From 1954-66, the club was simply known as Dynamo Berlin. The club was officially founded as BFC Dynamo in 1966, and really didn't do much until the late 1970s. Despite being the official club of the secret police, apparently the club was allowed to play on it's own terms. However things started going crooked once Erich Mielke, the head of the Stasi, decided that he wanted championships. So whenever they needed a result, they got it. Losing the game? Have the ref call a "penalty." Need another player? Have him transferred to BFC Dynamo. It's not surprising that the club proved unstoppable. Title after title followed. Fans throughout the GDR expressed their hatred to BFC Dynamo, but were forced to grin and bear it.
After reunification, the ties to the Stasi were obviously cut, and a newly constituted FC Berlin was formed in 1990. Obviously, the burden of history was a hard thing to live down. Management attempted to emphasize youth soccer and get away from the disgraceful past of the club. Despite a concentration on youth teams, encouraging fun and fair play, the change was hardly accepted.
In May 1999, the members voted to bring back the old name BFC Dynamo. Some of the reasons were to "capture the glorious past" and attract more sponsors. I guess they figured they couldn't pull the wool over anybody's eyes anyway.
The 1998-99 season was uneventful, as FC-Dynamo ended up midtable. Nevertheless, this really was their best showing since GDR days. However, the next season turned out to be an unmitigated disaster. By mid campaign the team went into a tailspin and never recovered. The goal of reaching the new combined Regionalliga was never even threatened, and in fact they would have been relegated regardless. While most other ex-GDR teams gleefully gloated, Dynamo had to regroup one division lower. That they did, winning the Oberliga. However, they crashed out in the promotion playoffs, and in any case, announced that they didn't have the financial resources to pursue promotion anyway.
During the 2001-02 season, BFC Dynamo was forced into bankruptcy proceedings. All league games were therefore annulled and the club was automatically relegated. However, the federation also took the bizarre decision to force BFC to play out it's remaining games as "mandatory friendlies." Since all player contracts were disolved, all the first team players left the club. The 2nd team was in a battle to stay in the Landesliga, so it was kept intact. Therefore the 3rd team took over the 1st team duties, and was soon losing these games by scores of 11-0 etc. Why this travesty was allowed is unclear, although perhaps the rest of the eastern clubs saw an opportunity to exact some revenge, however minor.
Address |
Sportforum, Steffenstraße, 13053 Berlin Phone: (030) 975 1178 Fax: (030) 971 1044 | ||||||||||||||||
City | Berlin (Berlin). Pop: 3,388,434 (2002) | ||||||||||||||||
Colors | Black and red vertical striped jersey, or white jersey with black lettering. | ||||||||||||||||
Nickname | How about the Cheaters? They call themselves "der etwas anderes club" (the something-other club, no kidding!) | ||||||||||||||||
Stadium |
Sportforum Berlin-Höhenschönhausen Capacity:
12,000 (2,500 seats) Built around 1970. | ||||||||||||||||
Tickets |
No problem getting any.
Supporters |
A releatively small but vocal hardcore. Often accused of fascist
tendencies by other clubs. You have to wonder when one of their
official sponsors is "Pro-Violence Streetwear". | Actually, before the Stasi started cheating, they were quite popular, averaging almost 17,000 when they finished 2nd in 1975. That number was cut in half by the end of the cheating era in 1989, and today they draw under 1,000. Averaged 479 in 2004 (Verbandsliga). Friends |
None, excepting unrepetant communists around the world.
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Foes |
As befits their legacy, they are generally despised by other ex-GDR teams. However, the rivalry with Union
Berlin is especially virulent.
| Heroes |
Some 39 GDR internationals. Among the best were Thomas Doll (29
caps) and Andreas Thom (51 caps), from the 1980s. Thom was also
capped 10 times for Germany.
| Zeroes |
Anyone associated with club management from the late 70s on. And of course
Erich Mielke, whose cheating started the whole mess.
| Beer |
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Pub Grub |
| The Net |
A fan site called BFC-Online, at
www.bfcdynamo.de , turned into the official site, and is nicely
done.
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Recent History: -------------- BFC Dynamo Berlin 1965-66 (*) DDR-Oberliga 9th 1966-67 (*) DDR-Oberliga 13th 1967-68 (**) DDR-Liga, St. Nord 1st 1968-69 (*) DDR-Oberliga 10th 1969-70 (*) DDR-Oberliga 6th 1970-71 (*) DDR-Oberliga 9th 1971-72 (*) DDR-Oberliga 2nd 1972-73 (*) DDR-Oberliga 6th 1973-74 (*) DDR-Oberliga 6th 1974-75 (*) DDR-Oberliga 4th 1975-76 (*) DDR-Oberliga 2nd 1976-77 (*) DDR-Oberliga 4th 1977-78 (*) DDR-Oberliga 3rd 1978-79 (*) DDR-Oberliga 1st 1979-80 (*) DDR-Oberliga 1st 1980-81 (*) DDR-Oberliga 1st 1981-82 (*) DDR-Oberliga 1st 1982-83 (*) DDR-Oberliga 1st 1983-84 (*) DDR-Oberliga 1st 1984-85 (*) DDR-Oberliga 1st 1985-86 (*) DDR-Oberliga 1st 1986-87 (*) DDR-Oberliga 1st 1987-88 (*) DDR-Oberliga 1st 1988-89 (*) DDR-Oberliga 2nd FC Berlin 1989-90 (*) DDR-Oberliga 4th 1990-91 (*) NOFV-Oberliga Nordost 11th 1991-92 (III) Am.Oberliga Nordost 1st 1992-93 (III) Am.Oberliga Nordost 4th 1993-94 (III) Am.Oberliga Nordost 4th 1994-95 (III) Regionalliga Nordost 11th 1995-96 (III) Regionalliga Nordost 13th 1996-97 (III) Regionalliga Nordost 13th 1997-98 (III) Regionalliga Nordost 11th BFC Dynamo Berlin 1998-99 (III) Regionalliga Nordost 8th 1999-00 (III) Regionalliga Nordost 17th 2000-01 (IV) Oberliga Nordost-Nord 1st 2001-02 (IV) Oberliga Nordost-Nord 18th 2002-03 (V) Verbandsliga Berlin 3rd 2003-04 (V) Verbandsliga Berlin 1st 2004-05 (IV) Oberliga Nordost-Nord 6th 2005-06 (IV) Oberliga Nordost-Nord 6th 2006-07 (IV) Oberliga Nordost-Nord 9th 2007-08 (IV) Oberliga Nordost-Nord
(c) Abseits Guide to Germany: www.abseits-soccer.com