Berliner FC Dynamo - Stadion im Sportforum

Another day, another stadium. Last Saturday I visited the home of the former DDR's most successful club. Dynamo won the DDR-Oberliga for ten consecutive seasons from 1979 to 1988. There were some former clubs, including one that was founded after Dynamo Dresden's best players were ordered/asked (depending on who you ask) to go to Berlin and form a team there in 1954. The current club was founded in 1966 and is infamous for a number of reasons. Their most famous supporter was Erich Mielke who was head of the Stasi during the clubs most successful period. A lot of controversy surrounded the club with accusations that unsportsmanlike activities in the background contributing to their on-field success. Following the fall of the Berlin Wall and the demise of the DDR, the club has spent most of its time in the 4th and 5th originally as FC Berlin before restoring the Dynamo part in 1999. Dynamo's fans have a fearsome reputation and I was warned by several German friends to be careful.

The attendance at the game I saw was 422 and must have included at there were at least 100 skinheads. There were also a lot police for such a small crowd, there were 5 van loads of them. Despite the reputation, I actually found the locals quite friendly especially when they realized I was English. I had a good conversation with several about the DDR era. I'm not sure what people outside of football circles make of the Erich Mielke t-shirts though. The ultras fanzine I picked up also had a colour photo of him on the back. In actual fact, I don't think the fans are particularly political in any direction but that the reputation has created a kind of outlaw feeling about the club. There were no visiting fans at the game I saw but apparently 150 from TeBe turned up for the recent local derby and there were no incidents. Having said all that, it's clear that were the club ever to get back into a higher level there would be some challenges for the authorities.

The stadium itself consists of a tiny stand with a notoriously unpractical roof. Out of the 2,400 seats there are only 40 that are effectively sheltered from the elements (presumably Erich Mielke sat in one of those). The rest of the ground is open terracing with a lot of dividing fences. You can see from some of the photos that some sections of the terracing are in a bad state of repair and would not be open at all if they were in the UK. The capacity is currently set at 12,400 with 10,000 standing places. The record attendance was the 20,000 that witnessed the 0-0 draw against Liverpool in a 1972 UEFA Cup game. I can remember wondering why some European games of that era kicked off early and I now realise that in some cases, like this one, it was because there were no floodlights. Later on, European games were played at the Friedrich Ludwig Jahn Sportpark which has floodlights.Other British teams that met Dynamo include Cardiff City, Notts Forest, Aston Villa and Aberdeen. Forest and Villa both beat Dynamo on their way to European Cup glory.

One interesting note about championship stars. Dynamo have a star with a '10' in it to signify their 10 league (DDR-Oberliga) titles - a bit of an oddity for a club playing in the 5th tier.

As for the game itself, it was not particularly memorable - a 1-1 draw against Malchower SV. The effort and commitment of the Dynamo players was good but the technique was lacking. On this evidence it will be some time before they are challenging for promotion to a higher level.