Hertha Berlin

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The club was established in 1892, as BFC Hertha 92. The club took the name of a steamship sporting smokestacks of white and blue as One of four men that started the club had gone on one day on this vessel along with his father. Its name Hertha is a variant of Nerthus which refers to a goddess of fertility that is a part of Germanic mythology.

Hertha did well consistently in the court, with an impressive win in the inaugural Berlin championship match in 1905. The team won the championship in May of 1910. Hertha took part in an informal match against Southend United, which was considered to be significant at the time, since England is where the sport was born and English clubs were the most dominant in the game. But, their performance on the field did not translate into financial success and in 1920, the firmly working class Hertha was merged with the more affluent Club Berliner Sport-Club to form Hertha Berliner Sport-Club. The team continued to be a major success in the Oberliga Berlin Brandenburg but also experienced some degree of disappointment. The team made it towards finals in the German championship final for six seasons running from 1926 until 1931, however it only managed to capture the championship in 1930 and 1931 when BSC moving to becoming an independent club after the first time the team was unified won a championship. However, Hertha emerged as the second-highest scoring team in Germany in the period between wars.

German football was reorganized under the Third Reich in 1933 into 16 top-flight divisions. The first included Hertha participating in the Gauliga Berlin-Brandenburg. The club enjoyed continued the success of their division, consistently placing in the top half of the table. They also won the title of division champion in 1935 as well as 1937 and 1944. It slowed down in popularity but was unable to progress past the first round of national championships. Politically the club was revamped under Hitler and with Hans Pfeifer, a Nazi party member, becoming the club's first president. as the president.

Following World War II, occupying Allied authorities banned the majority of organisations in Germany which included soccer and sports clubs. Hertha was revived in 1945 under the name SG Gesundbrunnen. It then began playing as part of the Oberliga Berlin - Gruppe C. The 36 teams that played in the initial season of after-war Oberliga Berlin were reduced to only a dozen teams the following season, after which the team was unable to play in the first division football, and instead playing within the Amateurliga Berlin. At the end of 1949 the club was able to regain their name under the name of Hertha BSC and earned a return to the top league.

The tensions between the west Allies with the Soviets in various areas in the capital, as well as the advancing Cold War, led to chaos in playing football within the city. Hertha was disqualified of playing in competition with East German teams in the 1949-50 season, after they took on numerous players and a coach who had left to the Dresden Club SG Friedrichstadt for West Berlin. Many teams that were from the eastern portion of Dresden were relegated to move from to the Oberliga Berlin into the recently created DDR-Liga starting in the 1950-51 season.

In the 1950s, a fierce rivalry was developed between Tennis Borussia Berlin and Tennis Borussia Berlin. A merger proposal with the other club in the year 1958 swiftly turned down, with only 3 of 266 players voting favor.

Being a significant Berlin team, Hertha had fans in the entire city of Berlin however, following the city's division the fans from East Berlin found it both difficult and risky following the club. When speaking to long-time supporters Helmut Klopfleisch, he described his struggles as a supporter within East Berlin. Klopfleisch was born in District Pankow and when he attended his first match at home as a young child in 1954 made him immediately a fan. He continued to go to games in the arena, however after the building of the Berlin Wall in 1961, it became difficult. However the fact that he was not giving up. At this point, Hertha played at the Stadion am Gesundbrunnen, nicknamed Die Plumpe. The stadium was situated near enough to Berlin wall to allow the sounds emanating from that stadium could be heard from the wall. This is why Klopfleisch and the other fans stood in the shadow of the wall to listen to home matches. When the stadium's crowd was cheering, Klopfleisch and the others were cheering as well. Klopfleisch was later questioned by Stasi The East German secret police. He was questioned and detained several times. His passport was also taken away and was eventually fired from his electrician job.

When the establishment of the Bundesliga in 1963, Hertha was Berlin's reigning champion, and thus became the first participant in the newly formed professional league. Although having escaped the zone of relegation and being relegated after the 1964-65 campaign due to attempts to induce athletes to participate in city football in circumstances that had turned out to be extremely unpleasant circumstances following the building of the Berlin Wall. This created an uproar for the Bundesliga who desired to use political motives to keep the team that represented the capital of the former. Through various twists and turns that resulted in the rise to SC Tasmania 1900 Berlin, that then put up the worst record ever in Bundesliga history. Hertha was able to return to the top German league in 1968 and gained a loyal following which made it the most-loved Berlin team.

Hertha was once more entangled in scandal for its involvement in various different clubs during the Bundesliga matchfixing scandal in 1971. As part of an investigation into Hertha's involvement it was discovered that the club had a debt of 6 millions DM of debt. A financial catastrophe was avoided by selling the club's previous home stadium.

Despite this however, the team continued to have some successes on the field throughout the 1970s. They had an overall second Bundesliga finish just behind Borussia Monchengladbach in 1974 and 1975 and a semi-final spot in the 1978-1979 UEFA Cup, and two performances at the end of the DFB-Pokal (1977 and 1979). The subsequent season saw the team turn to the downside when it was sent in the 2. Bundesliga in which it would be for 13 of the following 17 seasons.

The 1982 plans for a merger of Tennis Borussia Berlin, SpVgg Blau-Weiss 1890 Berlin and SCC Berlin to form a team dubbed "FC Utopia" did not come to fruition. Hertha fell to the third-tier Amateur Oberliga Berlin, where it played for the duration of two years (1986-87 in 1987 and 1988). Two seasons within the Bundesliga (1982-83 and 1990-91) were followed by the team being eliminated due to poor performance. Hertha's amateur side had the most accomplishment, progressing all up to the last round of DFB-Pokal the year 1993 however, the team was dealt the final, a narrow 1-0 defeat to Bundesliga team Bayer Leverkusen.

Following the fall of Berlin Wall, Hertha became an extremely popular team within East Berlin as well. A few days after the wall was taken down 11,000 East Berliners attended Hertha's game in the match against SG Wattenscheid. A fan-based friendship with Union Berlin developed, and an informal match between the two clubs attracted more than 100,000 fans.

The financial woes continued to burden The club during 1994 after it was found to be in the region of 10 millions DM of debt. The issue was then overcome by the sale real estate assets as well as the signing of an entirely new management and sponsor. In 1997 Hertha was able to return into the Bundesliga in which it typically did well to finish in top-third on the list of teams. When Hertha was elevated at the end of 1997, it brought to an end Berlin's drought of six years without an Bundesliga team, which created that Bundesliga the only premier league in Europe with no representation from the capital city and largest city.

Recently, the there have been some bright spots for the team. have been a steady string of international appearances as part of the UEFA Cup and the UEFA Champions League beginning with the 1999 season. In addition, the signing of important players like Pal Dardai in 1997 , who became Herta's top capped player of all time, Sebastian Deisler in 1999 and Brazilian international Marcelinho in 2001 which won the league's player of the year award in the 2005 season. Hertha has also made a significant investment in its own youth soccer academy that has produced a number of players who have Bundesliga potential.

The team almost went down during the 2003-04 season but they rebounded and came in fourth in the following season however, they missed out on winning the Champions League after they were held to a draw the day of finals by Hannover 96. This saw Werder Bremen overtake them for the title on the day of the final league game. (As as a "thank-you" gesture Werder offered the Hannover team 96 champagne bottles.) In 2005-06, Herthaner was ranked sixth and then was selected to play in the UEFA Cup after defeating FC Moscow in the UEFA Intertoto Cup. Then, Hertha was eliminated in the opening round of the UEFA Cup by Odense BK. For 2006-2007, Hertha finished tenth after the sacking of coach Falko Gotz on April 11th. Hertha began the 2007-08 campaign with the new director Lucien Favre, who had been the winner of his first Swiss champion in the 2006 as well as 2007 for Zurich. Hertha was ranked tenth in the same league however, they were able to start the first qualifying stage of the UEFA Cup via the UEFA Respect Fair Play ranking which took them even further than an initial stage in the competition. After a very successful campaign in 2008-09, which saw them finish fourth and being within the race for the championship to the final day of the match, Hertha suffered an awful season in 2009-10, finishing second in Bundesliga and experiencing relegation.

After spending the entire 2010-11 season within the second. Bundesliga, Hertha secured its return to the Bundesliga in 2011-12 when it won by 1-0 against MSV Duisburg with three matchdays remaining during the season. Hertha was, however, placed sixteenth overall in 2011-12 Bundesliga and was beaten in the playoff for relegation to Fortuna Dusseldorf to fall back to the 2. Bundesliga.

The 2012-13 season was when Hertha gained promotion to the 2nd division to champions for the third time in the span of three seasons. On the first day of 2013-14's campaign, Hertha beat Eintracht Frankfurt 6-1 at the Olympiastadion to finish top of the Bundesliga table at the conclusion of matchday 1.

On February 5, 2015 Pal Dardai Hertha's longest-serving and the most captained player of all time with 366 appearances was appointed as manager of the main team. The halfway point of the 15-16 Bundesliga season Hertha was in 3rd in the table, which was its highest ranking during the break in the winter months since the 2008-09 season. Despite a slowing in the second half of the season, Hertha still finished in seventh place during the season which was the highest position within the Bundesliga since 2008-09 when Hertha was fourth. The seventh place finish ensured that Hertha was guaranteed Europa League football for the 2016-17 season as a result of a third-round play-off. Hertha fell in their third round playoff 3-1 in average to Brondby and won the first match with a 1-0 win at Berlin however losing in the following home tie 3-1. Teemu Pukki scoring a hat trick for the Danish team.

The year 2016-17 Bundesliga season Hertha had the best start ever to the Bundesliga season, in terms of points earned in the initial eight games, only losing one game - away to Bayern Munich - and forcing to draw with Borussia Dortmund. The 2017 Bundesliga holiday break Hertha was in third position in the league with nine wins with three draws, and four loss. Hertha ended the season in 6th position and was able to participate in their 2017-18 Europa League. Their spot on the team stage was confirmed on May 27, 2017 following Borussia Dortmund defeated Eintracht Frankfurt in the 2017 DFB-Pokal final.

In June, Lars Windhorst bought a stake in the club.

On the 27th of November, Jurgen Klinsmann became the new manager of Hertha BSC, replacing Ante Covic. Klinsmann quit the club on the 11th of February 2020, having only seventy-six days as manager. Manager assistant Alexander Nouri took interim charge of the team before being appointed permanent manager Bruno Labbadia on 9 April 2020.

For 2020 Lars Windhorst bought an greater stake in the club.

In 1963 Hertha BSC has played its games in Berlin's Olympiastadion which was originally constructed in 1936 for the Summer Olympics.

The stadium can accommodate a capacity of 74.649 seats making it the biggest venue within Germany with regard to seating capacity. It's also the second-largest stadium in Germany second only to that of the Signal Iduna Park in Dortmund in terms of overall capacity. In certain football matches like the ones with Bayern Munich, the capacity may be temporarily increased. This is accomplished through the installation of a mobile grandstands on top of the Marathon Arch. The capacity was increased to 76,197 seats in 2014.

The stadium was renovated two times, in 1974 and between 2000 and 2004. Both upgrades were in preparation for the FIFA World Cup. The 1974 renovations the stadium was given an incomplete roof. It was completely modernized to prepare for this year's World Cup. Additionally, the color on the field was changed from blue in order to be in keeping with Hertha's colours. Alongside Hertha's home matches, Olympiastadion is the grounds that are home to the Germany national team of football, and also hosts concerts as well as track and field events and every year the DFB-Pokal final. The stadium also hosted for six games of the 2006 World Cup, including the final of the tournament.

Hertha played matches on a soccer field located on the "Exer" located on Schonhauser Allee in Prenzlauer Berg from 1904 to 1904. It was the first home ground for Hertha. The Exer was a former parade ground of the 1st (Emperor Alexander) Guards Grenadiers and the site is today occupied by the Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Sportpark. Hertha later moved the matches to the Schebera-Sportplatz located in Gesundbrunnen around 1904. In 1904, the Stadion am Gesundbrunnen was built in 1923. The stadium was nicknamed "Die The Plumpe" and could hold a capacity of 35,000 with 3,600 were seated. Hertha quit the stadium when it was a part of in the Bundesliga at the end of 1963. Hertha came back to the stadium in the Regionalliga period from 1965 until 1968. The sale of the stadium in the year 1971 helped the club to avoid bankruptcy.

In the absence of interest from the public, Hertha played its 2. Bundesliga and Amateurliga matches from 1986 until 1989 in the Poststadion. The opening fixtures of the 1992-93 season, as well as the Intertoto Cup and UEFA Cup qualifying matches, were played at the Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Sportpark.

It was announced on the 23rd of May, 2016, that Hertha is going to continue playing match at its home stadium, the Olympiastadion until 2025.

30 March 2017 Hertha announced plans to construct a 55,000-seat stadium, which will be completed by 2025, after their current contract with the Olympiastadion expires. The club cited a variety of reasons that led to this decision, one is that they are the Berlin club is the only team in the Bundesliga that does not have a designated football arena. In their announcement the club admitted that the Olympiastadion could be used for major international and national matches however, it was not large enough for the typical attendance for an Hertha home game, which was just 64% of the seats sold, as opposed with an average Bundesliga typical of 92 percent. The announcement made by the club said that its preferred method was to build its own stadium, which included the results of a survey finding the ideal location located in the Berlin Olympic Park close to the Olympiastadion. However, at the same the time, Berlin's state-run government expressed a willingness to think about re-building the Olympiastadion to become a solely football stadium. But, after the popularity in the recent European Athletics Championships held at the stadium, as well as the possibility of a cost associated with the transformation and the potential cost, the state government chose not to move forward which led Hertha to reconsider their Olympic Park proposal. But, in the event that the plan is not approved, they have plans for a second stadium that will be constructed at Brandenburg Park, Ludwigsfelde.

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• Most Bundesliga/2. Bundesliga appearances – 366;  Pál Dárdai
• Most Bundesliga goals scored – 93;  Michael Preetz

As of 31 July 2022

No.	Coach	From	To	Matches	W
						D	L	Win %	Trophies Won
1	Jupp Schneider	1 July 1963	9 March 1965	55	16	14	25	29.09	None
2	Gerhard Schulte	9 March 1965	30 June 1966	38	32	3	3	84.21	1965–66 Regionalliga Berlin
3	Helmut Kronsbein	1 July 1966	13 March 1974	223	92	53	78	41.26	None
4	Hans "Gustav" Eder	17 March 1974	30 June 1974	9	3	1	5	33.33	None
5	Dettmar Cramer	1 July 1974	9 July 1974	0	0	0	0	—	None
6	Hans "Gustav" Eder	10 July 1974	16 July 1974	0	0	0	0	—	None
7	Georg Kessler	17 July 1974	30 June 1977	118	54	26	38	45.76	None
8	Kuno Klötzer	1 July 1977	27 October 1979	94	38	25	31	40.43	None
9	Hans "Gustav" Eder	28 October 1979	26 December 1979	7	1	3	3	14.29	None
10	Helmut Kronsbein	27 December 1979	30 June 1980	19	8	3	8	42.11	None
11	Uwe Klimaschefski	1 July 1980	8 December 1981	62	41	5	16	66.13	None
12	Georg Gawliczek	9 December 1981	10 December 1983	59	20	15	24	33.90	None
13	Martin Luppen	11 December 1983	25 May 1984	43	16	12	15	37.21	None
14	Hans "Gustav" Eder	26 May 1984	30 June 1984	0	0	0	0	—	None
15	Uwe Kliemann	1 July 1984	11 November 1985	61	16	23	22	26.23	None
16	Hans "Gustav" Eder	11 November 1985	31 December 1985	1	0	1	0	0.00	None
17	Rudi Gutendorf	1 January 1986	18 April 1986	13	2	5	6	15.38	None
18	Jürgen Sundermann	19 April 1986	8 October 1988	18	4	5	9	22.22	None
19	Werner Fuchs	13 October 1988	13 November 1990	79	33	22	24	41.77	1989–90 2. Bundesliga
20	Pál Csernai	13 November 1990	12 March 1991	6	1	3	2	16.67	None
21	Peter Neururer	13 March 1991	28 May 1991	12	0	2	10	0.00	None
22	Karsten Heine	28 May 1991	30 June 1991	3	1	0	2	33.33	None
23	Bernd Stange	1 July 1991	20 August 1992	41	14	12	15	34.15	None
24	Günter Sebert	21 August 1992	20 October 1993	55	24	19	12	43.64	None
25	Karsten Heine	20 October 1993	23 October 1993	1	0	0	1	0.00	None
26	Uwe Reinders	24 October 1993	23 March 1994	11	2	4	5	18.18	None
27	Karsten Heine	23 March 1994	31 December 1995	70	23	23	24	32.86	None
28	Jürgen Röber	1 January 1996	6 February 2002	227	112	57	58	49.34	2001 DFB-Ligapokal
29	Falko Götz (interim)	6 February 2002	30 June 2002	13	9	1	3	69.23	None
30	Huub Stevens	1 July 2002	4 December 2003	64	25	17	22	39.06	2002 DFB-Ligapokal
31	Andreas Thom (interim)	4 December 2003	17 December 2003	3	0	2	1	0.00	None
32	Hans Meyer	1 January 2004	30 June 2004	17	7	5	5	41.18	None
33	Falko Götz	1 July 2004	10 April 2007	121	47	40	34	38.84	None
34	Karsten Heine (interim)	10 April 2007	30 June 2007	6	3	0	3	50.00	None
35	Lucien Favre	1 July 2007	28 September 2009	94	40	20	34	42.55	None
36	Karsten Heine (interim)	29 September 2009	3 October 2009	1	0	0	1	0.00	None
37	Friedhelm Funkel	3 October 2009	30 June 2010	33	7	10	16	21.21	None
38	Markus Babbel	1 July 2010	18 December 2011	55	30	13	12	54.55	2010–11 2. Bundesliga
39	Rainer Widmayer (interim)	18 December 2011	21 December 2011	1	1	0	0	100.00	None
40	Michael Skibbe	22 December 2011	12 February 2012	5	0	0	5	0.00	None
41	René Tretschok (interim)	14 February 2012	19 February 2012	1	0	0	1	0.00	None
42	Otto Rehhagel	19 February 2012	30 June 2012	14	3	3	8	21.43	None
43	Jos Luhukay	1 July 2012[37][38]	5 February 2015	71	34	18	19	47.89	2012–13 2. Bundesliga
44	Pál Dárdai	5 February 2015	30 June 2019	172	64	44	64	37.21	None
45	Ante Čović	1 July 2019	27 November 2019	14	4	3	7	28.57	None
46	Jürgen Klinsmann	27 November 2019	11 February 2020	10	3	3	4	30.00	None
47	Alexander Nouri (interim)	12 February 2020	8 April 2020	4	1	2	1	25.00	None
48	Bruno Labbadia	9 April 2020	24 January 2021	28	8	6	14	28.57	None
49	Pál Dárdai	25 January 2021	29 November 2021	32	10	9	13	31.25	None
50	Tayfun Korkut	29 November 2021	13 March 2022	14	2	3	9	14.29	None
51	Felix Magath	13 March 2022	23 May 2022	9	3	1	5	33.33	None
52	Sandro Schwarz	19 June 2022	Present	0	0	0	0	—	None

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• German Champions:
  • Winners: 1930, 1931
  • Runners-up: 1926, 1927, 1928, 1929, 1974–75
• 2. Bundesliga:
  • Winners: 1989–90, 2010–11, 2012–13
  • Runners-up: 1981–82
• DFB-Ligapokal:
  • Winners: 2001, 2002
  • Runners-up: 2000
• DFB-Pokal:
  • Runners-up: 1976–77, 1978–79, 1992–93

• UEFA Cup:
  • Semi-finals: 1978–79

• Berlin/Brandenburg Champions (−1933):
  • Winners (12): 1906,[a] 1915,[b] 1917,[b] 1918,[b] 1925,[c] 1926,[c] 1927,[c] 1928,[c] 1929,[c] 1930,[c] 1931,[c] 1933[c]
  • Runners-up: 1914,[b] 1916[b]
• Gauliga Berlin-Brandenburg:
  • Winners: 1935, 1937, 1944
  • Runners-up: 1934, 1938, 1939, 1941
• Oberliga Berlin (1945–63):
  • Winners: 1957, 1961, 1963
  • Runners-up: 1960, 1962
• Regionalliga Berlin: (II)
  • Winners: 1966, 1967, 1968
• Amateur-Oberliga Berlin: (III)
  • Winners: 1949, 1987, 1988
  • Runners-up: 1954
• Berlin Cup: (Tiers III-VII)
  • Winners (13): 1920, 1924, 1928, 1929, 1943, 1958, 1959, 1966, 1967, 1976,[d] 1987, 1992,[d] 2004[d]
  • Runners-up: 2006

a. ^ Competition organized by football association Verband Berliner Ballspielvereine (VBB)

b. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e VBB-Verbandsliga, organized by football association Verband Brandenburgischer Ballspielvereine (VBB).

c. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e f g h VBB-Oberliga, organized by football association Verband Brandenburgischer Ballspielvereine (VBB).

d. ^ Jump up to:a b c d Reserve team.

• German Under 19 Championship
  • Winners: 2018
• German Under 17 Championship
  • Winners: 2000, 2003, 2005, 2012
  • Runners-up: 1991
• Under 19 Bundesliga North/Northeast
  • Winners: 2005, 2006, 2018
  • Runners-up: 2003, 2004, 2012, 2017
• Under 17 Bundesliga North/Northeast
  • Winners: 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2020
  • Runners-up: 2011, 2014, 2018 2019
• Under 19 DFB-Pokal (de)
  • Winners: 2004, 2015
  • Runners-up: 2010, 2012, 2016
• Under 17 NOFV-Pokal (de)
  • Winners: (4) 2001, 2008, 2012, 2014 (Record)

Accurate as of 28 September 2017

Competition	Played	Won	Drew	Lost	GF	GA	GD	Win%
UEFA Champions League	14	3	5	6	11	19	−8	21.43
UEFA Cup / UEFA Europa League	76	36	20	20	96	67	29	47.37
UEFA Intertoto Cup	2	1	1	0	2	0	2	50.00
Total	92	40	26	26	109	86	23	43.48

Not able to take advantage of the trend of encouraging women's soccer, Hertha became one of the few significant German football clubs that were left out of the top ranks of women's football. A number of steps were implemented to promote women's football however the majority were not conclusive. The breakthrough came in 2009 after the team announced it would launch an association in women's football with one. FC Lubars, a football club that is part of the Berlin Borough Reinickendorf and with a long experience in women's soccer.

On one hand the partnership was that Hertha was expected to provide Lubars with a variety of assistance, such as financial assistance, expert advice on sponsorship acquisition and licensing as well as training and equipment with a total investment of 1 million euros into the venture. On the other hand the partnership meant that Lubars would be playing with the colors of Hertha and thus earned the title "Die Hertha-Frauen" ("The Hertha-women"). In the long term the club hopes to form a team of one. FC Lubars to be integrated with Hertha BSC. 1. FC Lubars now competes in the 2. Bundesliga of women's football.