Welcome to the Soccer Tavern, where we’re discussing the history, culture, and philosophy of the beautiful game. My name is Dave and in this video, we’re talking about the history of Sportverein Werder Bremen von 1899, also known as Werder Bremen. Pull up a seat and let’s start the discussion.
Werder Bremen is located in the central, slightly southeastern part of the city of Bremen. Bremen is located in the northern, slightly western part of Germany. The club currently play in the Bundesliga and its home ground is called the Weserstadion, which opened in 1909 and holds about 42,000 people.
The Weserstadion is the oldest stadium currently in the Bundesliga and though it has been around for more than 100 years, it has been rebuilt and upgraded to be a proper, modern first-division ground.
Origin
Werder Bremen’s founding story literally starts with a tug of war. Sometime in early 1899, a group of 16-year-old students won a local game of tug of war. As a result of winning the game, the students were given a soccer ball as a prize. On February 4, 1899, the students formed Fußballverein Werder Bremen.
Fußballverein means football club in German. Football is what most of the world calls the sport of soccer. Werder was a regional word that referred to a river island or peninsula, called Stadtwerder in the city of Bremen where the students first played soccer. And Bremen was the name of the club’s city.
In 1920, the club changed its name to the current name of Sportverein Werder Bremen von 1899. The change from Fußballverein (soccer club) to Sportverein (sports club) was to coincide with the club adopting many other sports.
After the Nazi’s rise to power and WWII, the allies who occupied Germany after the war did not allow clubs to exist in the form that they did under Nazi rule. So Werder was dissolved and reformed under a few different names. In 1946, it adopted the name of SV Werder Bremen, but was not allowed to have the von 1899 part of its name.
The ‘von 1899’ part of the club’s name was added back to the club after it was restructured on December 5, 2003. That’s when the club returned to the name it first adopted in 1920, which was Sportverein Werder Bremen von 1899.
Nickname(s)
The club’s 2 nicknames are Die Grün-Weißen, which means the Green-Whites in English, and die Werderaner, which means The River Islanders in English.
The Green Whites nickname comes from the club’s kit colors. Super creative.
And the River Islanders nickname refers to the area in Bremen where the club originally was created and played its first matches.
Crest
Let’s look at the club’s crest now.
Stretching as far back as 1920, Werder Bremen has used this iconic white W on a green diamond shaped background.
The W obviously refers to the clubs name of Werder and the colors of Green and white are the club’s main kit colors.
The club experimented with a few variations of this logo over the years, but they were only subtle changes. The crest used today has been used since 1994 and looks almost identical to the one used in the 1920s.
Important Events
I’d like to discuss 5 important events in the club’s history in this section.
First, on September 13, 1961, Werder Bremen met 1. FC Kaiserslautern in the Final of the DFB Pokal in Gelsenkirchen. Werder scored a goal in each half and prevailed 2-0 to win the club’s first major trophy in its history.
The second event I’d like to highlight happened on May 15, 1965. This was the final day of the 1964-1965 Bundesliga season and Werder beat 1. FC Nürnberg 3-2 on the road. The result meant Bremen clinched the title of the 2nd ever Bundesliga season. It was Werder’s first ever German league title.
The third event I’d like to discuss is a sad one for the club. On May 24, 1980, the club mathematically secured a relegation place from the Bundesliga after losing 5-0 at home to 1. FC Köln. The club had been trending in the wrong direction for weeks though and this was merely a formality. The 1979-1980 season is the only time the club has been relegated since the Bundesliga was created in 1963 and is one of the worst seasons in club history.
Moving forward to happier times, the 4th event I’d like to mention happened on May 6, 1992. Werder played AS Monaco from the French League, who were managed by Arsene Wenger at the time, in the European Cup Winners Cup Final in Portugal. This was Werder’s first appearance in a European cup final. Just like the club’s first DFB Pokal victory, Werder scored a goal in each half and won 2-0. This was a massive accomplishment for the club.
And the final event I’d like to discuss is the club’s greatest ever accomplishment to date and it’s actually a combination of 2 dates. On May 8, 2004, first-place Werder Bremen, beat second-place Bayern Munich 3-1 in Munich to open a 9 point gap in the table with only 2 matches remaining. That meant Werder were crowned Bundesliga champions and this is the club’s last league title. The celebrations weren’t over yet for Werder supporters that season. On May 29, 2004, Werder beat Alemannia Aachen 3-2 in the DFB Pokal Final. With that result, Werder Bremen became 1 of only 4 German clubs ever to win the double, meaning the domestic league and domestic cup titles in the same season. It was a historic season for the club.
Supporters
Before every match, supporters sing the club’s anthem called ‘Lebenslang Grün-Weiß.’ This translates to English as ‘Lifelong Green & White.’ The song was written in 2004 by the band Original Deutschmacher after Bremen’s double winning season that we discussed in our last section.
Additionally, Werder Bremen’s Torhymne or goal song is “I’m Gonna Be (500 miles)” by the Proclaimers. It’s incredibly catchy and one of the best goal celebration songs in the league. Supporters sing this after every Werder goal.
Noteworthy Players
I’d like to discuss 6 players in detail in this section and briefly highlight 3 others.
Horst-Dieter Höttges was a left back who joined Werder Bremen in 1964 and made more than 400 appearances for the club over a 14 year career. He won the Bundesliga with Werder in 1965 and made 2 World Cup squads, as well as a European Championship roster, for West Germany in the 1960s and 1970s.
Dieter Burdenski has the most appearances in club history. Burdenski was a goalkeeper for Bremen from 1972-1988. He remained with the club as it suffered its only relegation in club history and was a key player during Werder’s rise to the top of German soccer that began in the late 1980s. Burdenski won a Bundesliga title with Werder in the 1987-1988 season, but he retired just before the club entered its first golden period when it won 4 major trophies in the early 1990s.
Rudi Völler was a striker at Werder Bremen from 1982 to 1987. Though he was only with the club for 5 years, he scored a remarkable 119 goals in only 174 appearances. Völler was one of the best German attackers of his generation and was capped 90 times for West Germany & Germany. He was a key member as West Germany won the 1990 World Cup.
Torsten Frings had 2 separate stints with Werder Bremen beginning in 1997 and ending in 2011. Frings was one of the best central midfielders in Germany’s history and he was a critical piece of Werder winning the 2009 DFB Pokal. Frings played in 2 World Cups and 2 European Championships with Germany and made almost 450 appearances for Werder Bremen in his career.
Frank Baumann joined Werder in 1999 after beginning his career with FC Nürnberg in 1994. Werder would be the only club Baumann would play for during the rest of his career, which ended in 2009. Baumann was a versatile player who could play as a central defender or a defensive central midfielder. With Werder, he won the Bundesliga once and the DFB Pokal twice. Baumann was a player during the club’s historic 2003-2004 double-winning season.
Claudio Pizarro had 5 different stints with Werder Bremen during his career and he is still an active player on the squad at time of recording. Pizarro first joined Werder in 1999 and is the club’s all-time leading goalscorer. Pizarro is one of the best Peruvian players ever and is the Bundesliga’s all-time top foreign scorer at time of recording. He is most certainly a Werder Bremen legend.
Lastly, I’d like to quickly mention Per Mertesacker, Mesut Özil, & Miroslav Klose. All 3 are German internationals who spent time with Werder Bremen. They’ve gone on to have excellent careers and were all key members of the 2014 World Cup winning Germany roster. They didn’t really have legendary Werder careers, so I’m only going to mention their names in this section.
Noteworthy Managers
The 2 greatest managers in the club’s history are Otto Rehhagel and Thomas Schaaf.
Otto Rehhagel was appointed as Werder’s manager in March of 1981 after Bremen’s manager at the time was experiencing lingering symptoms from a car accident suffered in February. Rehhagel was a curious appointment as he didn’t have a ton of historical success up to that point and had actually previously managed Werder for a short time in 1976. Rehhagel was much more successful in his 2nd stint at Werder, immediately leading the club out of the 2. Bundesliga. He’d go on to manage Werder through the club’s first golden age when it regularly competed for trophies. In total, Rehhagel managed more than 650 matches between 1981 & 1995 with Werder. He won 2 Bundesligas, 2 DFB Pokals, and a European Cup Winners cup with the club. Rehhagel is the club’s longest ever serving manager and had great success managing underdogs after leaving Werder, winning the Bundesliga with F.C. Kaiserslautern and the European Championships with Greece. Rehhagel was nicknamed ‘King Otto’ by Werder supporters and is a legendary manager for the club.
And the other manager I’d like to discuss is Thomas Schaaf. Schaaf first joined the club in 1972 as a player. He’d play for Werder for 17 years before moving into a coaching role with the youth academy in 1987. Schaaf slowly rose up the coaching ranks at Werder over the next 12 years and was appointed first team manager in May of 1999. Schaaf managed the club for 14 years and nearly 650 matches. He was in charge for the club’s historic 2003-2004 double winning season. Schaaf also won 2 DFB Pokals with the club. He is the club’s other legendary manager in its history and currently, Schaaf serves as Werder Bremen’s Technical Director at time of recording.
Rivals
Werder’s main rival is Hamburger SV. Matches between the clubs are called Nordderby matches, meaning North Derby matches in English, because both clubs are located in Northern Germany. They also happen to be 2 of the most successful clubs in German soccer’s history and are located about 70 miles apart. Both clubs can trace their origins to the 19th century and first met in 1927. Since the Bundesliga was formed in 1963, both clubs have been a part of nearly every Bundesliga season. This is one of the tightest rivalries in the Bundesliga’s history from a results, goals, and trophies perspective. Each side is about even in all of those categories in this matchup. All of these events over the course of the last century or so have led to the Nordderby being one of the greatest & fiercest rivalries in Germany.
Also, Werder Bremen developed a rivalry with Bayern Munich in the 1980s that stretched all the way to the early 2000s with the clubs competing for trophies across multiple competitions. Werder handed Bayern some embarrassing losses in this time period and Bayern returned the favor on more than 1 occasion. This is more of a historic rivalry though as Werder has slipped down the pecking order in German soccer the last decade or so. I wanted to mention Bayern as a minor rival, but Hamburger SV is by far Werder’s main rival.
Stats & Records
The stats and records we’re about to discuss are as of December 2019, which is when we are recording this video.
Werder Bremen has played 56 seasons in the top flight in its history.
The club has 11 major trophies including:
- 6 DFB-Pokals (German Cups)
- 4 Bundesliga titles
- 1 UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup
Bremen’s record first team appearance holder is Dieter Burdenski with 616 first team appearances.
The club’s record goal scorer is Claudio Pizarro with 153 goals at time of recording. He is still an active player and may add to that tally.
Werder’s record transfer purchase was Davy Klaassen from Everton FC in England on July 27, 2018 for ~€13.5M.
And the club’s record transfer sale was Diego to Juventus in Italy on July 1, 2009 for ~€27M.
And 1 last interesting fact about the club: With Hamburg’s relegation a few seasons ago, Werder Bremen is now the club to play in the most Bundesliga seasons since the league began in 1963. Werder has been a part of every Bundesliga season with the exception of 1 in 1980-1981.
So there you have it… a bit of history on Sportverein Werder Bremen von 1899. Let’s continue the discussion in the comments section below the video.
Thanks for stopping by the Soccer Tavern. Hope to see you again soon. Prost!
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