FM10: Official Hertha Berliner Sport-Club von 1892 Thread (Dance With Die Alte Dame)

Hertha Berliner Sport-Club von 1892

Hertha Berliner Sport-Club von 1892 (commonly known as Hertha BSC or Hertha Berlin) is a German football club based in Berlin. A founding member of the German Football Association in Leipzig in 1900, the club has a long history as Berlin's best-supported side and competes today in the first division Bundesliga.

History

Early years

The club was formed in 1892 as BFC Hertha 92, taking its name from a steamship with a blue and white smokestack. One of the four young men who founded the club had taken a day trip on this ship with his father. The name Hertha is a variation on Nerthus referring to fertility goddess from Germanic mythology.

Hertha performed consistently well on the field, including a win in the first Berlin championship final in 1905.[1] In May 1910, Hertha won a friendly match against Southend United F.C., which was considered significant at the time as England was where the game originated and English clubs dominated the sport. However, their on-field success was not matched financially and in 1920 Hertha merged with the well-heeled club Berliner Sport-Club to form Hertha Berliner Sport-Club. The new team continued to enjoy considerable success in the Oberliga Berlin-Brandenburg, while also enduring a substantial measure of frustration. The team played its way to the German championship final in six consecutive seasons from 1926 to 1931, but were only able to come away with the title in 1930 and 1931 with BSC leaving to become an independent club again after the combined side's first championship. Even so, Hertha emerged as the Germany's second most successful team during the inter-war years.

Play under the Third Reich

German football was re-organized under the Third Reich in 1933 into sixteen top-flight divisions, which saw Hertha playing in the Gauliga Berlin-Brandenburg. The club continued to enjoy success within their division, regularly finishing in the upper half of the table and capturing the divisional title in 1935, 1937, and 1944. However, they faded from prominence, unable to advance out of the early rounds of the national championship rounds. Politically, the club was overhauled under Hitler, with Hans Pfeifer, a Nazi party member being installed as president.

Postwar play in divided Berlin

After World War II, occupying Allied authorities banned most organizations in Germany, including sports and football clubs. Hertha was re-formed late in 1945 as SG Gesundbrunnen and resumed play in the Oberliga Berlin - Gruppe C. The thirty-six teams of the first season of the postwar Oberliga Berlin were reduced to just a dozen the next year and the club found itself out of first division football and playing in the Amateurliga Berlin. By the end of 1949, they had re-claimed their identity as Hertha BSC Berlin and earned a return to the top-flight.

Tensions between the western Allies and the Russians occupying various sectors of the city, and the developing Cold War, led to chaotic conditions for football in the capital. Hertha was banned from play against East German teams in the 1949-50 season after taking on several players and a coach who had fled the Dresden club SG Friedrichstadt for West Berlin. A number of sides from the eastern half of the city were forced from the Oberliga Berlin to the newly established DDR-Liga beginning with the 1950-51 season.

Through the 50's an intense rivalry developed with Tennis Borussia Berlin. A proposal for a merger between the two clubs in 1958 was resoundingly rejected, with only three of the 266 members voting in favour.

Entry to the Bundesliga

At the time of the formation of the Bundesliga in 1963, Hertha was Berlin's reigning champion and so became an inaugural member of the new professional national league.[4] In spite of finishing clear of the relegation zone, the team was demoted after the 1964-65 season following attempts to bribe players to play in the city under what had become decidedly unpleasant circumstances after the erection of the Berlin Wall.[4] This caused something of a crisis for the Bundesliga which wanted for political reasons to continue to have a team in its ranks representing the former capital. Through various machinations this led to the promotion of Tasmania 1900 Berlin, which then delivered the worst-ever performance in Bundesliga history. Hertha managed a return to the premier German league in 1968-69 and developed a solid following making it Berlin's favorite side.

However, Hertha was again soon touched by scandal through its involvement with several other clubs in the Bundesliga match fixing scandal of 1971. In the course of an investigation of Hertha's role, it was also revealed that the club was 6 million DM in debt. Financial disaster was averted through the sale of the team's former home ground.

In spite of this, the team continued to enjoy a fair measure of success on the field through the 70's with a second place Bundesliga finish behind Borussia Moenchengladbach in 1974-75, a semi-final appearance in the 1979 UEFA Cup, and two appearances in the final of the German Cup (1977 and 1979). The following season saw the fortunes of the team take a turn for the worse as they were relegated to 2.Bundesliga where they would spend thirteen of the next seventeen seasons.

Plans in 1982 for a merger with Tennis Borussia, Blau Weiss 90 and SC Charlottenburg to form a side derisively referred to as FC Utopia never came to fruition. Hertha slipped as low as the third tier Amateur Oberliga Berlin where they spent two seasons (1986-87 and 1987-88). Two turns in the Bundesliga (1982-83 and 1990-91) saw the team immediately relegated after poor performances. Hertha's amateur side enjoyed a greater measure of success, advancing all the way to the final of the German Cup in 1993 where their run ended in a close 0:1 defeat at the hands of Bundesliga side Bayer Leverkusen.

Following the fall of the Berlin Wall, Hertha became a popular side in East Berlin as well. Two days after the wall come down, 11,000 East Berliners attended Hertha's match against SG Wattenscheid.[8] A fan friendship with 1. FC Union Berlin developed, and a friendly match between the two attracted over 50,000 spectators.

Financial woes once more burdened the club in 1994 as it found itself 10 million DM in debt. The crisis was again resolved through the sale of real estate holdings in addition to the signing of a new sponsor and management team. By 1997 Hertha found its way back to the Bundesliga where they have generally managed to finish in the upper third of the slate. When Hertha was promoted in 1997, it ended Berlin's six-year-long drought without a Bundesliga side which made the Bundesliga the only top league in Europe without representation from the country's biggest city and capital.

The Challenge

The German league is the fastest improving league in Europe; with the success of Bayern in the Champions league this season and the host of other German clubs (FC Bayern Munich, Bayer 04 Leverkusen, Hamburger SV, FC Schalke 04, VfB Stuttgart, SV Werder Bremen, and SV Werder Bremen) proving a force in Europe over the past few years, and exciting ‘up and coming’ clubs like TSG 1899 Hoffenheim, it is soon to be recognised as the 3rd best in Europe (by gaining Italy’s 4th Champion’s League spot).

There is a hole in the German market however, as the best-supported club in the Capital (and most populous) city are perennial underachievers. This is a club with a massive support, stadium (the 74.5k Olympic Stadium), an absolutely amazing history (if you haven’t taken the time, read back through that section, well worth it) and an infrastructure to match the top European clubs. Everything is there for this club to be successful both at home and on a World scale. You’re mission, should you choose to accept it, is to take this club and make it the side it could and should be.

Summary

This is a PROPER challenge, for those of you stuck trying to find something that will allow you to continue to manage at the top level, whilst also really straining your intellectual muscle. Hertha BSC seriously over achieved last season and have subsequently qualified for the EURO Cup, this season however they are languishing at the bottom of the German league. With no money and over wage budget, this is no doubt one of the most difficult FM experiences, but great fun and very rewarding!