-christened as SC Dynamo Berlin on October 1, 1954. Initially a local side, the team was promoted to the DDR-Liga (II) in 1957 and captured the division championship that year to immediately advance to the DDR Oberliga. Dynamo enjoyed some success in the late 50s and early 60s with a number of top-three finishes and an East German Cup win in 1959. However, by 1963 their play had fallen off and they had become a lower table side leading to their relegation in 1967.

The club was re-established on January 15, 1966 as BFC Dynamo Berlin when the football department was spun off as part of a general re-organization of football in the country. The team members of Dynamo Dresden, one of the better teams in East Germany at the time, were ordered to leave for the capital to establish a competitive side in Berlin while the Dresden club was left to carry on using its second team players. Dynamo Berlin quickly returned to first division play after a single season absence and would soon become infamous under the patronage of Erich Mielke, head of East Germany's Stasi (the secret police), for the various means used to manipulate the outcome of the team's games and ensure its dominance.

Playing in the DDR-Oberliga BFC won ten consecutive titles from 1979 to 1988 assisted by crooked referees, unfair player transfers from other teams and assorted other unsportmanlike practices. Dynamo was reviled by many of the citizens of Berlin and the cheating was so blatant that it incurred the unofficially expressed displeasure of the country's ruling Politburo. Manipulation of the 1986 championship match between Dynamo and Lokomotive Leipzig which ended in a 1:1 draw that handed Dynamo its eighth title led to nationwide protests, but resulted only in sanctions against referee Bernd Stumpf.

File:Dynamo 3.png

The original SC Dynamo logo ca. 1954 and logos in use by FC Berlin ca. 1990-99.

After German re-unification in 1990 the side was re-named FC Berlin in an attempt to re-package it and distance it from its unsavory past, but in 1999, they again took up the name BFC Dynamo. Without its powerful partron, the side quickly fell to tier III play and since the 2000-01 season has toiled in IV or V division leagues. The team went bankrupt in 2001-02 but was required by the DFB (Deutscher Fussball Bund or German Football Association) to play out the balance of its games for the season as "mandatory friendlies", which did not count in league standings, using available third string players – not an uncommon practise in these types of circumstances. The farce was played out in a series of lopsided defeats.

Championship stars controversy

In 2004, the DFB (Deutscher Fussball Bund or German Football Association) introduced the Verdiente Meistervereine – a system to honor the most successful teams in Bundesliga history awarding one star for three titles, two stars for five, and three stars for ten – allowing qualifying teams to display on their jerseys the stars they have earned. Dynamo Berlin petitioned the league to have their East German titles recognized, but received no reply. They eventually took matters into their own hands and emblazoned their jerseys with three stars. This caused considerable debate given the tainted nature of their championships, and more generally, that the DFB did not recognize East German championships, only those championships won since the 1963 formation of the Bundesliga. The issue also affected other former East German teams including Dynamo Dresden (8 titles), Vorwärts Berlin (6), SC Wismut Karl Marx Stadt, FC Carl Zeiss Jena, 1. FC Magdeburg, and Lok Leipzig (3 titles each).

The DFB has since updated this practise by broadening recognition to include all national level men's competitions since 1903 (when the first recognized national championship was staged), including those of the former East Germany, as well as all women's competitions since 1974. In addition, new standards for how championship stars are to be displayed on a team's uniform have been established. The DFB governs the use of championship stars and a club must have that governing bodies approval before displaying any such badge.

Dynamo recently began use of the championship star in accordance with DFB graphic standards, displaying a star bearing the number 10 over the team logo in the current team photo and on the sponsorship page of their website. (March 2007).

Stadiums

The home of the club is the stadium at the Sportforum Hohenschönhausen built in 1970. It has a capacity of 10,000 spectators (~2,000 seats) and is part of a larger sports complex opened in 1986 with facilities for speed skating, athletics, and cycling. When opened it offered the world's first covered indoor speed skating oval. The football stadium was renovated in 2005-06 to include fences and player tunnels required to meet security standards. Dynamo will play more important games – European Cup matches for example – in the larger, more secure Friedrich Ludwig Jahn Sportpark which was known as the Stadion der Weltjugend (Stadium of the World Youth) until being re-named after German reunification in 1990.

Club culture

The BFC has rivalries with Dynamo Dresden, Türkiyemspor Berlin, 1. FC Magdeburg, FC Sachsen Leipzig, and Union Berlin while enjoying friendly relations with Hertha BSC Berlin and VFL Bochum.

Team trivia

After German re-unification many former East German clubs rushed to drop the names they were often forced to bear during the Communist era and return to traditional names used prior to the end of World War II. Dynamo was among the clubs to do so, becoming FC Berlin. However, like many others of these clubs they found more value and fan recognition in the names they had played under in East Germany and so returned to the names they used while playing in the DDR.

Dynamo's situation was complicated when they neglected to copyright their old moniker and found that when they tried to recover it, that they no longer held exclusive rights to its use, having to share it with sports souvenir seller Peter "Pepe" Mager who laid claim to the orphaned name in 1997. Dynamo has since been working to recover exclusive rights.

Current squad (2006-07 season)

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
1	GK	GER	Nico Thomaschewski
23	GK	GER	Dirk Brändike
0	GK	GER	Philipp Müller
03	DF	GER	Jörn Lenz
04	DF	GER	Robert Pocrnic
05	DF	GER	Robert Rudwaleit
07	MF	CRO	Davor Krznaric
08	MF	GER	Oliver Kullik
09	FW	CRO	Robert Kovacic
10	MF	GER	Dennis Kutrieb
11	FW	GER	Christian Ritter
02	MF	GER	Patrick Boese

No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
12	MF	GER	Daniel Schmele
13	FW	GER	Jeff Kayser
15	MF	GER	Manuel Benthin
16	MF	GER	Michél Seckler
18	DF	GER	Sebastian Steinich
20	DF	GER	Sofiane Benbrahim
21	MF	GER	Eric Palmer
24	DF	GER	Jens Manteufel
27	MF	GER	Jan Lorenz
37	DF	GER	Alexander Jakowitz
00	MF	ALB	Valon Strada

Famous players

Hendryk Lau (1976; 2005-2006) Christian Backs (1973–1991) Waldemar Ksienzyk (1984–1991) Burkhard Reich (1986–1991) Hendrik Herzog (1981–1991) Thomas Doll (1986–1990) Rainer Ernst (1975–1990) Andreas Thom (1984–1990)

Frank Rohde (1971–1990) Bodo Rudwaleit (1969–1990) Norbert Trieloff (1972–1987) Frank Terletzki (1966–1986) Wolf-Rüdiger Netz (1971–1984) Michael Noack (1974–1984) Falko Götz (1971–1983) Hans-Jürgen Riediger (1970–1983)

Reinhard Lauck † (1973–1980) Lutz Eigendorf † (1970-1974) Werner Lihsa (1967–1975) Martin Skaba (1955–1967) Werner Heine (1955–1966) Günter Schröter (1954–1963)

A casualty of the Cold War was one time Dynamo player Lutz Eigendorf, who fled East Germany in 1979 to come to the west to play for 1. FC Kaiserslautern. Shortly after his transfer to Eintracht Braunschweig in 1983, he died from injuries suffered in a suspicious motor vehicle accident which investigation by journalists revealed to have been the assassination of a "traitor" arranged by the Stasi, East Germany's secret police.

Trainers

1954-1973 Helmut Petzold 1954-1956 (from Dresden) Istvan Orczifalvi/Fritz Bachmann 1957–1958 Fritz Bachmann 1959 Janos Gyarmati 1961-62 Fritz Gödicke 1962-1965 Karl Schäffner 1965-66 Bela Volentik 1966-67 Karl Schäffner 1967-1969 Hans Geitel 1969-1971 Günter Schröter 1972-73 Harry Nippert 1974-1977

1977-2003 Jürgen Bogs 1977-1989 Helmut Jäschke 1989-90 Peter Rohde 1989-1991 Jürgen Bogs 1990-1994 Helmut Koch 1994-1996 Werner Voigt 1996-1998 Ingo Rentzsch 1997-98 Henry Häusler 1998-99 Klaus Goldbach 1999-2000 Jürgen Bogs 2000-01 Dirk Vollmar 2002-03

2003- Sven Orbanke 2002-04 Christian Backs 2004-05 Bodo Rudwaleit 2004-05 Rajko Fijalek 2004-05 Jürgen Piepenburg 2005-06 Rajko Fijalek 2006-07 Nico Thomaschewski, Jörn Lenz 2006-07 Ingo Rentzsch 2006-07 Nico Thomaschewski, Jörn Lenz 2006-07 Uluc Volkan 2007

Honours

Dynamo Berlin was East Germany's most successful club capturing 10 national titles, and is second in the country only to Bayern Munich who have 20 national titles to their credit. Those 10 titles came consecutively - a feat no other team in Germany has matched at the top level of competition.

• East German champions (DDR-Oberliga): 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988
• East German Cup (FDGB Pokal): 1959, 1988, 1989
• Supercup: 1989
• Paul Rusch Cup: 1999
• Oberliga Nord (IV) champions: 2002

Dynamo club member and referee Lutz-Michael Fröhlich was awarded the 2007 Fair Play Trophy as selected by German journalists. Fröhlich has over 200 first division matches to his credit and was recognized for his even-handed treatment of Michael Ballack in a November 6, 2004 match between Bayern Munich and Hannover 96, withdrawing a yellow card that would have put the player out of the match after consulting with his assistant over the correctness of the call. He was also a leading figure in uncovering the match fixing scandal of 2005 involving referee Robert Hoytzer.

BFC Dynamo in European competitions

File:Bfcdyne.png

The original European-Cup-Logo from the GDR. The actually rights lies by "Pepe" from Berlin (2007) Therefore the BFC have an other style and not by this original, because they have other logos in the 1990's and "Pepe" has earned the exclusive rights.

Season	Competition	Round	Land	Club	Score
1971/1972	European Clubs' Champions Cup	1st round		Cardiff City	1:1, 1:1, 5:6 (a.p.)
		1/8 final		K. Beerschot V.A.C.	3:1, 3:1
		quarter-final		Åtvidabergs FF	2:0, 2:2
		semi-final		FC Dynamo Moscow	1:1, 1:1, 4:1 (a.p.)
1972/73	UEFA Cup	1st round		Angers SCO	1:1, 2:1
		2nd round		PFC Levski Sofia	3:0, 0:2
		1/8 final		Liverpool FC	0:0, 1:3
1976/77	UEFA Cup	1st round		Shakhtar Donetsk	0:3, 1:1
1978/79	UEFA Cup	1st round		Red Star Belgrade	5:2, 1:4
1979/80	European Clubs' Champions Cup	1st round		Ruch Chorzów	4:1, 0:0
		1/8 round		Servette FC	2:1, 2:2
		quarter-final		Nottingham Forest	1:0, 1:3
1980/81	European Clubs' Champions Cup	1st round		APOEL Nicosia	3:0, 1:2
		1/8 final		Baník Ostrava	0:0, 1:1
1981/82	European Clubs' Champions Cup	1st round		FC Zürich	2:0, 1:3
		1/8 final		Aston Villa	1:2, 1:0
1982/83	European Clubs' Champions Cup	1st round		Hamburger SV	1:1, 0:2
1983/84	European Clubs' Champions Cup	1st round		Jeunesse Esch	4:1, 2:0
		1/8 final		Partizan Belgrade	2:0, 0:1
		quarter-final		AS Roma	0:3, 2:1
1984/85	European Clubs' Champions Cup	1st round		Aberdeen FC	1:2, 2-1, 5:4 (a.p.)
		1/8 final		FK Austria Wien	3:3, 1:2
1985/86	European Clubs' Champions Cup	1st round		FK Austria Wien	0:2, 1:2
1986/87	European Clubs' Champions Cup	1st round		Örgryte IS	3:2, 4:1
		1/8 final		Brøndby IF	1-2, 1-1
1987/88	European Clubs' Champions Cup	1st round		Girondins de Bordeaux	0:2, 0:2
1987/88	European Clubs' Champions Cup	1st round		Werder Bremen	3:0, 0:5
1989/90	European Clubs' Champions Cup	1st round		Valur	2:1, 2:1
		1/8 final		AS Monaco	0:0, 1:1

External links

• Official team site Template:De icon
• The Abseits Guide to German Soccer
• Facts and Figures Template:De icon
• das deutsche Fuβball-Archiv (Historical German league results archive) Template:De icon

See also

• Ultras (fan sub-culture)
• Verdiente Meistervereine (Recognition system for national football championships in Germany)
• Dynamo

References

52°32′27″N 13°28′34″E