Hertha and Union – 32 years ago, the clubs were closer than ever before and since.
On January 27, 1990, more than 50,000 fans cheered the so-called unification game between the two in the Olympic Stadium. Final score: 2:1 for Hertha.
The spectators were amazed at the red Union jerseys from “Puma” with West advertising, while West Club Hertha could not show a breast sponsor and played topless. The Irons were the first GDR club to have a chest sponsor from the West – only six weeks after the opening of the border!
On December 14, 1989, BILD ran the headline: “Clean! West-Reiniger buys chest from Union”.
The West Berlin cleaning entrepreneur Axel Brauer (“Rohr frei!”) had already made a name for himself as a sponsor of the ice hockey club BSC Preussen, and at the end of 1989 he saw his chance in the east. Chest advertising, as has been common in the Federal Republic since the mid-1970s, did not exist in the East. At most, the carrier companies went on the chest. Or the club names.
also read
► Hertha coach Magath praises Union: “They had a line”
► Derby between Hertha and Union in a sold-out Olympic Stadium
On December 16, 1989, in the second division home game against Guben (1-0), 700 spectators in the old forester’s lodge witnessed the historic event. Brauer’s Blitz engagement cost just 30,000 DM (approx. 15,000 euros). On top of that there were sports clothes.
curious: The GDR Football Association held out its hand a day after the deal, but in Köpenick everyone just smiled about it. Times had already changed.
And Brauer got the attention he wanted. A coup for the entrepreneur, who ended his involvement in the summer of 1990. He was sure of an entry in the history books.
