In the coming week in Berlin, which is also called party capital, once again celebrated. There are hundreds of events on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on 9th November, talks, exhibitions, light installations, in every corner of the city, in every banquet hall, inside and outside the reunion is commemorated. Music is played at the Brandenburg Gate, the Spree is illuminated, the S-Bahn sells Mauerfall special tickets, the following Sunday is sold out, even this was justified by the anniversary.
The Bundesliga will also be playing on 9th November, after all it's a Saturday. The league has for the first time in many years again two Berlin clubs, one from the deep west and one from the deep east of the city. Their very first Bundesliga derby play Hertha BSC and the 1st FC Union but not on that historic day, but a week earlier. Namely already this Saturday (18.30 clock, live ticker SPIEGEL, TV: Sky) in the Wuhlheide. A missed opportunity?
Andreas Gora DPA
United in the city, separated in the mascot: Hertha Hertinho
If it goes to Hertha BSC, then yes. Shortly after the Erstligaaufstieg of Union was established, had gone in the Westend with the idea to the public to play the game Berlin (West) against Berlin (East) on 9 November: "A fantastic day for the Berlin Derby," rushed Hertha before and played the ball towards Köpenick.
To run there against closed doors. At Union you could not win this idea. President Dirk Zingler said in the "Berliner Zeitung": "For me, this is a derby, which stands for rivalry, for demarcation and for football class struggle in the city to give this game a kind of friendship game character, according to the motto: We play here on German unity, I think that's absurd. "
"Pure symbolism"
And in the Union blog "Textile Offenses", something like the unofficial voice of the fans, Hertha's move was described as "weird" and "pure symbolism": "Football did nothing exactly for the 9th of November and did not play a major role "We do not need a game on a special day for this match to become meaningful." Illustrated with a picture of the Olympic Stadium scoreboard when Hertha and Union met in the 2nd league in 2011: Hertha 1. Union 2.
Boris Streubel Getty Images
United in the city, separated in the mascot: Unioner Club
Hertha and Union are not only far apart geographically geographically, 25 kilometers as the crow flies between the Olympic Stadium and Alter Försterei, the "Tagesspiegel" has calculated. Culturally and from the mentality come probably still a few hundred kilometers.
In this case, this leads to the remarkable situation that the East Club voluntarily and almost completely leaves the field to the West Club in commemoration of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Hertha gratefully filled this gap. The club, which has indeed achieved publicity with its campaigns in the past, but not necessarily reached its own fans, has just in time for the anniversary launched a new advertising campaign. Motto: "We are a Berliner." A mix of John F. Kennedy's "I am a Berliner" and a united movement "We are one people".
Goal Wall Shooting at the East Side Gallery
At the start of the campaign, the team visited the Wall Memorial on Bernauer Strasse, then the players were carted to the East Side Gallery, where they played goal wall shooting on an original piece of wall: Two holes had been drilled in the wall, one on the top left, one on the right below. Subsequently, the pieces of wall provided with the Hertha lettering were placed in the city and are to serve according to the association "as a picture motif". Selfie service.
With the promotion "we emphasize both the idea of unity of the city as well as the orientation in the association for total Berlin," says Hertha's marketing department head Daniel Schmid. On the website Hertha presented with the sentence: "Berlin Wall is when the city is closed together."
Hertha will now take on November 9 in the Olympic Stadium held against Union against RB Leipzig. That is, so to speak, the concession of the German Football League (DFL) to the anniversary, the Hertha to bring the club as a guest, who celebrates himself as the representative of the East and thus incense, especially the Unioner. Hertha brought for the game in 1989 "Mauerfall tickets" for only eight euros in the presale, the slogan: "ticket prices as 30 years ago." That's when one becomes sentimental.
But that's not all: The Berlin will also come on this day in extra jerseys in the dress that the team wore 30 years ago at the first home game after the fall of the wall on 11 November 1989: plain white with a Berlin bear on the chest , But the opponent makes the former game historic: Wattenscheid 09 has disappeared since the previous week in bankruptcy. Result then 1: 1, goals Jörg Bach and Sven Kretschmer. As it is said, the demand for the jersey is very high, the first edition is already sold out.
As the discussion about a possible derby on the day of the fall of the Berlin Wall arose, the 1. FC Union tweeted about its official club account: "So the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall is too important for us, we do not want to play football on this historic day." Union will play at Mainz 05 at 9.30pm on 9th November.
