20 years ago the Berlin Wall fell. Depending on who you ask it was either because of David Hasselhof, an accident or a peaceful revolution of the East German people.

One football fan was particularly looking forward to this event, after cheering on the “wrong” football teams for over two decades. Helmut Klopfleisch from then-East Berlin became an enthusiastic Hertha and Bayern fan in the 1960s and came to their games whenever they played teams from the Eastern Bloc. His fandom landed him and his family in hot water with the East German regime. The above video gives you a short portrait of one of the bravest Bundesliga fans out there.

The video has English subtitles. If they don’t show, click on the button in the bottom right corner and activate them.

And in case you aren’t quite up to speed with the East German regime acronyms mentioned in the video, here is a quick rundown:
FDJ. The not so Freie Deutsche Jugend – Free German Youth. Every regime needs a youth movement, to raise fresh Nazis, Communists or whatever. The FDJ incidentally shared Hertha’s club colors, allowing Helmut Klopfleisch to create some unique Hertha fan gear.
Stasi. STAatsSIcherheit – State Security. Because a good youth system alone is not enough in a totalitarian regime, it’s also mandatory to have an effective and repressive intelligence and secret police agency to put citizens under surveillance.
GDR. What is commonly referred to as East Germany in the anglophone world, was officially called the German Democratic Republic. West Germany is the Federal Republic of Germany. Is, as in: today’s Germany is still the Federal Republic of Germany, just with a bunch of extra federal states added. And just like Germans don’t use the nickname “Mannschaft” for the German national team, they also didn’t refer to each other’s country as West or East Germany either.

In 1974 Gerd Müller succeeded where Michael Ballack had failed in 2002 and won the Bundesliga, Champions Cup (Champions League) and the World Cup. On his way to the trophy hattrick Müller scored an amazing 30 goals in 34 Bundesliga matches, 8 goals in 10 Champions Cup matches and 5 goals in 4 DFB Pokal matches for his club Bayern Munich. The above YouTube playlist compiles 26 of his Bundesliga and 5 of his Champions Cup goals into one easy to watch package.

Playlist
Müller vs Hertha BSC (Goal #3, 25th August 1973)
Müller vs Schalke 04 (Goals #4 to 7, 8th September 1973)
Müller vs Bremen (Goal #8, 15th September 1973)
Müller vs Kaiserslautern (Goals #11 and 12, 20th October 1973)
Müller vs Dresden (Champions Cup, Goal #3, 24th October 1973)
Müller vs Dresden (Champions Cup, Goal #4, 7th November 1973)
Müller vs Hamburg (Goals #13 to 15, 10th November 1973)
Müller vs Mönchengladbach (Goal #16, 8th December 1973)
Müller vs Fortuna Cologne (Goals #17 to 19, 12th January 1974)
Müller vs Hertha BSC (Goal #20, 26th January 1974)
Müller vs Schalke 04 (Goal #21 to 23, 9th February 1974)
Müller vs Hannover (Goal #24, 9th March 1974)
Müller vs Frankfurt (Goal #25, 16th March 1974)
Müller vs FC Cologne (Goal #26, 23rd March 1974)
Müller vs Duisburg (Goal #27, 30th March 1974)
Müller vs Stuttgart (Goal #28, 20th April 1974)
Müller vs Ujpest Dozsa (Champions Cup, Goal #6, 24th April 1974)
Müller vs Bochum (Goal #29, 27th April 1974)
Müller vs Offenbach (Goal #30, 11th May 1974)
Müller vs Atletico Madrid (Champions Cup Final, Goal #7 and 8, 17th May 1974)

The two goals against Madrid certainly qualify as “saving the best for last”. Or as the video description puts it: “(…) both goals must count among the finest ever scored in a European Cup final. “

As a prelude to the match Lukas Podolski channeled his best Walter Ulbricht impersonation – head of East Germany’s Socialist Unity Party from 1950 to 1971 – to declare that Cologne are going to Munich to win the match. A statement, which isn’t 100% historically accurate, but still passes as a good enough version of Ulbricht’s infamous words “Nobody has the intention of building a wall” back in 1961. This statement got exposed as a blatant lie one day (or two months in the real world) later when the match kicked off and Cologne settled down in their penalty box – charmingly redubbed Little Berlin. Most critics agreed that Cologne had done a wonderful job with their stage design and commitment to historical accuracy and indeed hardly any dissident Cologne players, who disagreed with Soldo and his coaching, escaped from the penalty box.

Cue Hertha Berlin, who quickly held a press conference to reassure all citizens of former West Berlin, worried by the events in Munich and fearing for their (Bundesliga) existence. Due to the unavailability/inexistence of any American top coaches, Hertha settled for Friedhelm Funkel as their John F. Kenneday, and he immediately took pride in the words: “Ich bin ein Berliner” – or Jelly Doughnut if you like a good urban myth.

Late in the first half Cologne’s central defender Geromel eventually ventured into Bayern’s half all the way to the penalty box for a shy attempt on goal. A metaphor for the 1970s and chancellor Willy Brandt’s then controversial “Neue Ostpolitik“. A policy of “change through rapprochement” to bring the two Germany’s closer together and make the wall more permeable. A policy which is now seen by some as – unintentionally – paving the way for the downfall of the communist regimes in Eastern Europe.

At half-time Louis van Gaal stormed into Cologne’s dressing room requesting “Mr Soldo, tear down this wall.” With little effect though.

In the second half Bayern focussed on a long rendition of the peaceful Monday demonstrations in Leipzig in 1989 and proclaimed “Mia san mia”, which is Bavarian and sort of translates to the “We are the People” slogan used by the demonstrators. Most people in the audience agreed that this part of the story had been dragged out a bit too much and suffered from the uninspired performance by the Bayern players and except for the peacefulness didn’t capture the mood and importance of the original events.

Though, the real downer was the absence of any kind of fitting conclusion. As it turned out the DFL wasn’t willing to meet David Hasselhoff’s astronomical wage demands and foot the energy bill for his leather jacket. But you simply can’t bring down the wall without the cheese and ridiculousness worthy of the late 1980s and Germany.

At the end of the day, I personally thought it wasn’t that bad. But then again my team earned themselves a point for their troubles. For all the Bayern fans in attendance and the neutral football fans at home, who didn’t happen to be history buffs, the match was more like an unwatchably boring 0-0 draw.

This post sets out to tell its’ story.

Season 1965/1966 to 1966/1967

Here’s the template from which to start. Notice the single curl over his right eye. Great things will eventually grow from it.

For the time being though, Netzer focused on perfecting his football skills. His Borussia Mönchengladbach side had just won promotion to the Bundesliga and would soon be synonymous with great attacking football. The team finished its’ first two Bundesliga seasons 13th and 8th respectively. Netzer also made his first steps in the German national team debuting in October 1965 in a friendly against Austria.

Season 1967/1968 to 1968/1969

Netzer started to add some depth and integrate the single rebelish curl into the system. At this point he can pass as the perfect son-in-law.

Netzer was in the process of testing the potential for commercial exploitation of his profession. Back in 1965 he had already started the publication of a stadium newspaper called “Fohlenecho” (still published today). His conservative hair style clearly indicates that he was overall still tapping in the dark though. His rise to prominence and the performances of his team would soon make him see the light. After finishing 3rd in 1968 and 1969, Borussia Mönchengladbach were ready to shape the Seventies and Netzer was ready for stardom.

Season 1969/1970 to 1970/1971

His trademark special side parting is starting to shine through, as does his marketing prowess. By 1970/1971 it’s becoming clear that he has intentions to go for length.

On the pitch things couldn’t go much better. Mönchengladbach won back to back Bundesliga titles – a first in the young league’s history and Netzer was starting to get more game time in the national team. A business plan also started to come together, which included complementing his work-in-progress hair with a ready-to-go Porsche and a night club called “Lovers Lane”. The Porsche ended up being an invaluable indicator for groupies hoping to catch a glimpse of Netzer at his night club.

Season 1971/1972 to 1972/1973

By 1971 every single hair had fallen into place, so all that was left to do was adding just that little bit of extra length to perfect his signature look. A task completed in time for the 1972/1973 season.

Netzer eventually connected all the remaining dots. Off the pitch he was dating a supermodel/abstract artist and did just about little enough to deny rumors of an affair with an actress to stay relevant in the boulevard. On the pitch his Borussia Mönchengladbach side had to temporarily make way for a certain Bayern Munich. But the two teams combined would end up strolling to Germany’s first European Championship title in 1972 – and beating England for the first time at Wembley along the way. Netzer would finish third in that year’s Ballon D’Or awards – behind Gerd Müller and Franz Beckenbauer. By the end of the 1972/1973 season, Netzer felt he had done and seen it all in Germany and decided to move on to Real Madrid. Borussia Mönchengladbach had reached the DFB-Pokal final against Cologne, which ought to be Netzer’s last game for his club. Just that the team’s coach Hennes Weisweiler wasn’t too enthused about his player’s latest career decision and benched him. The final turned out to be end-to-end stuff and one of the best in the competitions history, yet neither side could score the winner. The game, tied at 1-1, went into extra time. Then Netzer decided he had enough of it, substituted himself and scored the winning goal three minutes later. His legend was complete.

Notice how I decorated the video-player’s interface in Schalke and Dortmund colors.
 

 

For one, Mönchengladbach as a city is not big or important enough to inspire foreigners to give it an easier to spell and pronounce name. Mönchengladbach as a name is also too long for an average German to care to pronounce either, which is why it’s often referred to as just Gladbach. Gladbach also happens to be the city’s original name. Yet, there is another Gladbach, now called Bergisch Gladbach, not too far away from the Gladbach I’m currently trying to blog about. Both are situated in North Rhine-Westphalia in the west of Germany. Anyway, the decision was made that Gladbach needed a new name to distinguish it from the other Gladbach. So back in 1888 Gladbach was renamed to München Gladbach. It took more than half a century for someone to realize, that there was another München in Germany, down in the deep south of Bavaria. A big and important München at that, which even had a dedicated English name. Thus, in another disambiguation effort, the city was once again renamed by swapping the ü for an ö. Mönchen Gladbach was born in 1950 and in 1960 it was agreed that Mönchengladbach should be the official spelling of the city’s name from now on. If it wasn’t for Borussia Mönchengladbach, this bit of trivia would be all there is to say about this city.

If it wasn’t for Borussia Mönchengladbach an illustrious chapter of German football mythology would have been written by some other club and almost certainly would have been much less about immaculately styled hair and young horses.

Borussia Mönchengladbach won promotion to the Bundesliga in 1965 – alongside Bayern Munich. The two clubs would end up dominating the Bundesliga in the seventies, sharing nine consecutive Bundesliga titles among them; five for Gladbach and four for Bayern. The two clubs would also end up supplying the German national team with the majority of its personnel – later dubbed Germany’s golden generation. Bayern had Franz Beckenbauer. Gladbach had Günter Netzer. While Beckenbauer elevated his status to Kaiser, Netzer elevated his status to popstar – the first football popstar in Germany. He ditched a girl-next-door housewife for an abstract artist model girlfriend, opened a night club called Lovers Lane in his free time, came to work in his new Ferrari and paid close attention to his unique hair style.

Gladbach’s success was built upon their coach’s ability to spot and develop promising young talents. A trademark of the team which earned them their nickname Die Fohlen (The Foals), which is still in use today. It was basically a necessity, since München Gladbach was more Gladbach than München, and thus the club lacked the infrastructure to generate the funds necessary to keep or even buy the best players. Bayern Munich benefitted from the Olympic Summer Games in 1972 and could rent the brand new Olympiastadion. Borussia Mönchengladbach were tied to the small Bökelberg stadium.

Eventually Gladbach’s poor economic perpective caught up with them. The club managed to win the DFB-Pokal in 1995, but otherwise enjoyed topsy-turvy mid-table successes in the Bundesliga. Gladbach produced some fine footballers like Lothar Matthäus or Stefan Effenberg, who were then both bought by former arch rival Bayern Munich. Following a sustained wallflower existence, Gladbach were relegated in 1999 and again in 2007.

So, to come back to the question of “who and what in the world is a moclenbaklen”? It’s a club with a big history and a big fanbase. It’s also just a newly promoted club, with the short term goal to establish itself in the Bundesliga again. But the chances aren’t all that bad. The club has tackled its’ infrastructure problem and invested around €120m into the new Borussia Park, made up of the club’s headquarter, training facilities and a new stadium for 54000 fans – which can be expanded to 60000, in case there is enough demand. Christian Ziege was installed as sporting director following the club’s relegation in 2007, and Ziege turned out to be more than up to the task. He completely overhauled the old squad and built a team, which dominated the second division and has a good chance to stay in the league this season. With players like Marin, potentially Baumjohann and now Bradley in midfield, there’s even something to get excited about, which is rare for a newly promoted team.

11.45am Beckenbauer uses the border crossing at Heinrich-Heine street and declares his intentions to leave the same day again.
2.10pm Beckenbauer arrives at his hotel. A bit later he goes to a French restaurant. He then has a chat with Günther Netzer and gives an interview to Junge Welt. He returns to his room.
4.55pm Beckenbauer leaves the hotel again.
6.05pm Beckenbauer and some companions enter the Mocca-Café, where he has to sign 25 to 30 printed menus with his autograph. The staff later serves an extra dessert consisting of ice with fruits and alcohol. This dessert wasn’t declared on the menu and Beckenbauer doesn’t need to pay for it.
7pm Beckenbauer and his companions leave the restaurant again.
7.40pm Beckenbauer arrives at the stadium.

At this point I probably won’t have to mention that the border Beckenbauer had crossed, stood between West Berlin and East Berlin and the Stasi (East Germany’s secret police) had taken him under surveillance using the alias Rasen 20 (Pitch 20) – Libero 10 would have been too obvious I suppose.

The reason why Beckenbauer travelled to East Berlin was a Champions League match between Hamburg and Dynamo Berlin (1-1). Beckenbauer no longer played for Hamburg, but was working as a reporter for the tabloid Bild. The Stasi didn’t just look after Beckenbauer. The whole HSV delegation was heavily monitored, resulting in a total of 300 pages worth of surveillance protocols.

What the regime feared even more than a football club from the west though, were its own people. And given the possibility of a PR disaster, with a crowd full of east Germans cheering on the western scum, they decided to control the crowd and fill the ranks with regime friendly uniformed people from the state’s extensive bureaucratic apparatus. This made sure, “that no expressions of sympathy for the guests” took place. It also meant that any normal fan behaviour and football match atmosphere was completely absent from the stands.

The surveillance protocols have now been handed over to Hamburg’s club museum, where they will be examined a bit further and put on display for the visitors. A little reminder that one part of Germany continued to live under a totalitarian regime after World War 2 had ended. If you want to learn more about this chapter of German history, without having to dig your nose too deep into too many books, you should check out the excellent Oscar winning movie The Lives of Others.

Hamburg would end up winning the second leg at home 2-0 and eventually the club made it to the final, where they beat Juventus Turin 1-0, thanks to a long rage strike by Felix Magath.