Although things
never really exploded, soccer matches between East Germany and West Germany
were always something special for both teams. Teams from both countries met each
other mostly in European or Intertoto Cup, friendlies were often forbidden between
1945 and 1990. I try not to give to much attention to all the political turmoil surrounding
these games, but focus on the events on the soccer pitch.
After the
Second World War, Germany wasn’t allowed to compete internationally for a
while. West Germany played their first match after the war against Switzerland,
on November 22, 1950, winning 1-0. East Germany made their debut on the
international stage two years later. On September 21, 1952 they lost 3-0 to
Poland in Warsaw. In 1954, West Germany surprisingly beat Hungary to be crowned
World Champion in Switzerland. In East Germany, people were also very excited
about this.
That showed
two years later, when a club from West Germany played a friendly match in East
Germany for the very first time. 1.FC Kaiserslautern travelled to Leipzig to
play champion SC Wismut Karl-Marx-Stadt on October 6, 1956. The Red Devils,
with five ‘World Champions’ in their team, won 5-3. Captain Fritz Walter made a
stunning goal with his back heel, while diving forward. No less than 120,000
soccer fans were delighted to see such a great team from West Germany, with no
hostility at all. The friendliness surrounding this match sadly was an
exception.
At the Olympics
As all the commotion
regarding the Olympic Games proved. The IOC didn’t want two German soccer teams
at the Olympics. They preferred one, if possible, combined team. As
East-Germany declined in 1956, a West German team could compete that year in
Melbourne at the Olympics. Unsuccessfully, as they lost 2-1 against the Soviet
Union and were immediately out of the tournament. Four years later, both
countries wanted to participate in Rome. Negotiations were fruitless, until the
IOC ordered both countries to pick dates and venues for two matches in 1959, to
determine who eventually could go to Rome. The West German Soccer Association
was afraid for who knows what, and insisted both matches be played behind closed
doors. The first was in East Berlin, which West Germany surprisingly won 2-0. There
was an own goal by Dieter Fischer and a goal by Gert “Charley” Dörfel, who later
had a brilliant career at Hamburger SV. The return saw West Germany winning
again, 2-1 in Düsseldorf. This time the goals were scored by Joachim Thimm,
Heinz Wilkening and DDR-player Günter Schröter. It was totally unexpected, as East
Germany was allowed to use full internationals, while West Germany had to line
up amateurs without any international experience. In the end, West Germany
didn’t make it to Rome as they were clearly beaten by Poland during the regular
qualification.
Still, it
was slightly eerie, knowing that young men, who shared the same nationality
until 1945, now played each other in two matches without having any contact
whatsoever between them around those games. It was forbidden as their counties were
enemies now.
Meeting in Munich
 |
| Hitzfeld scoring 2-2 |
Four years
later, September 1963, the same procedure was held for the Olympic Games in
Tokyo, luckily this time the matches were open for spectators. East Germany
were the far better team in the match in Karl-Marx-Stadt (3-0), West Germany’s
response, a 2-1 victory in Hannover, was to not enough. From 1968 onwards both Germany’s were allowed
to qualify for the Olympics. In 1972 they met again at the Olympic tournament
in Munich. Host West Germany met East Germany in the second round, with both
teams having a chance to qualify for the final. West Germany had a strong but
young team with several players, like Heiner Baltes, waiting to sign a
professional contract so they could compete at the Olympics. Still, the likes
of Bernd Nickel (Eintracht Frankfurt), Ottmar Hitzfeld (FC Basel) and 20-year
old star player Uli Hoeness weren’t strong enough to win this match. It ended
3-2 to East Germany, with goals from Jürgen Pommerenke, Joachim Streich and
Eberhard Vogel for East Germany, and Hoeness and Hitzfeld for West Germany.
Big match at the World Cup
Two years
later, the stakes were even higher at the World Cup 1974 in West Germany,
East Germany was drawn into the same group as the hosts. It would be the first and
last time the two would play a match at top level. On Saturday, June 22, they
met at the Volkspark Stadium in Hamburg. Both teams had already qualified for
the Second Round, there was only prestige at stake. First Jürgen Grabowski
(West) and Hans-Jürgen Kreische (East) both missed a very big chance from a
short distance, Gerd Müller hit the post. Overall West Germany was the slightly
better team, but East Germany won the match 1-0 thanks to a goal by Jürgen Sparwasser
in the 77th minute.
Hell broke
loose in West Germany, after a rather disappointing first round. Bernd Cullmann
lost his place in the starting eleven, Bernd Hölzenbein replaced him. But it
also changed the attitude of the West Germans. They had to step up a little,
and they did so in the next four games. Losing against East Germany might even have
been a blessing in disguise for West Germany. Qualified as number two from the
group, West Germany avoided playing the Netherlands, the superior team in the
first round, and world champion Brazil. Meanwhile, East Germany was very
pleased with their win. During the seventies, East Germany had a golden soccer
generation, and winning against enemy West Germany was almost as important as
winning the Olympic gold medal in 1976. After the match in Hamburg, both teams
never met again. They were drawn together for the qualification for the
European Championship in 1992, but those matches were never played, because the
Wall came down.
Intertoto Matches
On club
level, East and West met each other all the time. In the European Cups, and
even more often in the Intertoto Cup. Although there was some prejudice and
hostility from both sides during most of those matches. Both countries always
emphasized the differences between the two countries, never the common ground
they of course still had.
In the
European Cup, it wasn’t until 1973, that teams from East and West Germany
finally met. It could have been much earlier, but the city team of Cologne
declined their participation for the first edition of the Intercities Fairs Cup
(later UEFA Cup) in 1955, when they had to play Leipzig. This way, the
Intertoto Cup had the honor of hosting the very first meeting. On July 9, 1961,
Vfl Osnabrück played at home against Motor Jena. Motor Jena won 1-0 (goal by
Roland Ducke), topping that at home with a 5-0 victory. East and West German
teams met again in the Intertoto Cup on eighteen occassions, despite East
Germany not competing in this cup during the seventies. This is a full list of
all these matches, in bold the winner:
Season
|
Match (first team played at home first)
|
Result 1
|
Result 2
|
1961-62
|
Vfl Osnabrück (W) – Motor Jena (E)
|
0-1
|
0-5
|
1961-62
|
Lokomotive Leipzig (E) – Kickers Offenbach
|
2-1
|
2-1
|
1964-65
|
Hertha BSC (W) – SC Leipzig (E)
|
1-4
|
1-4
|
1966-67
|
Karlsruhe SC (W) – Hansa Rostock (E)
|
2-1
|
2-0
|
1966-67
|
Eintracht Braunschweig (W) – Carl Zeiss Jena (E)
|
2-3
|
1-2
|
1966-67
|
Vorwärts Berlin (E) – Borussia Neunkirchen (W)
|
2-1
|
4-2
|
1967
|
Lokomotive Leipzig (E) – Hannover 96 (W)
|
1-2
|
1-2
|
1984
|
1.FC Magdeburg (E) – 1.FC Nürnberg (W)
|
3-0
|
2-2
|
1985
|
Rot-Weiss Erfurt (E) – Fortuna Düsseldorf (W)
|
6-1
|
3-0
|
1985
|
Werder Bremen (W) – Carl Zeiss Jena (E)
|
3-0
|
2-2
|
1985
|
Wismut Aue (E) – Eintracht
Braunschweig (W)
|
3-2
|
1-2
|
1986
|
Carl Zeiss Jena (E) – 1.FC Saarbrücken (W)
|
3-1
|
2-0
|
1986
|
Union Berlin (E) – Bayer Uerdingen (W)
|
3-2
|
0-3
|
1988
|
Bayer Uerdingen (W) – 1.FC Magdeburg (E)
|
2-0
|
2-1
|
1989
|
1.FC Kaiserslautern (W) – Carl Zeiss Jena (E)
|
3-1
|
3-1
|
1990
|
Energie Cottbus (E) – 1.FC Kaiserslautern (W)
|
4-0
|
2-2
|
1990
|
Karlsruhe SC (W) – Hansa Rostock (E)
|
4-1
|
1-2
|
1990
|
Chemnitzer FC (E) – Fortuna Düsseldorf (W)
|
2-0
|
0-2
|
1990
|
Bayer Uerdingen (W) – FC Berlin (E)
|
3-0
|
2-1
|
(W) = West
Germany
(E) = East
Germany
Of these 19
double meetings, nine were won by East Germany, eight by West Germany with no
winner on two occasions. A great result for East Germany of course, who
probably were also more eager to do well in these matches, as a win would give
them a lot of prestige in their own country. For most clubs from West Germany,
they were meaningful preparation matches for the Bundesliga season at the most.
European Cup
 |
| Uli Hoeness |
While the
Intertoto Cup matches hardly had value to West German teams, the European Cup of
course is a whole different story. In 1973, Bayern Munich and Dynamo Dresden
were the first two teams to meet, Bayern being the favorite. At home they won
4-3 win, after trailing 0-1 and 2-3. So it promised to be an close match in
Dresden two weeks later. Lots of East German soccer fans were very excited thinking of the visit of Bayern Munich to Dresden and went to the hotel to catch a glimpse
of the stars. But Bayern wasn’t there. They were afraid something would go
wrong in East Germany, perhaps with the food, or with Dresden fans making noise
during the night in front of the hotel. So they decided to travel to Dresden by bus on
the match day, which was very rare and against UEFA relugations. Anyway, after 58 minutes in another close
game (0-2 by two Uli Hoeness-goals, then 3-2 and an advantage on away goals for
Dresden), Gerd Müller scored the all decisive equalizer: 3-3 and Bayern were
through to the next round.
No Super Cup in 1974
Still, not
all was well between the two countries. Although everybody agreed to play European
matches against each other, there still was a lot of animosity. After beating Dynamo Dresden, Bayern Munich was unstoppable and won the European Champions Cup in 1974, while 1.FC Magdeburg took the European Cup
Winners Cup the same year. This meant they should meet to play for the European Super Cup, home and away. But somehow the two clubs couldn’t find dates for those matches and they were never played. Of course, this had everything to do with the cold war between the two Germanies,
they didn’t want to play each other.
It was also not done to arrange friendly
matches between clubs. It was even prohibited from 1961 (the building of the Wall) onwards, until by 1975
tension had eased and 1.FC Kaiserslautern got the kick-off with a match at home against Carl Zeiss Jena, losing 0-1.
East Germany officially didn’t call these matches friendlies - as West Germany
still was very much the enemy - but Internationaler
Fussball-Vergleich (something like International Football Comparison Game).
Looking at
the European Cup history, West Germany clearly has the upper hand in meetings
with East German Clubs. These are all the results, with the winners in bold:
Season
|
Match (first team played at home first)
|
Result 1
|
Result 2
|
1973-74
|
Bayern Munich (W) – Dynamo Dresden (E)
|
4-3
|
3-3
|
1973-74
|
Fortuna Düsseldorf (W) – Lokomotive Leipzig (E)
|
2-1
|
0-3
|
1974-75
|
Bayern Munich (W) – 1.FC Magdeburg (E)
|
3-2
|
2-1
|
1974-75
|
Hamburger SV (W) – Dynamo Dresden (E)
|
4-1
|
2-2
|
1977-78
|
1.FC Magdeburg (E) – Schalke 04 (W)
|
4-2
|
3-1
|
1978-79
|
Carl Zeiss Jena (E) – MSV Duisburg (W)
|
0-0
|
0-3
|
1979-80
|
Dynamo Dresden (E) – VfB Stuttgart (W)
|
1-1
|
0-0
|
1980-81
|
VfB Stuttgart (W) – Vorwärts Frankfurt (E)
|
5-1
|
2-1
|
1981-82
|
1.FC Magdeburg (E) – Borussia Mönchengladbach (W)
|
3-1
|
0-2
|
1982-83
|
Dynamo Berlin (E) – Hamburger SV (W)
|
1-1
|
0-2
|
1982-83
|
Vorwärts Frankfurt (E) – Werder Bremen (W)
|
1-3
|
2-0
|
1983-84
|
Lokomotive Leipzig (E) – Werder Bremen (W)
|
1-0
|
1-1
|
1985-86
|
Dynamo Dresden (E) – Bayer Uerdingen (W)
|
2-0
|
3-7
|
1986-87
|
Bayer Uerdingen (W) – Carl Zeiss Jena (E)
|
3-0
|
4-0
|
1988-89
|
Dynamo Berlin (E) – Werder Bremen (W)
|
3-0
|
0-5
|
1988-89
|
VfB Stuttgart (W) – Dynamo Dresden (E)
|
1-0
|
1-1
|
1990-91
|
Borussia Dortmund (W) – Chemnitzer FC (E)
|
2-0
|
2-0
|
(W) = West
Germany
(E) = East
Germany
In total, only
three wins for East German clubs in seventeen attempts. Their best performance was
without a doubt the double victory against Schalke 04 by 1.FC Magdeburg in 1977.
Again with Jürgen Sparwasser as the hero. At home he scored three goals in the
4-2 victory. Away in Gelsenkirchen (1-3) Jürgen Pommerenke was the star player
with two goals.
Crazy match in Krefeld
The two
most exciting clashes were both won by West German teams. In the spring of 1986
Dynamo Dresden met Bayer Uerdingen for the quarter finals of the European Cup
Winners Cup. The home match was won by Dynamo, 2-0. A good result to travel
to Krefeld. It promised to be a close game, if Bayer
Uerdingen would score an early goal. They didn’t. In fact at half time Dynamo
Dresden was leading 3-1, and 5-1 on aggregate. During the break, Uerdingen
coach Karl-Heinz Feldkamp asks his team to try ending their European adventure
with their heads helt high, not to make it any worse. And Uerdingen did show character.
They attacked relentlessly and pulled two goals back in the 58th and
63th minute, 3-3. With only 27 minutes left, they still had to score
three goals. But surprisingly, they did. Uerdingen was on a roll, and Dresden just tried to
hold on, but were incapable of doing so. “It was pure fear”, coach Klaus Sammer
said after the game. And the miracle happened. Wolfgang Schäfer scored 4-3 in
the 65th minute, Dietmar Klinger made it 5-3 thirteen minutes later. Another minute later Uerdingen got a penalty, which Wolfgang Funkel put behind goalie Jens Ramme, who’d replaced the injured number one, Bernd Jakubowski,
after halftime, but acted very nervously. The match was won, and Schäfer made another goal to make it
7-3. To make things even worse, Dynamo attacker Frank Lippmann ‘escaped’ from
the underground garage into the city centre of Krefeld, to start a new life
in West Germany.
Televisions and stereos
 |
| Karl-Heinz Riedle (Werder) scoring |
Two years
later, the difference in standard of life between West and East Germany was influential in the European confrontation between Dynamo Berlin and
Werder Bremen. Dynamo Berlin trashed Werder Bremen 3-0 in their home match, presuming
nothing could go wrong in Bremen. But Werder Bremen
officials had a trick in mind to make the Dynamo players thinking even less
about the game. They organized some kind
of auction at the hotel on Tuesday, the day before the match. The players could
buy western consumer goods if they wanted: televisions, vcr’s, hairdryers and stereos.
And they eagerly did. To finalize the deals, they had to come back to the hotel lobby on
Wednesday afternoon, very close to the start of the game. So with their minds on the
goods they just bought and carried to their bus, combined with the arrogance
that a 3-0 lead was more than enough to go through to the next round, the
Dynamo Berlin-players walked on the pitch.To be beaten by a highly motivated
Werder Bremen squad, 5-0.
