Actually, I would have liked to ask my great-uncle Rainer what it was like with the clumsy thing. He was a Hertha fan through and through and brought me to my club when I was nine. But unfortunately that never happened. As a child and teenager, Rainer was often in trouble. Also with his older brother Uli, who still goes to Hertha today. The Plumpe was a sports field in the middle of residential buildings.
“And so the dump was basically built between the Gesundbrunnen million-dollar bridge, which is now part of Mitte and was then part of Wedding. Absolutely working class environment. And located right next to the Gesundbrunnen S-Bahn and U-Bahn station.”
Berliners called the stadium at Gesundbrunnen the Plumpe because there were numerous water pumps in the city at the time. One of them near the sports field was connected to a healing spring in the nearby Luisenbad.
Before World War II, the stadium had a capacity of 35,000 spectators and was often sold out.
“The two straights where the crowds usually are were actually more or less just a few small benches or something. The street side supposedly had 3,000 seats. And the thickest and fattest were the Uhrenberg and the Zauberberg. On one mountain there was a giant clock, that was the Uhrenberg, and on the other everyone had the impression that if Hertha played towards this mountain, then they would start playing Brazilian football, hence the Magic Mountain.”
Hanne Sobek led Hertha to two championship titles
Hertha BSC experienced its greatest times in the late 1920s and early 1930s. The Berlin sports club reached the final of the German championship six times in a row. In 1930 and 1931, the team led by club legend Hanne Sobek won the only championship titles for the club to date.
Final: After the semi-final victory against 1. FC Nürnberg, Hanne Sobek from Hertha BSC is carried off the pitch by the fans. © ullstein bild via Getty Images / ullstein bild Dtl.
Former sports journalist Heinz Beyer was there at the time as a twelve-year-old: “When they came from the Friedrichstrasse train station in the motorcade, we were barefoot and were able to get into the car. And I rode with them. I felt like a celebrated hero. There I just wanted an autograph.”
The Beyers family’s heart beats for Hertha BSC
Heinz Beyer passed on his enthusiasm for the blue and white to his three children. The Beyers were and are a Hertha family. His son Knut was also a Herthaner from an early age.
“My mother, she went through everything that was associated with Hertha. So it started with the fact that she knitted us everything that could be knitted from blue and white wool. At that time. From wrist warmers, scarves, sweaters. She probably would have knitted me my first apartment if I had asked her.”
After the war the complex was rebuilt
This close connection with Hertha was also felt by the Berliners when the club returned to the partially rebuilt complex in 1950. The sports facility was badly damaged during the war. After the renovation it only had 20,000 places. However, the stands were only fully occupied during the games against the powerful local rivals Tennis Borussia, Tasmania and Spandauer SV.
The Plumpe Stadium in the “German League” collection. The stadium was characterized by steep stands.© Deutschlandradio / Sören Kablitz-Kühn
“And then things really took off. And without a roof, the two mountains developed a beautiful dynamic when it was full.”
The Plumpe – a place for legends and anecdotes
After the war, the plump no longer had the aura it had before. But the stadium still had something special.
“The longer you ignore a myth, the more legends begin to form. I love well-told anecdotes and well-told legends that are 80 percent absolute truth and 20 percent interpretation.”
When India played in the dumps
There are plenty of stories about people who were there and the games that took place there.
“There were Olympic Games in Helsinki. Then there was football as an Olympic sport. And then India arrived. A special thing about India was that they played barefoot and didn’t wear football boots. They also had a really good time in Helsinki. And in order to finance the trip somewhat, they toured Europe on the way back. And then they came to Berlin to the Plumpe. And we played against Hertha BSC at the dump, and that was great! Hertha BSC then lost 2-1 against the barefoot Indians.”
Move to the Berlin Olympic Stadium
When Hertha returned to the Bundesliga in 1968, the Olympic Stadium finally became the club’s venue. From then on, the club only played friendly games at the Plumpe. After the Bundesliga scandal in 1971, Hertha was once again extremely financially strapped.
Hertha plays its Bundesliga home games in the Berlin Olympic Stadium. © picture alliance / dpa / Christoph Soeder
And so there was nothing left but to sell the property at the dump. After all, after that the club was debt-free, at least for a short time. Since then he has played his home games in the Olympic Stadium, but is only a tenant there.
The clumsy was Hertha’s identity
And continues to search for a piece of identity, like the clumsy one once was. “Hertha BSC was basically a club on the move in West Berlin for decades. Sometimes played there, sometimes played there. We’re running after our identity, but we get it now.”
In the place where the legendary stadium once stood, football games are now prohibited. © picture alliance / Jörg Carstensen / dpa / Jörg Carstensen
The dream of your own Hertha stadium
The “Blue and White Stadium” initiative has also been operating there since 2019. The idea of having our own stadium again, like it used to be at the Plumpe, has now become a project with prospects.
“We are working towards ensuring that this is also realized on the Olympic site. And it looks very good too. We also have the political situation at the moment, so we are talking, discussing, exchanging ideas, very closely, with a sports senator who is absolutely willing to make this dream possible for Hertha BSC. But we can’t avoid it, we have to take everyone with us. Because ultimately the majority of the House of Representatives has to support the fact that we as a Berlin association are allowed to build in Berlin on the Olympic site.”
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