Post by Bayern Gull on Apr 8, 2011 10:53:24 GMT
My third game in 3 days was the Sunday afternoon match between Hertha BSC (Hertha Berliner Sport-Club) and SC Paderborn 07. Paderborn is of course well known in the UK due to its connection with the British Army. The football team is not so well known and, rightly or wrongly, games against them are seen as one of the least appealing fixtures in Bundesliga 2. Hertha BSC are currently top of the league and in order to give themselves the best possible chance of promotion an idea was suggested by the coach to try and pack the ground out for the last few games by making tickets as cheap as possible and launching a major advertising campaign around that. Obviously this was going to be a challenge given that one of the fixtures was against Padernborn and another against Osnabrück (another town with British Army connections). My seat for this game (a good one) cost only 10 € and expecting a good crowd I made my way to Spandau S-Bahn station a couple of hours before kick-off time for the very short trip to the stadium. When I arrived at the station the platform was a sea of blue and white and a noisy 15 minutes followed with plenty of clinking beer bottles. At the Olympiastadion station the many platforms were all full of people making their way to the stadium. Dozens of food and beer stands were all doing excellent trade outside the stadium but I made my way quickly through security and into the ground. The Ostkurve (where you can sit where you like whatever it says on the ticket) was packed an hour before kick-off and already a sea of noise. Before this game, Hertha's average gate was 40,949 but on Sunday with the cheap prices, they pulled in an astonishing 70,621 (including around 2,500 from Paderborn) - there have only ever been 4 higher crowds than that in the second tier of German football with one of those being the 74,244 who turned out for the game between Hertha and Union Berlin earlier this season. The atmosphere was electric for the whole game especially during the singing of Frank Zander's Nur Nach Hause with a very large percentage of the stadium joining in. It's also the first time in a while that I've seen a Mexican Wave.
Hertha ran out 2-0 winners in this game although Paderborn gave a very good account of themselves. Their followers also made quite some noise although I suspect they don't travel in such numbers to other games. It looks very much like Hertha will get back to the top flight this season and it is where they surely belong.
On the subject of Hertha getting back to the top flight, it is interesting to note that Berlin has often been the only major capital city in Europe that does not have a top flight football team (as is the case right now). This is clearly a function of the history of the city not only with the East/West split and the physical isolation of West Berlin from the rest of the GDR up until 20 years ago but also of the further split within the Western Sector between French, British and American zones of control in the crucial years after WWII. While football was slowly reorganizing itself in other parts of Germany, Berlin, to some extent, was left behind especially organizationally. In addition to that, the era of the Berlin Airlift was naturally more about survival rather than worrying about football (my Father remembers flying over the Olympiastadion in an Avro York during that - what a contrast to my visit). For all these reasons, although Hertha seem a massive club, they still have the feeling of an underdog about them - they were German champions in 1930 and 1931 and have one the cup a couple of times (2001 and 2002) but potentially they could be one of Europe's biggest clubs.
As for the Olympiastadion itself, I assume everyone knows the its story. I'm not sure if you will be able to make out the name of the most famous athlete to perform there (Jessie Owens) carved in stone among the gold medal winners of 1936. What struck me was that all of the medal winners could be listed (I mean for all of the sports) on a few plaques (basically double what you see in the photo as there are a set on each side of the Marathon Gate where the receptacle for the Olympic Flame is located). Since the introduction of Hide and Seek, Tiddlywinks and so on into the Olympics they would have to cover the whole stadium with plaques if they did something similar today.
One thing new I did learn about the stadium is that originally the top tier was standing and it was this that enabled gates of up to 110,000 on a few occasions. The capacity today is limited to an all seated 74,228 with all seats technically undercover but some slightly exposed to the elements due to the Marathon Gate gap in the roof. The last improvements to the stadium were done of the 2006 World Cup when just about everything was renewed in terms of fixtures and fittings and the bottom tier was remodeled with a different gradient allowing a couple of extra rows of seats to be added. At the same time, much of the original structure was maintained so that the continuity with the 1936 stadium is still clear. They have really done an excellent job of blending old and new and there are quite a few information boards around the ground telling its story in English and German.
Incidentally, you can get entry to the ground for 4 € on any day of the week and you more-or-less get the run of the place. There are also guided tours available. I hope this continues into the future but with the terror alert at Dortmund (police thwarted a bomb attack planned for last Saturday's game) I suspect this may not be allowed for very much longer.
Anyone who doubts that you can have a good atmosphere in a ground with an athletics track should visit the Olympiastadion - I highly recommended it as a very good and cheap day out.
Hertha ran out 2-0 winners in this game although Paderborn gave a very good account of themselves. Their followers also made quite some noise although I suspect they don't travel in such numbers to other games. It looks very much like Hertha will get back to the top flight this season and it is where they surely belong.
On the subject of Hertha getting back to the top flight, it is interesting to note that Berlin has often been the only major capital city in Europe that does not have a top flight football team (as is the case right now). This is clearly a function of the history of the city not only with the East/West split and the physical isolation of West Berlin from the rest of the GDR up until 20 years ago but also of the further split within the Western Sector between French, British and American zones of control in the crucial years after WWII. While football was slowly reorganizing itself in other parts of Germany, Berlin, to some extent, was left behind especially organizationally. In addition to that, the era of the Berlin Airlift was naturally more about survival rather than worrying about football (my Father remembers flying over the Olympiastadion in an Avro York during that - what a contrast to my visit). For all these reasons, although Hertha seem a massive club, they still have the feeling of an underdog about them - they were German champions in 1930 and 1931 and have one the cup a couple of times (2001 and 2002) but potentially they could be one of Europe's biggest clubs.
As for the Olympiastadion itself, I assume everyone knows the its story. I'm not sure if you will be able to make out the name of the most famous athlete to perform there (Jessie Owens) carved in stone among the gold medal winners of 1936. What struck me was that all of the medal winners could be listed (I mean for all of the sports) on a few plaques (basically double what you see in the photo as there are a set on each side of the Marathon Gate where the receptacle for the Olympic Flame is located). Since the introduction of Hide and Seek, Tiddlywinks and so on into the Olympics they would have to cover the whole stadium with plaques if they did something similar today.
One thing new I did learn about the stadium is that originally the top tier was standing and it was this that enabled gates of up to 110,000 on a few occasions. The capacity today is limited to an all seated 74,228 with all seats technically undercover but some slightly exposed to the elements due to the Marathon Gate gap in the roof. The last improvements to the stadium were done of the 2006 World Cup when just about everything was renewed in terms of fixtures and fittings and the bottom tier was remodeled with a different gradient allowing a couple of extra rows of seats to be added. At the same time, much of the original structure was maintained so that the continuity with the 1936 stadium is still clear. They have really done an excellent job of blending old and new and there are quite a few information boards around the ground telling its story in English and German.
Incidentally, you can get entry to the ground for 4 € on any day of the week and you more-or-less get the run of the place. There are also guided tours available. I hope this continues into the future but with the terror alert at Dortmund (police thwarted a bomb attack planned for last Saturday's game) I suspect this may not be allowed for very much longer.
Anyone who doubts that you can have a good atmosphere in a ground with an athletics track should visit the Olympiastadion - I highly recommended it as a very good and cheap day out.