The wall has to go. The wall must fall. The slogan of the Berlin uniform, divided for almost thirty years between east and west, today it is a chorus that the red and white fans of theUnion Berlinothe big surprise of the Bundesligaintonation at the Stadium at the old forester’s house, which translated from German means “the stadium near the old forester’s house”. A decidedly uncommercial name for a stadium these days, which could soon see another one as well wall break down: thanks to this year’s great championship, which sees theIron union (the Iron Union, nickname by which the red and white team is called) second only one point from the battleship Bayern Monacodreaming big costs nothing and even just landing in Champions Leaguewhich has not been seen in Berlin since 2000 when theHerthatoday at risk of relegation, would be the crowning of a vertical ascent for the former East German club. And to think that Union had made its official debut in Bundesliga only in 2019, after years of anonymity spent in the lower leagues following the fall of German Democratic Republic.
History – When one thinks back to football in East Germany, one must not forget that sporting activity was beyond the Wall amateur and mostly controlled by state institutions, such as the Dynamo Berlinclub of the Stasiand the Dynamo Dresdenoperated by the East German People’s Police, the People’s Police. And the Union? The red and white club of Berlin, as we know it today, was founded in 1966 at the request of the president of the Federation trade union nationalHerbert Warnke, who obtained to have a civil club “for the workers”, given that the scene of the German capital was in fact monopolized by Dynamo Berlin and Vorwärts Berlin, team of thearmy. Despite some good placements and the victory of the German Cup Eastin 1968, life at the club was not easy: theEulenspiegel, the leading Berlin magazine of those years, wrote that “not all Union Berlin fans were enemies of the state, but all enemies of the state were Union Berlin fans”. “Until the collapse of the Wall, Union suffered harassmentabuse, talented players without too many explanations were taken and moved by power in their teams (one above all Dynamo Berlin): this made it impossible to play, WIN and get hits. In fact, it is no coincidence that Union have lost a few times even with eight goals difference”, he says Giovanni Scroogeprofessional journalist of Padova and Italian fan of the Berlin club. A love, his, which led him to create the page in 2015 Facebook “Eisern Union Italia – cheering for Union Berlin”, which today has over 2,000 subscribers, where fans comment on the club’s matches and talk about away Berlin. A small story that demonstrates the attachment of fans for the club, whose history had slipped into oblivion after 1989, when it ended up treading the fields of amateur categories of Teutonic football, and that only the love of its supporters has managed to straighten.
The relationship with the fans and the local area – If the club is standing today, the credit goes to the fans, which more than once saved the Union from bankruptcy. This is the case in 2005, when supporters raised one and a half million euros thanks to donations of bloodwhich are reimbursed in Germany: in this way the club, at the time in the fourth division, managed to avoid the failure. And the renovation of the stadium was always thanks to the fans, in 2009 not in accordance with the law Second Liga, the German Serie B. The red and white supporters volunteered to redo the facility, which in the end cost about 140,000 hours of work. A work completed in 2013, when the company completed the works by renovating the central stand of the stadium. “The atmosphere is unique: I remember the first time I went there, it was a Sunday at the end of August in the summer of 2012 and Union facedEintracht Braunschweig. The guests won that Zweite Liga match 1-0 on penalties, but it was really nice to see how simple football and the sense of belonging of parents, the elderly and children lived. As the stadium and team headquarters are at Koepenickdistrict southeast of Berlinto get there you need to take the train and cross the wood: the caravan of fans who go to the stadium thus becomes a sort of procession in which everyone goes together, revelersobviously with hectoliters of beer. In the aftermath, despite the defeatthe players still stopped to chat with the fans, a detail not often seen in Italia”, highlights Sgobba.
Season – If the first year, the Union had managed to save themselves without major problems, in the following years there was one growth vertical: in 2021 the placement in Conference League and in 2022 theEuropa Leagueafter a fight for a place Champions lost by a single point. The merit of such a climb is evident. “The Swiss coach Uli Fischer, who took over Union Berlin when they were in the Zweite Liga in 2018-2019, has given a solid mentality to the team, despite 8-9 players changing every year: so the whole group seems solid and author of its destiny, a regardless of opponents. It can certainly aspire to important results”, remarked Sgobba. The Champions League, for a club still tied to a way of seeing and understanding football different from that of the others, would be a really important prize, but in any case also the maximum continental review it would not change the underlying philosophy of the club. As Sgobba points out, “the Union will always be a members’ club, very close to one community which bases its existence on integration, in loyalty, also in the fight against abuses and injustices, as its history teaches. Let us not forget that the soul, as well as the roots, remain even if the world moves on: this is why it is nice that there is a part of the globe that remains locus amoenuslinked to an ethical and value-based philosophy of approaching life and football”.