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 Hertha, Berliner Sport-Club, better known as Hertha Berlin. Pull up a seat and let’s start the discussion.
Hertha is located in the western part of the city of Berlin. Berlin is located in the northeastern part of Germany. The club currently play in the Bundesliga and its home ground is called the Olympiastadion, which opened in 1936 and holds about 75,000 people. In 2016, Hertha BSC presented plans to build its own new stadium, once the lease at the Olympiastadion expires in 2025. The club hopes to build the Hertha Fussballarena with a capacity of 55,000 next to the Olympiastadion.
Origin
Hertha Berlin was founded by 2 sets of brothers on July 25, 1892 in either the neighborhood of Wedding or Prenzlauer Berg in the city of Berlin. The brothers were Fritz and Max Lindner and Otto and Willi Lorenz. They were each 16 or 17 years old at the time.
The first official name for the club was Berliner Fußball Club Hertha 1892. Berliner referred to the city of Berlin where the club would play. Fußball Club referred to the sport of soccer. 1892 was the founding year. And the Hertha part of the club’s name came from a steamboat that Fritz Lindner had previously ridden with his father.
The smokestacks of the boat were painted with blue & white stripes, which is where the club took its colors and kit design from. Those are still the colors and kit design used more than 125 years later.
Almost exact 31 years after its founding, the club merged with the Berliner Sport-Club on August 7, 1923. As a result of this merger, It adopted the club’s current name of Hertha Berliner Sport-Club or Hertha BSC.
Nicknames
The club has 3 nicknames. Die Blau-Weißen, Hertha, & die Alte Dame.
Die Blau-Weißen nickname translates from German to English as the Blue-Whites. It comes from the club’s kit colors.
Hertha obviously comes from the club’s name, which we’ve already discussed came from a steamboat.
And lastly, the club’s final nickname is die Alte Dame or the Old Lady in English. That nickname was given because the club’s official name includes Hertha, which is a woman’s first name. It also fits since the club is one of the oldest clubs playing in the Bundesliga.
Crest
While Hertha has a simplified crest, it does stand out as unique from many of the other Bundesliga clubs that utilize round logos.
Hertha’s crest is simply a flag blowing in the wind with the club’s colors of blue and white along with the club’s official name of Hertha BSC written in it. Hertha’s crest has included different versions of this flag since 1931 with the exception of a period from 1979 to 1987. The current crest has been used since 2012 when the club broke the mold of circular crests and decided to go with just the flag shape.
Important Events
On June 22, 1930, Hertha played Holstein Kiel in the final of the German National Championship. After going down 2-0 early in the first half, Hertha levelled by the 26th minute. The teams traded goals 2 more times throughout the match before Hertha scored their 5th goal in the 87th minute. They would hold on to win the match 5-4 for their first National Championship title.
They’d follow this up 1 year later on June 14, 1931 when Hertha beat TSV 1860 Munich 3-2 in the final. It was the club’s second consecutive National Championship and these 2 titles are the only 2 major trophies in the club’s existence.
On May 16, 1965, Hertha Berlin were officially relegated from the Bundesliga. The club actually finished outside of the relegation zone that season, but were caught bribing players to come play for the club. At the time, German soccer was still amateur and had strict rules about paying players. After the Berlin Wall was constructed in 1961, Hertha found it very difficult to attract players to their isolated city and thus resorted to bribing some players. This was unfortunately not the only bribery scandal we need to discuss with regards to the club.
Jumping forward 6 years to June 6, 1971. On this day, Kickers Offenbach’s director, Horst-Gregorio Canellas called a press conference and informed the public that there were a number of fixed matches towards the end of the 1970-1971 Bundesliga season. Because the German game was still amateur, players were susceptible to bribery. This time it was more serious than the bribery scandal we just discussed because match outcomes were affected. Ten matches that season were fixed or contained some sort of illegal activity. Hertha was only involved in 1 of those matches, but were punished hardest. Fifteen Hertha players were found guilty and were punished in some form. Though this scandal was a huge black mark on the Bundesliga and Hertha, it led to widespread reform that helped issue in the modern professional game in Germany.
And the last event I’d like to highlight came on May 22, 1999. On this date, Hertha beat Freiburg 2-0 on the road in the 2nd to last match of the season. The win clinched a top 4 Bundesliga finish for Hertha, which meant the club qualified for the Champions League for the first time in the club’s history. Hertha finished 3rd place that season and played 14 Champions League matches in the 1999-2000 season. It was arguably the club’s greatest accomplishment since winning those 2 National Championships in 1930 & 1931.
Supporters
Hertha supporters have a unique chant that goes Ha-Ho-He (Hah-hoe-hey) Hertha BSC (pronounced “Bay-Ess-Say”). It doesn’t really have meaning other than sounds that rhyme, but its origin can be traced back to at least the 1930s, possibly even earlier.
Often times you’ll see the club and supporters use the hashtag #hahohe on social media and now you know that it comes from a unique chant by the club’s supporters.
Noteworthy Players
Johannes (Hanne) Sobek joined Hertha in 1925 after beginning his career with BFC Alemannia 1890. Sobek was one of the best German players at the time and was named Hertha captain in 1927. Sobek had two goals in Hertha’s dramatic 1930 German National Championship win and he also scored 2 more goals in Hertha’s 1931 German National Championship Final win. He would retire from the sport in 1938 and is the first club legend in Hertha’s history.
Erich Beer, or Ete Beer as he was called by fans, was a club idol in the 1970s. He joined the club in 1971 and would leave in 1979. Beer would make 342 appearances for Hertha in all competitions and was the club’s career record goalscorer for many years. Beer actually broke his hand in the middle of a match and kept playing. He was a great player at the club and is considered a legend.
Jumping forward about 20 years, Gabor Kiraly joined Hertha in 1997 at 21 years old. He’s well known for wearing baggy, beat-up looking gray sweatpants. The story is that at Kiraly’s first club, the kit manager once forgot the black goalkeeper shorts and only had long, gray pants. He wore them and proceeded to keep wearing after he won nine games in a row. At Hertha, Kiraly played 198 matches and was a key member as the club qualified for the Champions League where he then made 12 Champions League appearances. He left the club in 2004 and is widely considered one of the greatest Hertha keepers ever. Kiraly retired in May 2019 after a 26 year professional career and is a cult fan favorite for nearly every club he played for.
Arne Friedrich joined Hertha in 2002 and played for Hertha through the majority of his career. He was named club captain in 2004 and would remain captain until he left in 2010. He’d make more than 200 appearances for Hertha as a standout defender and received more than 80 German national team caps in his career. The majority of those caps came while he was a Hertha player. He was one of the best defenders in the Bundesliga during his career.
And lastly, I want to mention is Marcelinho. He is one of the most talented players to ever play for Hertha. Marcelinho was a flair attacking midfielder who could also score goals. He scored more than 60 goals for Hertha in the early 2000s. He also had quite an off-field life and clashed with club executives because of this. Though he only spent 5 seasons at Hertha, he was given a testimonial match in March 2017 at Hertha. He is truly one of the best players in Hertha’s history and is an icon at the club.
Noteworthy Managers
With the club not having a ton of historical success, I’m only going to highlight 2 managers in this section.
Helmut Kronsbein, most commonly called Fiffi, was appointed Hertha manager in the summer of 1966 as the club was in the Regionalliga after the bribery scandal of 1965 that we already discussed. Fiffi would lead the club back to the Bundesliga by 1969 and he’d be a steady presence through the club’s involvement in the 1971 Bundesliga scandal. Fiffi would manage more than 200 matches while with die Alte Dame across 2 stints. Though no trophies were won under his tenure, at time of recording, he is the longest serving manager in the club’s Bundesliga era history and deserves mention.
The next manager I’d like to talk about is Jürgen Röber. Röber managed Hertha from 1996 to 2002. Under his tenure, the club experienced arguably their greatest period since the 1930s. Hertha regularly finished in the top 1/3 of the Bundesliga under Röber and qualified for the Champions League in 2000. The club even won 2 preseason trophies in 2000 & 2001 and Röber would manage 254 matches for Hertha. Along with Fiffi, Röber is one of the 2 longest serving managers in the club’s Bundesliga era.
Rivals
Hertha’s main rival is fellow Berlin based club Union Berlin. This is a David & Goliath type of rivalry with Union Berlin having the smaller fan base, lower economic resources, and playing the underdog against Hertha’s size, strength, and relative success. The rivalry is also very interesting because the clubs were separated by the Berlin wall for many years, and therefore, haven’t actually played many times in competitive matches. Hertha represents the Western neighborhoods of the city, while Union represents the eastern parts of the city. The two clubs met in a friendly in 1990 shortly after the fall of the Berlin wall, but 8 months before Germany was officially reunified. The rivalry typically isn’t as intense as many other rivalries in Germany, but the first ever top flight meeting of these 2 sides happened on November 2, 2019 and Union won 1-0. The match was a proper derby with passion overflowing from some Union supporters who invaded the pitch at full-time and the match being delayed by flares from Union supporters. If both sides remain in the Bundesliga, this rivalry should continue to grow.
Additionally, Hertha has a one-sided rivalry with Schalke 04. The rivalry stretches back to the early 1970s, specifically December 13, 1971. On this date, Hertha played Schalke in a DFB Pokal match. Hertha won 3-0 with 2 goals from a man named Zoltan Varga. Varga was forbidden from playing in the match because he was involved in a Bundesliga corruption scandal earlier in the year, so Hertha forfeited the match with Schalke advancing. Schalke would go on to win the Pokal that season and Hertha felt their punishment was unjust since many teams and players were involved in the scandal. Both Hertha and Schalke each had many players suspended as a result of the corruption investigation. Schalke fans never gave this issue much thought and have never considered Hertha to be a rival, but many Hertha supporters still actively dislike Schalke, making this another unique rivalry for Hertha.
Stats & Records
The stats and records we’re about to discuss are as of November 2019, which is when we are recording this video.
Hertha Berlin has played 37 seasons in the top flight in its history.
The club’s only major trophies are the 2 German National championships, which were won in 1930 and 1931 before the Bundesliga was created.
The club also won 2 DFB Ligapokals in 2001 & 2002. This was a preseason tournament between Germany’s top finishing clubs from the prior Bundesliga season. The competitiveness of this tournament is debatable, which is why I didn’t consider this to be a major trophy for the club.
Hertha’s record first team appearance holder is Pál Dárdai with 373 first team appearances.
The club’s record goal scorer is Michael Preetz with 108 first team goals (or 105 if you don’t count Liga Pokal goals).
The Old Lady’s record transfer purchase was Dodi Lukebakio from Watford in England on August 1, 2019 for ~€20M.
And the club’s record transfer sale was Valentino Lazaro to Inter Milan in Italy on July 1, 2019 for ~€22M.
And 1 last interesting fact about the club: From 1926 to 1931, the club qualified for 6 straight German National Championship finals. It lost the first 4, but won the last 2 in 1930 & 1931.
So there you have it… a bit of history on Hertha, Berliner Sport-Club. Let’s continue the discussion in the comments section below the video.
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