29th Match Day of Second Bundesliga 1. FC Union Berlin - 1. FC Kaiserslautern Stadion An der Alten Försterei Result: 3:1 (1:0) Attendance: 21,379 (about 2,000 away fans)
After four years, I finally went to see Union Berlin!
When I travelled to Berlin four years ago, I saw some people wearing Union shirts at Warschauer Straße station. I wondered if there was a game in Berlin. At that time, I didn’t know much about anything outside Bundesliga. I remember I checked the fixtures and knew that there wasn’t a (Bundesliga) game in Berlin. But I followed them to board a S-Bahn anyway without knowing where they were heading to.
In the train, I also saw few people in Fortuna Düsseldorf shirts. So I knew there had to be a game! They all got off at one station and walked towards the same direction. In few minutes, I was at the entrance of a forest. I hesitated a little bit at first because it was getting dark, but there were more people going into this direction so I just kept walking with them.
Another minutes later, I saw a bit of floodlights and the noise from the stadium. A stadium! There was really a stadium! I was going to buy a ticket, however, a big AUSVERKAUFT sign was shown at the ticket box, which meant tickets were sold out. When I decided to leave, the stadium started playing a “rock” song, which I thought was one of those top-hits, only later I found out that it was Union’s club song.
I didn’t get a chance to visit Berlin again in the next four years. Now I am in Germany but I live in the Southwest, which will take me seven hours to drive to Berlin, or paying a hundred Euro for a return (non-direct) train to Berlin.
I did follow Union a little bit since then. Earlier this season we went to Duisburg to watch Union away for the German Cup. Sometimes we also watched them on TV, and even learned a few songs. (My current favourite song from them is “Dem Morgengrauen entgegen..”) Union have been playing really well this season and could have a chance to get promoted! I knew it was difficult to get tickets to see Union, and knew it would be even more difficult if they were promoted.
Before we left for Hong Kong, we checked if there were games we could go during Easter. But the fixtures were only set after we departed. So, one day when we were chilling at home, we found that there were tickets left for Union against Kaiserslautern. We knew we wanted to go somewhere during Easter, and now we knew we would be in Berlin that weekend!
At the end we decided to drive to Berlin, with a three-day-stopover in Leipzig. After a loooong wait, we were finally going to visit the Stadion An der Alten Försterei! Somehow it reminded me of going to watch Liverpool for the first time, where I was so excited and really looking forward to the game.
Our train passed Warschauer Straße, then we changed in Ostkreuz and took the S-Bahn to Köpenick. I didn’t remember this station, but I remember the streets outside the little forest. Soon we arrived outside the stadium where I had to return four years ago. I still felt surreal when we arrived!
After the team bus attack in Dortmund, Union also imposed a tighter security procedure on the game day. It took us about 10 minutes until we got checked. We looked for a way to try to sneak into the Section 3 although we had a ticket for Section 4, which was behind the goal and directly next to the away fans. We always try to look for a place where we could see both home and away fans!
The first entrance to Section 3 didn’t work, but it worked at the second entrance! The stand was so packed and we started to panic because we didn’t know where to find a good place. Just in case you didn’t know, three stands out of four are all standing zone at Union’s home ground. Everyone would stand really close and chant for their team together.
But here came the problem, Germans are tall, like, really tall. As a small Asian, it was really a challenge for me to find a place that wouldn’t be blocked by the German shoulders or heads. The thing was, I didn’t only want to see the pitch, but also the fans on both sides.
Luckily, we found a small empty space next to the aisle! No tall people in my sight at all! Soon the stadium started playing the club song “Eisern Union”, at the same time, the home sector also slowly revealed a big choreo that they prepared to motivate the players and fans. Check out our short clip to hear the metal club song:
The massive banner under the choreo said “Union in Rot – Das Stadion schallt” (Union in red – The stadium echos). The players entered the pitch while the fans were singing (HUUUAAAAH), meanwhile, the choreo turned into a sea of little red and white flags.
The game already kicked off, but we couldn’t focus on the pitch at all because the choreo was not over yet. They pulled up another huge choreo of a fighter’s face, with a tattoo on his chest that wrote “Kämpfen und Siegen” (Let’s fight and win). Underneath the fighter, the banner was also changed into “Ziel anvisiert – Die Faust geballt” (Target locked – The fist is clenched). The fans asked everyone of the club – players and fans – to focus on their goal to promote to the Bundesliga, which they have never played in.
History of Union Berlin (reference: wikipedia)
Union Berlin, just like any other football clubs that were once governed by the GDR, had a long and complicated history. The club was founded as FC Olympia 06 Oberschöneweide in 1906, in the industrial Oberschöneweide district of Berlin. It changed its name to SC Union 06 Oberschöneweide four years later. The team was nicknamed Schlosserjungs, or the metalworkers, because their home shirt colour was similar to the blue work clothing of the factory workers in Oberschöneweide. That was also how Union Berlin’s current nickname “Eisern Union” was originated.
After the World War II, the Allied authorities ordered to ordered the dissolution of all kid of organisations in Germany, including football clubs. SC Union 06 Oberschöneweide was forced to dissolve and was reformed as SG Oberschöneweide in 1945.
The Cold War forced some of the players to flee to the west to form Sport-Club Union 06 Berlin, so they could participate in the National League final rounds, as SG Oberschöneweide were forbidden by the Soviet authorities to travel. The players who remained in the east renamed the club as Union Oberschöneweide.
Union Oberschöneweider had a few name changes: Union Oberschöneweide (1950), BSG Motor Oberschöneweide (1951), SC Motor Berlin (1955), TSC Oberschöneweide (1957), TSC Berlin (1963) – finally becoming the football club 1. FC Union Berlin in 1966. The fans soon developed a rivalry with Stasi-sponsored Dynamo Berlin.
Under the GDR government, there was always an “elite” team in each city, who got most support and funding from the local football association and government, while other teams had to depend on their own funding and fans support. Union Berlin had an obvious image as a working class club, without much capital but fans.
After German reunification in 1990, the team had a few financial problem. Although they played well and qualified to promote to the second league, they were denied the license to play in the second league because of their financial problem. In 2008, they became one of the first teams to participate in the newly founded 3. Bundesliga, and promoted to the 2. Liga as the third league champions.
Stadion An der Alten Försterei’s capacity was expanded to more than 22,000 in 1980s, but the quality of the structure declined rapidly in only few years. In 2008, the club decided to expand their stadium. However, with the club’s financial problem, they could not afford a fancy renovation project. The fans of Union Berlin simply built their “home” themselves and invested more than 140,000 working hours altogether. That’s true love to the football club!
Back to the game
After a brief history lesson about Union, now we are back at the stadium. So, after the choreo, I turned my head to the face the pitch and thought I had a nice view of the stadium. 
But at the same moment, the grandpa in front of me suddenly lifted his grandson to his shoulder so the boy could watch the game. Then I found that a father was doing the same for his son. All of a sudden there were children mountains in front of me and blocked my view!
I actually don’t mind having restricted view, I only found it funny to see these 2-metre-tall kids! A steward came immediately to ask me not to stand on the aisle, but I pointed at the giant kids and he understood my problem, so he let me have one feet stepping on the aisle.
We are not Union Berlin fans. We just like Union Berlin fans a lot, and hope that the team could do well for their fans, so we also joined the fans to chant a little bit during the game! (BUT THEY DIDN’T SING MY FAVOURITE SONG AT THE END!!!! :-()
Kaiserslautern arrived with almost 2,000 fans, who probably travelled for more than 10 hours to get to Berlin from the K-Town. In front of the away block, there was a huge banner that said “1. FC Kaiserslautern – Unzerstörbar”, which mean “1. FC Kaiserslautern – indestructible”. The reason behind was that Kaiserslautern haven’t been doing well this season and were very close to the relegation zone in the second league. Despite having a full away block, we didn’t hear much from the FCK fans.
Union opened the score sheet after 30 minutes into game, and the first half was over really quick. We were not dare to leave our place during half time because we didn’t want to lose our nice space! Luckily there were walking beer stands everywhere inside the stadium, so we could buy beers from where we were standing.
The beer was not cheap though, 4€ for a cup of beer, exclusive 1€ cup deposit. We kept the cup at the end as a souvenir. At 60 minute, Kaiserslautern scored the equaliser and started to look promising. Union also found their form yet couldn’t create many chances. By the end of the game, Union scored two goals in a row to make it 3:1 and kept their promotion hope alive!
As the game was over, most of the fans stayed behind to celebrate and sing for the team for almost 10 minutes! The away fans also tried to cheer their team up when the players went to thank them.
It would be really nice if Union could promote to the first league so people can see how amazing their fans are!