Hertha BSC

Hertha BSC

Club logo 1999–2012
Full name	Hertha Berliner Sport-Club von 1892 e.V.
Nickname(s)	Die Alte Dame (The Old Lady) Die Blau-Weißen (The Blue-Whites)
Founded	25 July 1892 (1892-07-25)
Ground	Olympic Stadium, Berlin
Ground Capacity	74,475
President	Werner Gegenbauer
Director of sport	Michael Preetz
Coach	Pál Dárdai
League	Bundesliga
2014–15	15th
Website	Club home page
Home colours Away colours Third colours

Hertha Berliner Sport-Club von 1892, commonly known as Hertha BSC or Hertha Berlin (German pronunciation: [ˈhɛʁtaː beː ʔɛs t͡seː]), is a German association football club based in Berlin. Hertha BSC was founded in 1892. A founding member of the German Football Association in Leipzig in 1900. Hertha BSC play in the Bundesliga, the top-tier division of German football, after finishing at the top of the 2. Bundesliga table at the end of the 2012–13 season. Hertha BSC have won the German championship in 1930 and 1931. Since 1963, Hertha BSC's stadium is the Olympiastadion.

History

Early years

The club was formed in 1892 as BFC Hertha 92, taking its name from a steamship with a blue and white smokestack. One of the four young men who founded the club had taken a day trip on this ship with his father. The name Hertha is a variation on Nerthus referring to fertility goddess from Germanic mythology.

The ship that gave name to the club.

Hertha performed consistently well on the field, including a win in the first Berlin championship final in 1905. In May 1910, Hertha won a friendly match against Southend United F.C., which was considered significant at the time as England was where the game originated and English clubs dominated the sport. However, their on-field success was not matched financially and in 1920 the staunchly working-class Hertha merged with the well-heeled club Berliner Sport-Club to form Hertha Berliner Sport-Club. The new team continued to enjoy considerable success in the Oberliga Berlin-Brandenburg, while also enduring a substantial measure of frustration. The team played its way to the German championship final in six consecutive seasons from 1926 to 1931, but were only able to come away with the title in 1930 and 1931 with BSC leaving to become an independent club again after the combined side's first championship. Even so, Hertha emerged as the Germany's second most successful team during the inter-war years.

Play under the Third Reich

German football was re-organized under the Third Reich in 1933 into sixteen top-flight divisions, which saw Hertha playing in the Gauliga Berlin-Brandenburg. The club continued to enjoy success within their division, regularly finishing in the upper half of the table and capturing the divisional title in 1935, 1937, and 1944. However, they faded from prominence, unable to advance out of the early rounds of the national championship rounds. Politically, the club was overhauled under Hitler, with Hans Pfeifer, a Nazi party member being installed as president.

Postwar play

After World War II, occupying Allied authorities banned most organizations in Germany, including sports and football clubs. Hertha was re-formed late in 1945 as SG Gesundbrunnen and resumed play in the Oberliga Berlin – Gruppe C. The thirty-six teams of the first season of the postwar Oberliga Berlin were reduced to just a dozen the next year and the club found itself out of first division football and playing in the Amateurliga Berlin. By the end of 1949, they had re-claimed their identity as Hertha BSC Berlin and earned a return to the top-flight.

Tensions between the western Allies and the Soviets occupying various sectors of the city, and the developing Cold War, led to chaotic conditions for football in the capital. Hertha was banned from playing against East German teams in the 1949–50 season after taking on several players and a coach who had fled the Dresden club SG Friedrichstadt for West Berlin. A number of sides from the eastern half of the city were forced from the Oberliga Berlin to the newly established DDR-Liga beginning with the 1950–51 season.

Through the 50's an intense rivalry developed with Tennis Borussia Berlin. A proposal for a merger between the two clubs in 1958 was resoundingly rejected, with only three of the 266 members voting in favour.

Being a major Berlin side, Hertha had fans in the whole of Berlin, but following the division of the city, supporters in East Berlin found if both difficult and dangerous to follow their beloved team. In interviews with the long time supporter Helmut Klopfleisch, he describes his difficulties as a supporter in East Berlin. Klopfleisch came from the district of Pankow and attending his first home match as a young boy in 1954 he became an instant supporter. He continued to attend home matches at the stadium, but with the construction of the Berlin wall in 1961, this became impossible. Despite this, he did not give up. By this time, Hertha played at the Stadion am Gesundbrunnen, nicknamed Die Plumpe. The stadium was located close enough to the Berlin wall for the sounds from the stadium to be heard over the wall. Thus, Klopfleisch and other supporter gathered behind the wall to listen to the home matches. When the crowd at the stadium cheered, Klopfleisch and the others cheered as well. Klopfleisch later came under suspicion by Stasi, the East German secret police. He was arrested and interrogated at numerous occasions. He also had his passport confiscated and eventually lost his job as an electrician.

Entry to the Bundesliga

At the time of the formation of the Bundesliga in 1963, Hertha was Berlin's reigning champion and so became an inaugural member of the new professional national league. In spite of finishing clear of the relegation zone, the team was demoted after the 1964–65 season following attempts to bribe players to play in the city under what had become decidedly unpleasant circumstances after the erection of the Berlin Wall. This caused something of a crisis for the Bundesliga which wanted, for political reasons, to continue to have a team in its ranks representing the former capital. Through various machinations this led to the promotion of SC Tasmania 1900 Berlin, which then delivered the worst-ever performance in Bundesliga history. Hertha managed a return to the premier German league in 1968–69 and developed a solid following, making it Berlin's favorite side.

However, Hertha was again soon touched by scandal through its involvement with several other clubs in the Bundesliga match fixing scandal of 1971. In the course of an investigation of Hertha's role, it was also revealed that the club was 6 million DM in debt. Financial disaster was averted through the sale of the team's former home ground.

In spite of this, the team continued to enjoy a fair measure of success on the field through the 70's with a second place Bundesliga finish behind Borussia Mönchengladbach in 1974–75, a semi-final appearance in the 1979 UEFA Cup, and two appearances in the final of the German Cup (1977 and 1979). The following season saw the fortunes of the team take a turn for the worse as they were relegated to 2. Bundesliga where they would spend thirteen of the next seventeen seasons.

Plans in 1982 for a merger with Tennis Borussia Berlin, SpVgg Blau-Weiß 1890 Berlin and SCC Berlin to form a side derisively referred to as FC Utopia never came to fruition. Hertha slipped as low as the third tier Amateur Oberliga Berlin where they spent two seasons (1986–87 and 1987–88). Two turns in the Bundesliga (1982–83 and 1990–91) saw the team immediately relegated after poor performances. Hertha's amateur side enjoyed a greater measure of success, advancing all the way to the final of the German Cup in 1993 where their run ended in a close 0–1 defeat at the hands of Bundesliga side Bayer Leverkusen.

Following the fall of the Berlin Wall, Hertha became a popular side in East Berlin as well. Two days after the wall came down, 11,000 East Berliners attended Hertha's match against SG Wattenscheid. A fan friendship with 1. FC Union Berlin developed, and a friendly match between the two attracted over 50,000 spectators.

Financial woes once more burdened the club in 1994 as it found itself 10 million DM in debt. The crisis was again resolved through the sale of real estate holdings in addition to the signing of a new sponsor and management team. By 1997 Hertha found its way back to the Bundesliga where they generally managed to finish in the upper third of the slate. When Hertha was promoted in 1997, it ended Berlin's six-year-long drought without a Bundesliga side which had made the Bundesliga the only top league in Europe without representation from its country's biggest city and capital.

Recent history

Two years in a row, Hertha's opening Bundesliga fixture was against Eintracht Frankfurt.

Most recently, bright spots for the side have been a continuous string of appearances in international play in the UEFA Cup and the UEFA Champions League beginning in the 1999 season, and the signing of players such as Sebastian Deisler and Brazilian international Marcelinho, named the Bundesliga's player of the year in May 2005. Hertha has also invested heavily in its own youth football academy, which has produced several players with Bundesliga potential.

The Ostkurve at the Olympiastadion.

The team was almost relegated in the 2003–04 season, but rebounded and finished fourth the following season, but missed out on the Champions League after they were held to a draw on the final day by Hannover 96, which saw Werder Bremen overtake them for the spot on the final day. As a thank-you gesture, Werder sent the Hannover squad ninety-six bottles of champagne. In 2005–06 the Herthaner finished sixth, qualified for the UEFA Cup by defeating FK Moskva in the Intertoto Cup but were eliminated in the first round of the UEFA Cup by Odense BK. In 2006–07 Hertha finished 10th after sacking manager Falko Götz on 11 April. Hertha started the 2007–08 season with a new manager, Lucien Favre who had won the Swiss Championship in 2006 and 2007 with FC Zürich. They finished 10th again, but started in the first qualification round of the UEFA Cup via the Fair Play Ranking, making it as far as the group stage in the tournament. After a successful campaign in 2008–09 season, finishing in fourth place and remaining in the title race up until the second to last matchday, they had a very poor season in 2009–10 season and finished at the very bottom of the Bundesliga.

After spending the 2010–2011 season in the 2. Bundesliga, Hertha BSC secured their return to the Bundesliga for the 2011–12 season by winning 1–0 at MSV Duisburg, with three matchdays left to go in the season. However, Hertha finished 16th in the 2011–12 Bundesliga and lost in a controversial relegation playoff tournament to Fortuna Dusseldorf.

In 2012–13, Hertha achieved promotion from the second division as champions for the second time in three seasons. On the opening day of the 2013–14 season, Hertha beat Eintracht Frankfurt 6–1 at the Olympiastadion to top the Bundesliga table at the end of matchday 1.

At the half way point of the 2015–16 Bundesliga Season Hertha Berlin lies in 3rd place, their highest position at the winter break since the 2008–2009 season.

Stadium

The Olympiastadion

Since 1963, Hertha BSC has played its matches in Berlin's Olympiastadion, originally built for the 1936 Summer Olympics.

The stadium has a permanent capacity of 74,475 seats, making it the largest stadium in Germany in terms of seating capacity and the second largest stadium in Germany, behind the Signal Iduna Park in Dortmund, in terms of total capacity. For certain football matches, such as those against FC Bayern München, the capacity can be temporarily expanded. This is made by the addition of mobile grandstand over the Marathon Arch. The extended capacity reached 76,197 seats in 2014.

The stadium underwent major renovations twice, in 1974 and from 2000 to 2004. In both cases, the renovations were for the upcoming World Cup. In the 1974 upgrades, the stadium received a partial roof. It underwent a thorough modernisation for the 2006 World Cup. In addition, the colour of the track was changed to blue to match Hertha's club colours. In addition to Hertha's home games, Olympiastadion serves as one of the home grounds for the German national football team, and it hosts concerts, track and field competitions, and the annual German Cup final. It was also the site for six matches of the 2006 FIFA World Cup including the tournament final.

From 1904, Hertha's home ground was the Plumpe in the city's Gesundbrunnen district . A stadium was built there in 1923 with a capacity of 35,000 (3,600 seats). The club left the stadium when it joined the Bundesliga in 1963. Hertha returned to the site during the Regionalliga years from 1965 to 1968. The sale of the site in 1971 helped the club avoid bankruptcy.

Due to a lack of spectator interest, Hertha played their 2nd Bundesliga and Amateurliga matches from 1986 to 1989 in Poststadion. The opening fixtures of the 1992–93 season, as well as Intertoto Cup, and UEFA Cup qualifying matches were played at the Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Sportpark.

Players

For recent transfers, see List of German football transfers summer 2015 and List of German football transfers winter 2014–15.

Current squad

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

No. Position Player 1 GK Thomas Kraft 2 DF Peter Pekarík (vice-captain) 3 MF Per Ciljan Skjelbred 5 MF Niklas Stark 6 MF Vladimír Darida 8 FW Salomon Kalou 9 MF Alexander Baumjohann 10 MF Änis Ben-Hatira 11 FW Sami Allagui 12 MF Ronny 13 MF Jens Hegeler 14 MF Valentin Stocker 15 DF Sebastian Langkamp 16 FW Julian Schieber

No. Position Player 17 MF Tolga Ciğerci 18 MF Sinan Kurt 19 FW Vedad Ibišević 20 MF Mitchell Weiser 21 DF Marvin Plattenhardt 22 GK Rune Jarstein 23 DF Johannes van den Bergh 24 MF Genki Haraguchi 25 DF John Brooks 27 MF Roy Beerens 28 DF Fabian Lustenberger (captain) 34 DF Maximilian Mittelstädt 35 GK Marius Gersbeck 39 DF Yanni Regäsel

Players out on loan

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

No. Position Player GK Sascha Burchert (at Vålerenga Fotball) MF Hajime Hosogai (at Bursaspor)

Hertha BSC II

Main article: Hertha BSC II

Player records

Michael Preetz is Hertha's top goalscorer

Pál Dárdai is Hertha's most capped player

As 9 March 2010

• Most league appearances – 366; Pál Dárdai
• Most league goals scored – 93; Michael Preetz

"Squad of the Century"

For the club's 111th birthday, Hertha fans elected the "Squad of the Century".

Pos	Player	Period
GK	Gábor Király *	1997–2004
DF	Arne Friedrich	2002–10
DF	Ludwig Müller	1972–75
DF	Uwe Kliemann	1974–80
DF	Eyjólfur Sverrisson	1995–2003
MF	Kjetil Rekdal	1997–2000
MF	Hanne Sobek	1924–45
MF	Erich Beer	1971–79
MF	Marcelinho *	2001–06
FW	Axel Kruse	1989–91 1996–98
FW	Michael Preetz	1996–2003
Substitutes
GK	Norbert Nigbur	1976–79
DF	Hans Weiner	1972–79 1982–86
DF	Otto Rehhagel	1962–66
MF	Lorenz Horr	1969–77
FW	Karl-Heinz Granitza	1976–79

* Player is still active.

Coaches

Current staff

Name	Position
Pal Dardai	Head coach
Rainer Widmayer	Assistant coach
Zsolt Petry	Goalkeeping coach
Henrik Kuchno	Fitness coach

Coaches since 1963

Main article: List of Hertha BSC managers

As of 19 April 2013

No.	Coach	From	To	Matches	W
						D	L	Win %	Trophies Won
1	Jupp Schneider	1 July 1963	9 March 1965	55	16	14	25	29.09	None
2	Gerhard Schulte	9 March 1965	30 June 1966	38	32	3	3	84.21	1965–66 Regionalliga Berlin
3	Helmut Kronsbein	1 July 1966	13 March 1974	223	92	53	78	41.26	None
4	Hans "Gustav" Eder	17 March 1974	30 June 1974	9	3	1	5	33.33	None
5	Dettmar Cramer	1 July 1974	9 July 1974	0	0	0	0	!—	None
6	Hans "Gustav" Eder	10 July 1974	16 July 1974	0	0	0	0	!—	None
7	Georg Kessler	17 July 1974	30 June 1977	118	54	26	38	45.76	None
8	Kuno Klötzer	1 July 1977	27 October 1979	94	38	25	31	40.43	None
9	Hans "Gustav" Eder	28 October 1979	26 December 1979	7	1	3	3	14.29	None
10	Helmut Kronsbein	27 December 1979	30 June 1980	19	8	3	8	42.11	None
11	Uwe Klimaschewski	1 July 1980	8 December 1981	62	41	5	16	66.13	None
12	Georg Gawliczek	9 December 1981	10 December 1983	59	20	15	24	33.90	None
13	Martin Luppen	11 December 1983	25 May 1984	43	16	12	15	37.21	None
14	Hans "Gustav" Eder	26 May 1984	30 June 1984	0	0	0	0	!—	None
15	Uwe Kliemann	1 July 1984	11 November 1985	61	16	23	22	26.23	None
16	Hans "Gustav" Eder	11 November 1985	31 December 1985	1	0	1	0	00.00	None
17	Rudi Gutendorf	1 January 1986	18 April 1986	13	2	5	6	15.38	None
18	Jürgen Sundermann	19 April 1986	8 October 1988	18	4	5	9	22.22	None
19	Werner Fuchs	13 October 1988	13 November 1990	79	33	22	24	41.77	1989–90 2. Bundesliga
20	Pál Csernai	13 November 1990	12 March 1991	6	1	3	2	16.67	None
21	Peter Neururer	13 March 1991	28 May 1991	12	0	2	10	00.00	None
22	Karsten Heine	28 May 1991	30 June 1991	3	1	0	2	33.33	None
23	Bernd Stange	1 July 1991	20 August 1992	41	14	12	15	34.15	None
24	Günter Sebert	21 August 1992	20 October 1993	55	24	19	12	43.64	None
25	Karsten Heine	20 October 1993	23 October 1993	1	0	0	1	00.00	None
26	Uwe Reinders	24 October 1993	23 March 1994	11	2	4	5	18.18	None
27	Karsten Heine	23 March 1994	31 December 1995	70	23	23	24	32.86	None
28	Jürgen Röber	1 January 1996	6 February 2002	227	112	57	58	49.34	2001 DFB-Ligapokal
29	Falko Götz (interim)	6 February 2002	30 June 2002	13	9	1	3	69.23	None
30	Huub Stevens	1 July 2002	4 December 2003	64	25	17	22	39.06	2002 DFB-Ligapokal
31	Andreas Thom (interim)	4 December 2003	17 December 2003	3	0	2	1	00.00	None
32	Hans Meyer	1 January 2004	30 June 2004	17	7	5	5	41.18	None
33	Falko Götz	1 July 2004	10 April 2007	121	47	40	34	38.84	None
34	Karsten Heine (interim)	10 April 2007	30 June 2007	6	3	0	3	50.00	None
35	Lucien Favre	1 July 2007	28 September 2009	94	40	20	34	42.55	None
36	Karsten Heine (interim)	29 September 2009	3 October 2009	1	0	0	1	00.00	None
37	Friedhelm Funkel	3 October 2009	30 June 2010	33	7	10	16	21.21	None
38	Markus Babbel	1 July 2010	18 December 2011	55	30	13	12	54.55	2010–11 2. Bundesliga
39	Rainer Widmayer (interim)	18 December 2011	21 December 2011	1	1	0	0	100.000	None
40	Michael Skibbe	22 December 2011	12 February 2012	5	0	0	5	00.00	None
41	René Tretschok (interim)	14 February 2012	19 February 2012	1	0	0	1	00.00	None
42	Otto Rehhagel	19 February 2012	30 June 2012	14	3	3	8	21.43	None
43	Jos Luhukay	1 July 2012	5 February 2015	71	34	18	19	47.89	2012–13 2. Bundesliga
44	Pál Dárdai	5 February 2015		0	0	0	0	!—	None

Honours

League

• German Championship: 2
  • Winners: 1930, 1931
  • Runners-up: 1926, 1927, 1928, 1929, 1974–75
• 2. Bundesliga: 3
  • 1989–90, 2010–11, 2012–13
• Oberliga Berlin (1945–63): 3
  • 1956–57, 1960–61, 1962–63
• Oberliga Berlin-Brandenburg: 12
  • 1906, 1915, 1917, 1918, 1925, 1926, 1927, 1928, 1929, 1930, 1931, 1933
• Gauliga Berlin-Brandenburg: 3
  • 1935, 1937, 1944

Cup

• German League Cup: 2
  • Winners: 2001, 2002
  • Runners-up: 2000
• German Cup: 0
  • Runners-up: 1977, 1979, 1993 ¹
• Berlin Cup: 13
  • Winners: 1920, 1924, 1928, 1929, 1943, 1958, 1959, 1966, 1967, 1976¹, 1987, 1992¹, 2004¹

Note 1: Reserve Team

International

• UEFA Intertoto Cup: 5
  • Group Winners: 1971, 1973, 1976, 1978 and 2006 joint winner

• UEFA Cup: 0
  • Semi-finals: 1978–79

Youth

• German Under 17 championship
  • Champions: 2000, 2003, 2005
  • Runners-up: 1991
• Under 19 Bundesliga North/Northeast
  • Champions: 2005, 2006
• Under 17 Bundesliga North/Northeast
  • Champions: 2008

Statistics

Main article: List of Hertha BSC records and statistics

Women's football

Missing out on a trend of promoting women's football, Hertha became one of a decreasing number of major German football clubs left outside the top of women's football. Several steps had been taken to develop women's football, but most of them ended up inconclusive. The change came in 2009, when the club announced that it was to launch a cooperation in women's football with 1. FC Lübars, a football club from the Berlin borough Reinickendorf and with decades of history in women's football.

From one side, the partnership meant that Hertha was to provide Lübars with various forms of support, including financial support, expertise in licensing and sponsor acquisition, equipment and training instruction – investing approximately 1 million Euros in the project. From the other side, the partnership meant that Lübars was to compete in the colours of Hertha, thus earning the nickname "Die Hertha-Frauen" ("The Hertha-women"). In the long run, the club plans for the team of 1. FC Lübars to be integrated with Hertha BSC. 1. FC Lübars now competes in the 2. Bundesliga of women's football.

External links

• Official website
• Hertha BSC statistics
• Hertha BSC formations at football-lineups