Berlin. The very name conjures images from history. It’s also home to a number of football clubs, including Hertha BSC at the historic Olympiastadion, the eclectic 1.FC Union Berlin, former Stasi club BFC Dynamo and even Germany’s oldest club, BFC Germania. Here’s our football city guide to the lively German capital. Germany’s football power lies […]
Category Archives: Germany
Football Travel: BFC Dynamo
Tucked behind the eclectic Mauerpark is a very attractive sports complex. In it plays something of a fallen giant. We visit BFC Dynamo. Nearly five decades of Soviet influence in East Berlin led to a shake up in the way football in the city was structured. While West Berlin’s Hertha BSC played in the West […]
Football Travel Podcast: FC St.Pauli and Portugal
In this month’s Football Travel Podcast we speak to one of Germany’s most famous clubs – FC St Pauli of Hamburg – and get an introduction to the domestic scene in Portugal from a local football writer: FC St Pauli, with Martin Drust (00.59): FC St Pauli’s Millerntor Stadium is a stone’s throw from […]
Football Travel Podcast: Bundesliga and Argentina
We travel to Berlin and Buenos Aires in this episode of the Football Travel podcast: Talking Bundeliga: We catch up with the guys behind the Berlin-based From Boothferry to Germany blog to understand why the Bundesliga is so popular around the world. We also get the editor’s tip on the best place to catch […]
Football Travel: 1.FC Union Berlin
In the leafy suburbs of East Berlin you’ll find the ‘Stadium at the Old Forester’s House’ and the electrifying atmosphere of the ‘Iron Union’. We visit 1.FC Union Berlin. Rather like a Brothers Grimm story, I always seem to find myself walking through forests to get to football grounds in Germany. It’s the case […]
Football Travel: Hertha Berlin
The Olympiastadion in Berlin is where sporting history is made. It’s where Jesse Owens incensed Adolf Hitler at the 1936 Olympics, and where Zinedine Zidane headbutted Marco Materazzi 70 years later in the World Cup final. It’s also been the home to Hertha Berlin since the foundation of the Bundesliga in 1963. There’s a […]
Football Travel: Borussia Mönchengladbach
Berti Vogts, Günter Netzer, Jupp Heynckes, Rainer Bonhof– all legends in Germany – helped make Borussia Mönchengladbach the only serious opposition to Bayern Munich for much of the seventies. Due to their youthfulness the team was known as Die Fohlenelf – the eleven foals – and in the 1970s they won the Bundesliga five […]
Football Travel: Hamburger SV
Here’s a bit of football trivia for you. What’s the only German club never to be relegated? The answer is Hamburger Sport-Verein – otherwise known as HSV – whose famous Rothosen (Red Shorts) have been donned by the likes of Uwe Seeler and Kevin Keegan. The club’s heyday was in the early ‘80s – HSV […]
Football Travel: Fortuna Düsseldorf
“You came all the way from London to watch Fortuna?” jokes the lady in the tourist office as I picked up my match ticket. Partly I had, as Düsseldorf – in the heart of Rhineland football – is a brilliant base for a Bundesliga weekend. Within an hour’s train ride you can reach Borussia Dortmund, […]
