A fan life with Hertha: The old lady and the old gentleman

I can't help it. It is the disgrace of the wrong place of birth that I have been a supporter of Hertha BSC since my early youth. However, as a Hertha fan you shouldn't be squeamish. Hertha, founded in 1892, was one of the first pure football clubs in Germany and also a founding member of the Bundesliga. With over 60,000 members, it is one of the 15 largest sports clubs in Germany.

As a 12-year-old, I regularly attended home games in the Olympic Stadium, always with a huge Hertha flag that my mother had sewn. There is evidence of this: in the “Sportschau” with Ernst Huberty it was clearly visible how a huge flag with a boy stormed onto the field after the 2-1 victory over 1. FC Köln in September 1968. That was me.

Hertha's great times were a long time ago. After losing four finals in a row, they finally won the German championship in 1930 with a 5:4 against Holstein Kiel and again a year later with a 3:2 against 1860 Munich. Hanne Sobek scored two goals in both games.

However, I bought my football equipment from Hanne Berndt, the great Tennis Borussia striker, who, after the end of his career in which he had scored more than a thousand goals, had opened a sporting goods store on Damaschkestrasse - just around the corner from the state post office where my father worked. Berndt was usually in a bad mood, which was perhaps because of his job and my Hertha jersey. Imagine if Messi had to sell football boots to children wearing Spain jerseys at the end of his career. Berndt died in 1988 on April 9th, the day Tennis Borussia was founded.

By the way, the landlord in the state sports department's canteen was called Usbeck, and his son Ingo became my hero for a very brief moment. In 1965, Hertha was demoted to the regional league due to serious violations of the statutes. Tasmania took its place in the Bundesliga in 1900. After the 2-0 win against Karlsruhe on matchday 1, I was already dreaming of the championship, especially since Ingo Usbeck had scored both goals. And he was practically a family member.

It is well known what happened to Tasmania and I returned to Hertha remorsefully. Incidentally, Usbeck also ended up there later, in the old men's team. Three years after forced relegation, the old lady returned to Germany's elite class. And things went up. In 1970 and 1971, Hertha came third and only lost to Inter Milan in the quarter-finals of the UEFA Cup.

But of course, as usual at Hertha, that didn't go well for long. Almost the entire team was involved in the 1971 Bundesliga scandal and was banned. They paid for the 0-1 home defeat against Arminia Bielefeld with a total of 250,000 marks. Goalkeeper Volkmar Groß, who also cashed in, later opened a car shop right in front of our front door on Eisenzahnstrasse.

Things soon started to look up again, and in 1975 Hertha achieved the club's greatest success to date with a runner-up finish. In 1978 they came third again. After that it went downhill again. The low point came in 1986, when Hertha was relegated to the amateur league and had to play in the dilapidated Poststadion in front of a handful of spectators. However, I was already living in Ireland and watched from a distance as my club became an elevator team.

My friends Fritz Eckenga, Wiglaf Droste, Klaus Bittermann and Friedrich Küppersbusch - all Borussia Dortmund fans - always sent malicious emails until Droste asked the others to show compassion. This was worse than the hateful comments. My reference to Hertha's highest Bundesliga win was of no use: 9-1 against BVB on April 18, 1970.

In 2023, the seventh Bundesliga relegation and the threat of bankruptcy followed. After 16 departures and the loss of the best players, I thought: debt-free in league three. And now? League leaders! There was only a draw against bottom-placed Holstein Kiel on Friday. The storks are blessed, after all, they brought Hertha the championship in 1930. HaHoHe.