Berliner FC Dynamo

Berliner FC Dynamo (commonly Dynamo Berlin or BFC Dynamo) is a German association football club and is the successor organization to the club that played in East Berlin as Dynamo Berlin from 1953 to 1966.

History

Founding and Stasi patronage

A predecessor side to the current-day club was established in 1949 as Sportgemeinde Deutsche Volkspolizei Berlin. In March 1953 this team assumed the place of SC Volkspolizei Potsdam in the DDR-Liga, East Germany's tier two competition. The Potsdam and Berlin sides were later formally merged and after 27 March 1953 played as part of the larger Sportvereinigung Dynamo sports club under the name SG Dynamo Berlin. After a 14th place result in the 1953–54 season the team was sent down to the Bezirksliga Berlin (III). The club was again re-named, being christened Sport Club Dynamo Berlin on 1 October 1954.^[1]

In late 1954 the team members of Dynamo Dresden, one of the better teams in East Germany at the time, were ordered to leave for the capital to establish a competitive side in Berlin while the Dresden club was left to carry on using its second team players. Initially a local side, the team was promoted to the DDR-Liga (II) in 1957 and captured the division championship that year to immediately advance to the DDR Oberliga. Dynamo enjoyed some success in the late 50s and early 60s with a number of top-three finishes and an East German Cup win in 1959. However, by 1963 their play had fallen off and they had become a lower table side leading to their relegation in 1967.

The club was re-established on 15 January 1966 as Berliner Fußballclub Dynamo (BFC Dynamo) when the football department was disassociated as a football club in a general re-organisation of football in the country. Dynamo Berlin quickly returned to first division play after a single season's absence and would soon become infamous under the patronage of Erich Mielke, head of East Germany's Stasi (the secret police), for the various means used to manipulate the outcome of the team's games and ensure its dominance.

Playing in the DDR-Oberliga BFC won ten consecutive titles from 1979 to 1988 assisted by crooked referees,^[2] unfair player transfers from other teams and assorted other unsportmanlike practices. Dynamo was reviled by many of the citizens of Berlin and the cheating was so blatant that it incurred the unofficially expressed displeasure of the country's ruling Politburo. Alleged Manipulation of the 1986 championship match between Dynamo and Lokomotive Leipzig which ended in a 1:1 draw led to nationwide protests, but resulted only in sanctions against referee Bernd Stumpf.^[3]

Post-unification

After German re-unification in 1990 the side was re-named FC Berlin in an attempt to re-package it and distance it from its unsavory past (Dynamo admitted to tier III in 1991–92 season), but in 1999, they again took up the name BFC Dynamo. Without its powerful patron and the papered crowds that it brought, the side quickly fell to tier III play and since the 2000–01 season has toiled in IV or V division leagues. The team went bankrupt in 2001–02 but was required by the German Football Association (Deutscher Fussball Bund or German Football Association) to play out the balance of its games for the season as "mandatory friendlies", which did not count in league standings, using available third string players – not an uncommon practise in these types of circumstances. The farce was played out in a series of lopsided defeats.

The club recovered to win the Verbandsliga Berlin (V) championship in 2004 and return to fourth division play in the Oberliga Nordost-Nord (IV) where they have settled in as upper-table side, finishing in the top-six in three out of the last four seasons.

Championship stars controversy

In 2004, the German Football Association (Deutscher Fussball Bund or German Football Association) introduced the Verdiente Meistervereine – a system to honor the most successful teams in Bundesliga history awarding one star for three titles, two stars for five, and three stars for ten – allowing qualifying teams to display on their jerseys the stars they have earned. Dynamo Berlin petitioned the league to have their East German titles recognized, but received no reply.^[4] They eventually took matters into their own hands and emblazoned their jerseys with three stars. This caused considerable debate given the tainted nature of their championships, and more generally, that the DFB did not recognize East German championships, only those championships won since the 1963 formation of the Bundesliga. The issue also affected other former East German teams including Dynamo Dresden (8 titles), Vorwärts Berlin (6), SC Wismut Karl Marx Stadt, FC Carl Zeiss Jena, and 1. FC Magdeburg.

The DFB has since updated this practice by broadening recognition to include all national level men's competitions since 1903 (when the first recognized national championship was staged), including those of the former East Germany, as well as all women's competitions since 1974. In addition, new standards for how championship stars are to be displayed on a team's uniform have been established. The DFB governs the use of championship stars and a club must have that governing body's approval before displaying any such badge.

Dynamo has since occasionally used the championship star in accordance with DFB graphic standards, displaying a star bearing the number 10 in the current website design.

Stadiums

The home of the club is the stadium at the Sportforum Hohenschönhausen built in 1970. It has a capacity of 10,000 spectators (~2,000 seats) and is part of a larger sports complex opened in 1986 with facilities for speed skating, athletics, and cycling. When opened it offered the world's first covered indoor speed skating oval. The football stadium was renovated in 2005–06 to include fences and player tunnels required to meet security standards. Dynamo played more important games – European Cup matches for example – in the larger, more secure Friedrich Ludwig Jahn Sportpark.

Club culture

The BFC has rivalries with Dynamo Dresden, Türkiyemspor Berlin, 1. FC Magdeburg, FC Sachsen Leipzig, and 1. FC Union Berlin while enjoying friendly relations with 1. FC Lokomotive Leipzig and VFL Bochum.

Ownership of the BFC logo

After German re-unification many former East German clubs rushed to drop the names they were often forced to bear during the Communist era and return to traditional names used prior to the end of World War II or to adopt completely new identities. Dynamo was among the clubs to do so, becoming FC Berlin. However, like many others of these clubs they found more value and fan recognition in the names, colours and crests they had played under in East Germany and so returned to these.

Dynamo's situation was complicated as they had neglected to copyright their old logo and found that when they tried to recover it in early 1999 that they no longer held title, having to share it with sports souvenir seller Peter "Pepe" Mager who laid claim to the orphaned image in March 1997. Control of the logo image has since passed to André Sommer and Rayk Bernt and their marketing firm Ra-Be GmbH through which they take ten percent of the value of all fan articles sold. Sommer and Bernt also served as directors in the period following the club's bankruptcy in 2001. This was the cause of additional concern for the beleaguered football association as the pair were known to have links to violent fan groups and the Hells Angels motorcycle club.

The situation has long remained unresolved and Dynamo has been working to recover the rights to its familiar traditional logo. Several alternative logos have been developed and registered in the event that they are unsuccessful in the attempt. The disputed image continued to be used on Dynamo's first team uniforms, at its website, and in other limited contexts, but the club was still unable to fully exploit the commercial value of the logo to its benefit.^[5] In 2009, in response to the problem the club decided to introduce a new logo that abandoned the traditional stylized "D" in favour of the Berlin bear.

Current squad

As of 4 September 2011 (2011 -09-04)^[update]

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

Coaches

Former players

Honours

Dynamo Berlin was East Germany's most successful club capturing 10 national titles, and is second in the country only to Bayern Munich who have 20 national titles to their credit. Those 10 titles came consecutively – a feat no other team in Germany has matched at the top level of competition.

• DDR-Oberliga: 10 (Record)
  • Winners 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988
  • Runners-up 1960, 1972, 1976, 1989
• FDGB-Pokal: 3
  • Winners 1959, 1988, 1989
  • Runners-up 1962, 1971, 1979, 1982, 1984, 1985
• GDR Supercup: 1
  • Winners 1989
• Berlin Cup: 1
  • Winners: 1999
  • Runners-up 2000
• NOFV-Oberliga Nord: 2
  • Winners 1992, 2002
• Verbandsliga Berlin: 1
  • Winners 2004

Dynamo club member and referee Lutz-Michael Fröhlich was awarded the 2007 Fair Play Trophy as selected by German journalists. Fröhlich has over 200 first division matches to his credit and was recognized for his even-handed treatment of Michael Ballack in a 6 November 2004 match between Bayern Munich and Hannover 96, withdrawing a yellow card that would have put the player out of the match after consulting with his assistant over the correctness of the call. He was also a leading figure in uncovering the match fixing scandal of 2005 involving referee Robert Hoyzer.^[6]

Seasons since end of GDR

BFC Dynamo in European competitions

External links

• Official team site (German)
• The Abseits Guide to German Soccer
• Facts and Figures (German)
• das deutsche Fußball-Archiv (Historical German league results archive) (German)

See also

• Verdiente Meistervereine (Recognition system for national football championships in Germany)

References

GDR sports · Sports and games