Welcome to the Soccer Tavern, where we’re discussing the history, philosophy, and culture of the beautiful game. My name is Dave and in this video, we’re talking about the history of Fußball-Club Bayern München e.V. better known as Bayern Munich. Pull up a seat and let’s start the discussion.
*Per Peter from the FC Bayern Pack MASS supporters group, the video contains some inaccuracies that I’d like to highlight. They are called out in red italics below each section. I’d like to thank Peter for bringing these to my attention and I encourage you all to read the items in red.
Bayern Munich is located in northern part of the city of Munich. Munich is located in the southeastern part of Germany. The club currently play in the Bundesliga and its home ground is called the Allianz Arena. The stadium opened in 2005 and holds about 75,000 people.
*In terms of accuracy, when referring to the soccer team, the e.V. has been officially removed from the club’s name, not just the logo, as they changed how the club is structured (for merchandise sales purposes and financing of a new stadium), and it is actually FC Bayern München AG that manages the soccer team. FC Bayern Munchen e.V. does still exist and is the parent club, but it’s not the soccer team anymore. There actually have been a few legal battles brought on by other clubs in Germany and some concerned Munich citizens who think the club’s international structure violates the intent of the German laws. So far everything has been upheld without the e.V. Soccer is now administered under AG; Table Tennis, Handball, Chess, and a few other sports under e.V; and the Basketball team under GmbH. In short, it makes sense to just say FC Bayern, or FC Bayern München leaving off the e.V.
*The club is NOT located in the North of Munich. The newly built Allianz Arena is, but the club has their headquarters and practice facility at Sabener Straße, which is directly south of Munich, in between Giesing and Hackerling, and used to play at Grunwalderstadion in Giesing just south of Munich center, but Geising is where 1860 are from, and there are many chants making fun of them for that, so it doesn’t make sense to associate Bayern with Geising. They also played at Olympiastadion before that for many years much closer to Munich center in Schwabing, which does appear in Bayern chants. It’s still best to associate the club with the Säbener Straße headquarters. Many fans feel Allianz Arena is too far from the home of where the fan base is, way on the outskirts of Munich.
Origin
On February 27, 1900, a group of men stormed out of a meeting for the MTV München 1879 Sports Club. There was a dispute between existing members over the sport of soccer’s future at the club. The group of men who stormed out of the meeting, then met at the Gisela restaurant in Munich that night and formed Fußball-Club Bayern München, or FC Bayern Munich in English. Bayern is the German word for Bavaria, the region where the city of Munich is located.
The leader of this rebel group was named Franz John and he was elected Bayern’s first president. In 1906, the club merged with Münchner Sports-Club and adopted the colors of red & white that is still in use by the club today. There would be a few other mergers and splits of the club, but the core of what we know as Bayern Munich was formed and solidified in 1900 and 1906.
*There wasn’t necessarily a dispute as to the future of soccer with MTV, MTV (Munchner Turn Verein, or Munich Gymnastics Club) did not support soccer and said it would not field a team in the newly forming national league, and in order to keep playing those players would go on to form “FC Bayern” (not München, that would become attached later) so they could play soccer at all.
*Actually, and I know this may have been omit for time, but the club separated from MSC (Munchner Sports Club), which was a very key aspect of the club’s history, which allowed them to become professional, and take back the FC Bayern name.
*You also seemed to have brushed over all that work of Kurt Landauer to build the club to prominance, and revive the club and sport in the post-war years in the discussion about its founding. That’s become a huge part of the club’s current history, as they work to combat anti-Semitism.
Nicknames
The club has many nicknames. The first 2 of FCB & Bayern come from the club’s name. FCB is the acronym for Fußball-Club Bayern and Bayern is obviously a word from the club’s name.
Another nickname used for the club is die Roten, which means the reds. It comes from the club’s primary kit color.
Bayern has 2 more nicknames with a bit more of a complicated story.
The first is FC Hollywood. In the 1990s, Bayern players had a reputation for lacking discipline and the club experienced a lot of internal problems. Stories were then leaked to the press who dubbed the team FC Hollywood. This nickname will still sometimes be used today.
And Bayern’s final nickname is Stern des Südens or star of the south. The club is located in southern Germany and is the most successful team in German soccer’s history. Also, the club’s official anthem is Stern des Südens. The song is played before home matches. I’m not sure if the anthem or the nickname came first, so if you have more info, please let us know in the comments section but this is definitely another nickname for the club.
*Bayern is not a word from the club’s name, but the Bavarian word for Bavaria. It’s the region they represent. The real nickname there is “Die Bayern”, or The Bavarians. Just saying FCB and Bayern is repeating the club’s name, not giving them a nickname.
*Stern des Südens is not stars of the south but “Star” of the south, a nickname for the City of München in general (because it’s this spectacularly beautiful and thriving metropolis in the largely wooded and rural South of Germany). Bayern as a club has taken the nickname because it too is a star of the German soccer world. Obviously, the anthem was made after that.
*There are other nicknames for the club, such as “Die Bullen”, or the Bulls/Bullies (the Police), which came from the red jerseys, along with the club’s sponsor in the 1970s (who made a famous truck/tractor named Die Bullen, which was even printed “Die Bullen” on the center of their jerseys for a few seasons), and notorious physical playing style, guided by defensive midfielder Franz “Bulle” Roth. Similarly, as well as the reds, it often would get “Red Devils” attached to it, which seems just a common red team nickname (which I can understand passing over, as Manchester United are the more famous Red Devils, but there are many other who use that nickname). I guess it would be nice to note that the nicknames you chose are not the only, just the only you chose to point out?
Crest
Bayern’s crest has more or less been the same since 1970, with only minor design changes since then. It’s a relatively simple design with the club’s name around the outside of the circle and a portion of the Bavarian flag in the middle.
The flag of Bavaria is light blue and white with a diamond pattern design. The colors and design come from the coat of arms of the Wittelsbach family. The Wittelsbach family ruled Bavaria from the 13th century into the 20th century and is deeply ingrained in the history of Bavaria.
*While the design in the center of the logo is based off the Bavarian Flag, German law strictly forbids the use of Government symbols to be used by another purpose than official government business. So, you will note, the angle of the lozenge pattern is opposite that of the Bavarian Flag, and the design is actually intentionally 2 rows of white diamonds on a blue background, not an actual alternating lozenge pattern. This was more noticeable on prior iterations of the logo than the most recent, but is definitely noticeable when it is on the jerseys or other merchandise. (This same restriction can be seen on other things, like famously the BMW logo, or Bayerische Motoren Werke, which uses squares and the opposite color pattern as the Bavarian flag)
Important Events
Obviously there are a ton of important events in the club’s history. It was tough to choose, but I selected 4 of them to highlight here. Please feel free to let us know the details of others in the comments section under the video.
First, on June 12, 1932, Bayern Munich faced Eintracht Frankfurt in the Final of the German National Championship in Nuremburg. This was before the Bundesliga was created, so this trophy was recognized as the highest league title in Germany. 55,000 people watched as Bayern won 2-0 to win its first major trophy in the club’s history.
The club would wait more than 25 years to win its second major title. That came on December 29, 1957. Bayern played Fortuna Düsseldorf in the DFB Pokal final on this date. Again, Bayern did not concede a goal and scored the only goal of the match through Rudi Jobst to win 1-0. It was the club’s first Cup title in its history.
The third event I’d like to highlight is a negative event on the surface, but it actually was a huge stroke of luck for Bayern Munich. On April 28, 1963, 1860 Münich clinched the league title for the Oberliga Süd. The league title meant that 1860 would qualify for the Bundesliga which was starting later that year. There was a rule that only 1 team from each city could qualify for the initial Bundesliga and that meant that even though Bayern Munich had more of a sporting right to be in the Bundesliga based on the previous 10 seasons, 1860 would be an initial member of the Bundesliga.
Because Bayern was relegated to the second division, the club needed to change its financial policy and get rid of a lot of their expensive players. That change of philosophy allowed the club to play youngsters like Franz Beckenbauer, Sepp Maier and Gerd Müller. The drop down in division also allowed the club to restructure as a professional club and establish an infrastructure that set the club up for long term success. Who knows what would have happened to those players and the club if Bayern was an inaugural member of the Bundesliga in 1963?
Many other important events happened in the clubs history, but I want to flash forward to June 1, 2013. On this date, Bayern beat VfB Stuttgart in the final of the DFB Pokal to win their 16th Pokal title. The reason that this title was so special is that Bayern had already won the Bundesliga title and beaten Borussia Dortmund in the final of the UEFA Champions League that season. By winning their domestic cup title as well, Bayern became the 7th European club, and first German club ever to win a treble. A treble is when a club wins its domestic league, domestic cup, and the Champions League in the same season. It was an historic moment for an historic club.
Also, if you don’t know the story, look up Bayern’s 2001 Bundesliga title. Specifically their last match against Hamburg on May 19, 2001.
Supporters
“Mia san Mia” is FC Bayern’s club motto. It is the Bavarian translation of “Wir sind wir” in German and translates to English as “We are who we are.” It is a saying of regional pride for the Bavarian state of Germany and the phrase has roots that began in the 19th century Austro-Hungarian Empire.
The phrase as it applies to Bayern became popular during the club’s run to the 1987 European Cup final. Hans Pflügler, Hansi Dorfner and Ludwig Kögl incorporated mia san mia into their post-match songs – usually while celebrating on top of a table or bar.
The phrase has become synonymous with FC Bayern and in 2010 the club released a set of 16 principles based on the mia san mia philosphy.
Noteworthy Players
So many amazing players have played for FC Bayern over the years. I’m only going to highlight 6 here with a focus on players from at least 10 years ago, but please leave your comments with additional players and info about them below the video.
Sepp Maier is one of the best goalkeepers in history. He played at Bayern from 1958 until a car accident ended his career in 1979. He made 473 Bundesliga appearances, including 422 consecutive matches, won 4 Bundesliga titles, 4 DFB Pokals, 3 European Cups (now known as the Champions League), and 1 European Cup Winners Cup with Bayern. He also won a World Cup and a European Championship with West Germany.
Franz Beckenbauer was a teammate of Maier. Nicknamed Der Kaiser, he won all of the same major trophies as Maier (14 in total for club & country). Beckenbauer would make just under 400 Bundesliga appearances for Bayern before leaving to finish his career in the United States. He was named German Footballer of the Year 4 different times and is a legend of the game.
The next player I’d like to highlight is Gerd Müller, who was also a teammate of Maier & Beckenbauer. Müller is one of the most lethal goal scorers in soccer’s history. He has the single season Bundesliga scoring record (40 goals) as well as career Bundesliga scoring record (365 goals). No one has really come close to breaking either of those records. Müller also won the same 14 trophies as Maier & Beckenbauer and internationally, he scored a ridiculous 68 goals in only 62 matches for West Germany.
Karl-Heinz Rummenigge joined Bayern at 18 years old in 1974 in the middle of the Maier, Beckenbauer, & Müller years. Rummenigge finished his career as the 2nd highest scorer in the club’s history and he still holds that recognition, though current attackers Robert Lewandowski & Thomas Müller are somewhat close to passing him on the scoring charts. Rummenigge won 7 major trophies with Bayern, collected 3 individual awards, was Bundesliga top scorer on 3 occasions and won a European Championship with West Germany in 1980.
Lothar Matthäus isn’t quite a Bayern legend the way the other players mentioned so far were because he was already an established star before joining Bayern and he actually left the club during his peak. Still, Matthäus is one of the most decorated soccer players in German history. He won 7 Bundesliga titles, 3 DFB Pokals, the UEFA Cup (now known as the Europa league) with Bayern. He also won the Euros in 1980 with West Germany and captained the country to the World Cup title in 1990. Matthäus is the only German to win the World Player of Year award, which he won in 1991, and he is one of 3 players to appear in 5 different World Cups.
The 6th & final player I’d like to highlight is Oliver Kahn. Kahn joined Bayern in 1994 and in his 14 years with the club, he won a record 8 Bundesliga titles, a record 6 DFB Pokals, the Champions League once, and the UEFA Cup once. Kahn was 3 time World Goalkeeper of the Year and along with Sepp Maier, Kahn is considered one of the best goalkeepers in soccer’s history.
*Starting with Sepp Meier and brushing past Der Kaiser is quite a blunder in the ordering. It was really Der Kaiser who set the club apart from others, with his ability to play the unique role of Sweeper, and generate scoring. He also figured heavily on the German National Team with the 1966, 1970 & 1974 teams, but again, when he lead West Germany to the World Cup as a coach (one of only 2 to have done that ever, along with Zagalo of Brazil). He was the long time President of Bayern Munich, and he took over as coach himself for the 1996 UEFA Cup triumph. He really should’ve been given much greater emphasis here.
*Uli Hoeneß was a major part of those squads that won the 3 Euro Cups in a row as a player, and scored the game winner for their first ever one, before his career was shortened by knee injuries, but then went on to become a board member right away, and was club President through many successful title runs.
*Someone skipped over here who should not have been was a famed youth product and long time Bayern captain, and World Cup Winner in 1990, Klaus Augenthaler. He made a very significant contribution to the club on the field throughout the 1980s into the early 1990s, serving as captain from 1984 to 1991 (the longest tenured captain in club history), and still puts his time in with the youth academy and travels around the world scouting and coaching up talent for Bayern.
*Lothar Matthäus (is actually pronounced “mah-tay-us”, often phonetically spelled Matthaeus in English), may have left the club in his peak, but also returned to play for them for another 7 seasons. He is pushed down the list mainly because he never did win the Euro Cup/Champions League, and often makes rather controversial statements and has a very notably scandalous personal life, which leave him very unpopular with the German people.
*Philipp Lahm… I know you said players from further than 10 years ago, but, Lahm captained the club to the treble in 2013, and Germany to the World Cup in 2014, the club’s 3rd World Cup winning captain, a feat not matched by other clubs. In the pantheon of the club’s great players, he’s more worthy of mention than quite a few that got listed (and certainly as worthy as Beckenbauer & Matthäus). Technically, his debut came in 2004, so he was from longer than 10 years ago… js. Also you’re going to mention Lahm, you might as well mention Bastian Schweinsteger, as well.
*… that doesn’t even consider guys like Paul Breitner, Hans-Georg Schwarzenbeck, Franz “Bulle” Roth, Roland Wohlfarth, Stephan Effenberg, Mehmet Schol, Giovanni Elber, Roy Makaay, etc. many of which are in the club’s own Hall of Fame, or lead the season as top goal scorers for 4 seasons or more.
*In short, highlighting just 6 players from a team with 5 CL titles, 30 domestic league titles, and 20 domestic cup titles is probably on the way too narrow side of things. Maybe you should’ve gone over the Club’s all-time XI as selected by the fans in 2005, and done that instead?
*The same could be said of why you chose the coaches you did, and why instead of sticking to more than 10 years ago with coaches, you chose two of the more recent ones.
Noteworthy Managers
I want to highlight 4 managers here.
Udo Lattek is the most successful Bundesliga manager of all time. He won 6 Bundesliga titles with Bayern Munich in 2 separate stints and 2 titles with Borussia Mönchengladbach. His 8 titles are still a Bundesliga record. Lattek led Bayern in the early to mid-1970s as the club became a German powerhouse and won its first European Cup (now known as the Champions League). Lattek managed mainly in Germany, but had a stint at FC Barcelona where he won the European Cup Winners Cup. He was the first and only manager to win the 3 major European Cups each with a different club. In 2000, the Cup Winners Cup was eliminated, so Lattek will be the only manager in history to hold this record. He is one of the greatest German managers in history and won 15 major titles, the majority of which came at Bayern.
Jupp Heynckes is another one of the greatest German managers in history. He began his managerial career with Borussia Mönchengladbach in 1979. He couldn’t win any trophies in his 8 years as a manager, so it was slightly surprising when Bayern appointed him as manager in 1987. In his first of 4 different stints with the club, he won 2 Bundesliga titles. Heynckes would move on to manage many other clubs in Spain, Germany, and Portugal, before returning to Bayern for a brief period in 2009. His time at Bayern from 2011-2013 is when he sealed legendary status as he won a treble in the 2012-2013 season. As we already said, a treble is winning the domestic league, domestic cup, and Champions League in the same season. He is the only German manager in history to accomplish that feat.
The next manager I’d like to highlight is Ottmar Hitzfeld. Before joining Bayern Munich in 1998, Hitzfeld won 2 Bundesliga titles and a Champions League with Bayern rivals Borussia Dortmund. He was also named World Coach of the Year in 1997. Upon arriving at Bayern, Hitzfeld quickly won many trophies. By the time he left Bayern for the 2nd time in June of 2008, he had won 5 Bundesliga titles, 3 DFB Pokals and a Champions League with Bayern.
And the final manager I’d like to discuss is Pep Guardiola. Pep only managed Bayern Munich for 3 seasons from 2013 to 2016 but he was very successful. He won the Bundesliga title every season and won the DFB Pokal 2 out of the 3 seasons. Unfortunately, he couldn’t lead Bayern to a Champions League title as his Bayern sides were eliminated in the semifinals of that tournament all 3 years. Still, Guardiola is widely considered the greatest active manager in the world and has had massive success in Spain and England in addition to Germany. At only 48 years old, he’s already won 17 major titles and is on track to be the most decorated manager in soccer history.
Rivals
As Bayern is the largest & most successful German club in history, it has many rivals. I’m only going to discuss 3 in detail here.
Bayern’s city rival is 1860 Munich with matches between the teams called Munich (München) Derbies and stretching all the way back to their first meeting in 1902. It may be tough to believe since 1860 has slipped down the German soccer pyramid, but 1860 was actually the bigger and more successful club in the early days of the Bundesliga. 1860 was an inaugural member of the Bundesliga while Bayern had to start in the second division. That helped increase the animosity in this existing rivalry. Since the 1970s, Bayern have been the dominant side in this matchup, but whenever the two sides meet these days, it is an intense rivalry match for players and supporters.
Bayern’s main historical rival is FC Nuremburg. Though the two cities are currently in Bavaria, the cities of Munich and Nuremberg historically represented different regions in Germany, old Bavaria and Franconia respectively. As such this rivalry is either called the Bayerische Derby (Bayern Derby) or the Fränkisch-Bayerisches Derby (Franconian-Bavarian derby). The two clubs have played more than 180 times and Nuremberg was the most successful German side until Bayern knocked them from their throne in 1987. The rivalry has lost of bit of luster over the last 2 or more decades as Bayern have become an absolute powerhouse while Nuremberg have fluctuated between the divisions and not really challenged for trophies. This is still a major rival for Bayern that is worth highlighting.
Lastly, Bayern’s main current rival is Borussia Dortmund. It is a relatively recent rivalry as Dortmund only became a Bundesliga power in the 1990s. The clubs first met in 1965 and have played over 100 matches with Bayern historically dominating this matchup. The cities are more than 350 miles apart, but as Dortmund has risen to become the usual second best club in the Bundesliga, this rivalry has grown. The most recent memorable match came in the 2013 Champions League Final, which Bayern won 2-1. Matches between these two clubs are called Der Klassiker, which loosely translates as the classico. This rivalry should continue to grow as Dortmund builds its case as the second biggest club in Germany.
Stats & Records
The stats and records we’re about to discuss are as of October 2019, which is when we are recording this video.
Bayern has played 55 seasons in the top flight in its history.
The club is by far, the most decorated German club team. FCB have 56 major trophies including:
- 28 Bundesliga titles
- 19 DFB-Pokals (German Cups)
- 5 UEFA Champions Leagues or European Cups
- 1 UEFA Cup (now known as Europa League)
- 1 German National Championship before the Bundesliga was created
- 1 UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup
- 1 FIFA Club World Cup
Bayern’s record first team appearance holder is a bit disputed. On the usually reliable website Transfermarkt, Oliver Kahn is listed with the most first team appearances at 632. I did find some other less reliable sources that listed Sepp Maier as having as many as 700 Bayern appearances, but officially according to Transfermarkt, Maier “only” had 631 first team appearances. I’ll let you judge who you view as the club’s all-time appearance record holder.
The club’s record goal scorer is Gerd Müller with a ridiculous 565 first team goals.
Bayern Munich’s record transfer purchase was Lucas Hernandez from Atlético Madrid in Spain on March 27, 2019 for ~€80M. The transfer officially processed on July 1, 2019 when the transfer window opened
And the club’s record transfer sale was Douglas Costa to Juventus in Italy on July 1, 2018 for ~€40M.
*Along with the Club World Cup, Bayern won the predecessor cup to that, the Intercontinental Cup twice in 1976 & 2001, but boycott the competition twice, not accepting the format which the South Americans wished to hold the cup under. Still it makes sense to note the two Intercontinental Cups, which many equate as on par with the Club World Cup, if not more prestigious.
And 1 last interesting fact about the club: during WWII, the club’s captain Conny Heidkamp worked with his wife Magdalena, to save the club’s trophies from air raids on Munich, which began in the summer 1942. The couple sent the trophies to a farmer in Ascholding where Magdalena had vacationed as a child.
They were safe until about 3 years later, when the Americans came closer in the spring of 1945. Americans had a reputation for taking souvenirs, so the Heidkamps buried the boxes on the Ascholding farm. That’s how any trophies and memorabilia from before 1945 were saved by the club.
So there you have it… a bit of history on Fußball-Club Bayern München. Let’s continue the discussion in the comments section below the video.
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