Hitting a Wall: East German teams lag behind their Western counterparts

Continental Competition: West is Best

While Dynamo Dresden and Berliner Dynamo turned continental competition into an annual tradition in East Germany, neither team was able to make a transition into a truly strong team, often getting no further than the quarter finals of either the European Cup or other competitions. Dynamo Dresden was able to win the Cup Winners’ Cup but that stands as the only success for an East German team in European competition. Meanwhile, Bayern Munich was beginning a string of dominant years in Europe, winning three straight European Cups from 1974-76. Hamburger SV were runners-up in the same competition in 1980 before winning the famous trophy in 1983.

West German teams also began to put their stamp on the UEFA Cup, with Borussia Monchengladbach lifting the trophy in 1975 and 1979, with runners-up finishes in 1973 and 1980. That 1980 UEFA Cup Final was an all West German affair, with Eintracht Frankfurt winning that fixture. Bayer Leverkusen won the Cup in 1988. Meanwhile, the winners’ lists for both of these competitions are noticeably devoid of East German clubs.

You might be thinking, so what? Things like this have happened all over Europe. League Championships and Cup titles were handed to clubs favorable to a dictatorial regime. This happened most famously in Spain with Real Madrid enjoying huge success under the dictator at the time, Francisco Franco. Obviously, Spain has overcome these problems, so why hasn’t East Germany? Maybe their league was weaker, so they didn’t perform as well in Europe. But then since the Reunification and the merger of East and West German club football, why haven’t East German teams caught up?

When the Berlin Wall came down, a stream of footballing talent made the exodus west, heading to play for the richer West German teams. Stars for Dresden during the DDR-Oberliga years included Ulf Kirsten and Matthias Sammer, who both followed success and riches away from Saxony to the West, with Kirsten joining Leverkusen and Sammer joining Dortmund. They went on to win Bundesliga titles and contribute to a united German national teams success, but Dresden and East Germany was left in the rearview mirror.

East German Football: Where Do They Go From Here?

Despite these clubs best efforts, the stigma of East Germany still hangs over their heads. Berliner Dynamo FC are playing in the fourth tier of German football currently and have few prospects for possible Bundesliga participation. This story applies to almost all of the teams from the DDR-Oberliga. The only real exception to this rule is Dynamo Dresden, because of the fact that Hertha Berlin, who is geographically in East Germany obviously but was not allowed to compete in the DDR-Oberliga for political reasons. Dresden had a thrilling end to the 2012-13 2. Bundesliga campaign when they finished 16th and were forced to play Vfl Osnabruck in the Relegation Playoff. They lost the away leg 1-0 and had it all to do at home. In the home leg, team captain Cristian Fiel scored a left-footed shot from outside of the area and Idir Ouali completed the comeback with a tap in on 77 minutes. Dresden now are in a position to improve their standing in the German league structure. With Hertha Berlin securing promotion, there will be a team from the capital in the Bundesliga. However, now, as ever, the remnants of the DDR-Oberliga are lagging behind their Western counterparts.