From AK 07 to Zehlendorf, take a tour of the football grounds of Germany's capital
Germany’s capital is also a football one, centrepieced by a historic national stadium due to host the final of Euro 2024. Regular tenants of the Olympiastadion, the city’s flagship club Hertha could, until relegation in 2023, pack this 74,000-capacity heritage arena for major Bundesliga games.
As Hertha mull over options to move out after current contractual obligations expire in 2025, the club still manages to attract crowds of 50,000 for second-tier football. After decades of enjoying primary status in Germany’s capital, Hertha have since been overshadowed by Union Berlin in the East.
Saved by a penalty rebound in the last minute of the last game of 2023-24 after the spot-kick hit the post, Union remain Berlin’s only representative in the Bundesliga.
Lower down the league pyramid, the Regionalliga Nordost reflects Berlin’s patchwork football history in a wider context. Division four for Germany’s north-east region – effectively former East Germany plus West Berlin – is where you’ll now find Berliner FC Dynamo, aka Dynamo Berlin.
Their divisional rivals until 2024, Berliner AK 07 play at the historic Poststadion, walking distance from the city’s central train station, Berlin Hauptbahnhof.
Another name in the Regionalliga Nordost keeps statisticians busy in the city’s football weekly Fußball-Woche. Former DDR-Liga stalwarts SV Babelsberg 03 are based at the Karl-Liebknecht-Stadion (‘Karli’) in Potsdam-Babelsberg.
In the post-war era, Hertha’s city rivals were Tennis Borussia Berlin. West Berlin’s second or third club, the Violets are based at the Mommsenstadion in Berlin-Westend.
In footballing terms, the German capital was an early starter. Pioneering clubs from Berlin won three national titles from 1905 to 1911. Twice national champions BFC Viktoria 1889 still exist more than a century later, although only after a merger with Lichterfelder FC in 2013. The name carved on the city’s annual knock-out Berlin Cup, most recently in 2024, is FC Viktoria 1899.
Though today based in Lichterfelde, south-west Berlin, Viktoria’s historic home is Tempelhof. Initially, they shared the recreational space of nearby Tempelhofer Feld with most of Berlin’s pioneering teams.
After Viktoria had outgrown Tempelhofer Feld, in 1905, they opened their own ground, Viktoria-Platz, in nearby Mariendorf, which is where this first semi-official meeting between football’s great foes, England and Germany, took place. Standing on Eisenacher Straße until 1945, it’s another signposted stop on the Fußball Route Berlin tour.
Viktoria later moved into the Friedrich-Ebert-Stadion in Tempelhof before the 2013 merger with Lichterfelder. A modest athletics ground, today it plays host to SD Croatia Berlin, one of a myriad ethnic or long-rooted clubs who compete every year in the Berlin Cup, arguably the most colourful of its kind in Europe.
Introduced in 1907, its first three editions won by Viktoria, the Berlin Cup is where you find the modern-day descendants of those pioneering clubs from the early 1900s. There is also an FK Srbija Berlin, a Bosna Berlin and a Polonia Berlin.
Most finals take place at the Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn Sportpark, once the home of the dominant side in East Germany in the 1960s, Vorwärts Berlin. Any number of clubs have used the F-L-J since because their own ground was unsuitable for a higher level of football or being rebuilt.
The most recent tenants have been VSG Altglienicke, Berlin Cup winners in 2020. Altglienicke’s regular home stands in the district of the same name, just over little Altglienicke Bridge, not to be confused with Glienicke Bridge in the far west of town, scene of spy exchanges during the Cold War.
The sundry slackers and wastrels who passed through Berlin in the 1980s might still look out for the results of Blau-Weiß, the successor club to the populist one that folded in 1992, itself with direct links to venerable Union 92. Their stomping ground is still Mariendorf/Tempelhof, on Rathausstraße.
After 1989, the local football scene became a mix of discredited (often later reformed and/or renamed) clubs from the former East and teams that reflected Berlin’s status as the world’s fifth largest Turkish city. The most renowned has been Türkiyemspor Berlin, formed in the Turkish-influenced district of Kreuzberg, who play at Willy-Kressmann-Stadion at Viktoriapark.
Their achievements should not be judged in terms of league points and silverware – or by the fact that the club is now in the seventh flight. Promotion of Turkish and fellow local minorities has led to other Türkiyemspors being formed across Germany.
1 DYNAMO BERLIN
Their Vereinsheim clubhouse may be decked out with celebratory photographs, trophies and pennants from many European campaigns, but Berliner FC Dynamo are record national champions like no other.
Dynamo Berlin, as they are commonly known, were the Schiebemeister, the cheating champions, who won the East German title ten seasons running through the 1980s. Backed by Erich Mielke, head of the hated Secret Police, or Stasi, Dynamo Berlin enjoyed favoured status.
Mocked around the GDR then rebranded post-1989, it has taken 25 years for the Wine Reds to achieve credibility, popularity and even success – the former GDR superpower missed out on promotion in 2022 from the Regionalliga Nordost by the odd goal in five over a two-leg play-off.
Dynamo’s home is the Sportforum Hohenschönhausen, part of an extensive sports complex, including the former home and current training ground of the Eisbären Berlin ice-hockey team. The football ground is a modest, 10,000-capacity affair, one main stand ringed by old-style terracing and an equally old-school scoreboard at one end.
The M5 and M6 Metrotram lines serve Hohenschönhauser Straße/Weißenseer Weg, three stops (5mins) from the hub of Landsberger Allee. Trams leave from the main road above the station, direction Zingster Straße (M5) or Risaer Straße (M6), arriving at the junction of Hohenschönhauser and Weißenseer.
From there, either head left across the main road, and the sport complex is 5min walk up Weißenseer Weg on the right – or take the M13 one stop, to the Sportforum stop. The M13 is also seven stops (12mins) from the hub of Frankfurter Alle
Just behind the main stand at the Sportforum Hohenschönhausen, the Vereinsheim is the club’s spiritual home. As well as a wall of match pennants from Dynamo’s European days, a mural of black-and-white photographs from this same era displays their domestic domination. Note also the obituary of Micha Mielke, an ex-Dynamo player who died in 2009 at the age of 34 – perhaps a relation of the club’s former biggest fan?
Sportforum Hohenschönhausen, Weißenseer Weg 53, 13053 Berlin
2 POSTSTADION
Berliner AK 07 play at the historic Poststadion, walking distance from the city’s central train station, Berlin Hauptbahnhof. The de facto national stadium for certain periods between the wars, Poststadion has a strange footnote in soccer history as being the only ground where Adolf Hitler watched a football match.
Sharing hosting duties with the Olympiastadion for the 1936 Games, this former postal workers’ sports club was where 55,000 gathered to watch dark horses Norway beat Germany 2-0 before going on to win bronze.
AK 07, as in 1907, share the same Wedding roots as Hertha. Like Hertha, they played in the shadow of The Wall, springing to life 99 years after their foundation by forming a link with top-flight Turkish outfit Ankaraspor.
First renamed Berlin Ankaraspor Klübü (BAK, in blue), then (back in red) again as AK 07, the club slowly climbed the lower league ranks to a respectable fourth level. In scrambling into the Regionalliga Nord in 2011, AK 07 ousted Türkiyemspor as the main team in town for the Turkish community.
In 2010, AK 07 won the local Berlin Cup, repeating the feat in 2012. Runs in the main, national DFB Cup have included a narrow defeat to top-flight Mainz and a remarkable 4-0 win over equally top-flight Hoffenheim in August 2012.
Designated a national landmark in 1990, Poststadion holds around 10,000 spectators in one main stand and open terracing, with a running track separating fans from the pitch.
From Berlin Hauptbahnhof, leave by the main entrance into Europa Platz, cross busy Invalidenstraße and turn right into Lehrter Straße at the Motel One hotel on the corner. It’s a short walk from there, on the left-hand side, just past the A&O Hauptbahnhof hotel/hostel. A match-day imbiß dispenses beer and sausages – the trendy Zaffke and Perlou bars north of the stadium are both evening-only.
Poststadion, Lehrter Straße 59, 10557 Berlin
3 union berlin
Berlin’s prime club since the demise of Hertha, working-class ‘Iron’ Union have historical ties to the district of Oberschöneweide, near Treptow-Köpenick. A major player in the local football scene, Union became Berlin champions in 1920, the year they moved into what was then the Sportplatz Sadowa, today’s Stadion An der Alten Försterei.
Winners of the last DDR-Liga in 1991, With impeccable proletarian credentials but without the political clout of Dynamo Berlin in the days of East German football, Union won the last DDR-Liga in 1991 and went on to gain cult status after the Fall of the Wall.
Backed by punk icon Nina Hagen, who knew a good bandwagon when she jumped on one, Union nearly went under in the 1990s but were saved by their committed fan base.
A regular fixture thereafter in Germany’s 2.Bundesliga, Union gained promotion in 2019, a memorable campaign outlined in Kit Holden’s excellent book, Scheisse! We’re Going Up!
A surprise European appearance in 2021-22 was followed by the defeat of Ajax in the Europa League of 2022-23. Then came a fourth-place finish in the Bundesliga, and Champions League qualification. In the autumn of 2023, none other than Real Madrid lined up against the red shirts of Union – the setting being a full house at the Olympiastadion.
Home is otherwise the modest Stadion An der Alten Försterei in Köpenick, where Ajax came to grief in 2023. The 21,700-capacity ground now sports impressive Main and West Stands as part of a €17 million refit that would have been inconceivable when Union were staring bankruptcy in the face in the late 1990s.
The nearest station is Köpenick on the S3 line, direction Erkner, from Ostkreuz (12mins), easily accessible from Hauptbahnhof or Alexanderplatz on several S-Bahn lines. At Ostkreuz, trains leave from platform 3 every 10mins.
From Köpenick, it’s a 12min walk from the stadium – follow the train tracks back along Am Bahrdamm, turn left into Hammerlingstraße at the railway bridge – or take tram 63 (direction Haeckelstraße) for 4 stops/7mins to the Alte Försterei stop. Walking brings you to the Arbeitsfalle fans’ bar on Hammerlingstraße.
Opposite Köpenick S-Bahn, on the other side from the shopping centre, the Bierstübchen Hauptmann von Köpenick (Mahlsdorfer Straße 1) is a classic corner bar whose back room is plastered in decades of match posters for Union fixtures. Just along Am Bahndamm, the Union Tanke is a scruffy yard and open-air bar.
Closer to the ground, the main pre- and post-match bar is the Abseitsfalle Fankneipe (‘Offside Trap Fan Bar’), with live football on TV and framed Union shirts on the wall, a worthy entry in any selection of Berlin’s best football bars.
Stadion An der Alten Försterei, An der Wuhlheide 263, 12555 Berlin
4 friedrich ludwig jahn sportpark
Steeped in urban history, the Friedrich Ludwig Jahn Sportpark not only overlooks the former Berlin Wall but also the Death Strip where East Germans risked their lives trying to cross into the West – it’s now a public park.
When this stadium, built in 1951, this became the de facto home ground of Dynamo Berlin in their infamous glory days, the Party leaders taking in the game while gazing at the skyline of West Berlin.
As a location, the stadium’s heritage pre-dates the Cold War. Originally the site of a parade ground, this was where Hertha played their first match in 1892.
Home ground of Army side Vorwärts Berlin in the 1950s, when it acquired the name of the father of German gymnastics on the centenary of his death, the Friedrich Ludwig Jahn Sportpark has served many clubs since the Dynamo days, its central location and relatively comfortable facilities attracting the likes of Viktoria and current occupants Altglienicke. Capacity is just under 20,000.
It’s a short walk from Eberswalder Straße station on the red U2 U-Bahn line, along Eberswalder Straße itself. It also has its own stop on the M10 Metrotram line, four stops (5mins) from Nordbahnhof. Next door, the Mauersegler bar provides a convivial beer garden until October, where a flea market takes place on Sundays. Its name is tongue-in-cheek, referring to the swifts that fly overhead on summer evenings. ‘Mauer’, of course, is the German for Wall.
There are GDR souvenirs aplenty at the wonderful Zur Insel bar at 24 Eberswalder Straße, close to the U-Bahn station of the same name. it’s a classic Berlin kneipe, with regulars around the bar counter and football-related paraphernalia such as a photo of the last GDR team line-up. You’ll find it just on the other side of the road from the station, a five-minute walk to the stadium.
Friedrich Ludwig Jahn Sportpark, Cantianstraße 24, 10437 Berlin
5 babelsberg 03
In a way, ‘Nulldrei’ are not an obvious team for a group of left-leaning ultras to be affiliated with. Representing the leafy, affluent community of Babelsberg, capital of Brandenburg and location for Germany’s film industry, the club formed in 1903 spent undistinguished decades in the second tier of the GDR league.
Their ground, the Karl-Liebknecht-Stadion, was unveiled the same month that East Germany went to Montréal to win Olympic gold – the team’s warm-up game with Motor Babelsberg provided the stadium opener.
But, nearly half a century later, Nulldrei’s anti-Fascist followers Filmstadt Inferno 99 bring the party to the Nordkurve of this 11,000-capacity ground an easy stroll up the city’s main street from Babelsberg S-Bahn.
On the S7 line from Westkreuz, this is beyond Berlin’s city limits but within zone C. Babelsberg are also a regular fixture in the Regionalliga Nordost, along with Dynamo and Viktoria Berlin.
A string of terrace cafés and restaurants line Karl-Liebknecht-Straße – the hotel bar at the Pension UNICAT (No.26) is the most down-to-earth, with games shown in traditional surroundings inside. On match nights, fans flock to the nearby Restaurant Otto Hiemke on Karl-Gruhl-Straße, a homely place serving hearty Prussian fare and local Potsdamer beer.
Karl-Liebknecht-Stadion, Karl-Liebknecht-Straße 90, 14482 Potsdam
6 sv lichtenberg 47
All you need to know about SV Lichtenberg 47, currently in the fifth-tier Oberliga Nordost-Nord alongside district rivals Sparta Lichtenberg, can be gleaned from the row of information boards just inside the main entrance to the HOWOGE-Arena Hans Zoschke.
“Football in the Stasi’s backyard” proclaims the first one, the Stasi being the Secret Police, East Germany’s equivalent of the KGB, whose headquarters is literally next door. Now it’s a museum, while this community club, twice Berlin Cup runners-up in relatively recent seasons, attracts curious groundhoppers.
Quaint would sum up the ground nicely, with its grassed-over terracing, crash barriers and modest main stand, best viewed from Panenkas Hütte, a beer hut at the home end named after the Czechoslovak penalty hero. Behind the opposite goal are a beer van and the clubhouse bar, with a large terrace and Lichtenberg memorabilia inside. You can keep a check on the 47’s progess in the Oberliga, the league table faithfully updated throughout the season.
Take U-Bahn line 5 to Magdalenenstraße and head for the signposted Stasi Museum – the ground is just behind.
HOWOGE-Arena Hans Zoschke, Ruschestraße 90, 10365 Berlin
7 mommsenstadion
Soon approaching its centenary, the Mommsenstadion still sports the look of the Hungarian architect who created it, Alfréd Forbát, a follower of the Bauhaus School between the wars.
An urban planner in Weimar Berlin, Stalin’s Moscow and post-war Stockholm, in 1930 Forbát created a stylish ground that hosted several games at the 1936 Olympics, including Britain’s 2-0 win over a spirited China.
For the first few decades after the war, this was the second-most important football stadium in West Berlin after the Olympiastadion as regular hosts Tennis Borussia (‘TeBe’), record winners of the Berlin Cup, played second-tier and occasional Bundesliga games here.
Always cash-strapped, TeBe would slip down the league pyramid after financial mishap but retained their coterie of loyal fans, today left-leaning and firmly anti-Fascist.
Relegated from the Regionalliga Nordost in 2023, the Violets moved out to the Stadion Rehberge near former Tegel airport while ‘Mommse’ was being rebuilt. Austria chose the revamped Mommsenstadion as their training ground for Euro 2024 – just as Germany used it to prepare for their own World Cup in 2006.
To reach it, take the S-Bahn to Messe Süd (Eichkamp), two stops before Olympiastadion. The stadium is signposted – turn right and keep walking through semi-greenery for five minutes or so. Across Waldschulallee opposite the stadium, the actual Tennis Club has a sport-themed bar/restaurant with TVs and a terrace overlooking the courts.
Mommsenstadion, Waldschulallee 34-42, 14055 Berlin
8 hertha 03 zehlendorf
Perhaps Berlin’s most pleasant groundhop is to Hertha 03 Zehlendorf, representing the leafy suburb of the same name, halfway between the city and the Wannsee.
The tone is set straight away by the nearest U-Bahn stop, Onkel Toms Hütte, named after German rendition of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel from the mid-1800s, Uncle Tom’s Cabin. From the Modernist station straight out of the 1920s, you walk along tree-lined Onkel-Tom-Straße until you get to Hertha 03’s clubhouse with its sports bar and beer garden.
Behind are training pitches, the modest main ground of 4,000 capacity lined with fluttering blue-and-white Hertha 03 flags, and the stadium bar filled with pennants of past opponents.
The Ernst-Reuter-Sportfeld serves the club’s many youth teams, the senior side recently promoted to the Regionalliga Nordost to compete with the fallen giants, up-and-coming clubs and Hertha reserves of the fourth-tier Regionalliga Nordost.
You’ll find Onkel Toms Hütte one stop from the Krumme Lanke terminus of the U3 line, a direct hop from Wittenbergplatz in the heart of West Berlin.
Ernst-Reuter-Sportfeld, Onkel-Tom-Straße 40, 14169 Berlin
9 viktoria berlin
Viktoria Berlin are one of the great names of the past. Twice national champions in the early 1900s, die Himmelblauen survived by merging with Lichterfelder FC in 2013. The name carved on the Berlin Cup for 2024 is FC Viktoria 1899, who now play at the Stadion Lichterfelde in a quiet corner of south-west Berlin.
Though modest, a 4,300-capacity ground with a main stand and a running track surrounding the pitch, it plays host to more than 1,500 active members of this multi-generational club – turn up during the day and more often than not, a junior team will be playing here, where Brazil trained during the 2006 World Cup.
As for the seniors, after relegation from the third-tier 3.Liga, Viktoria are one of six Berlin teams in the Regionalliga Nordost, making up a third of the division. The stadium bar by the main stand has a large terrace, with games screened inside, but you might also want to catch the sun outside the traditional Bahnhofs-Wirtschaft built into the nearest station, S-Bahn Lichtefelde Ost on the S25/26 lines down from Südkreuz. From there, walk straight down Bahnhofstraße, then turn right at Ostpreußendamm, allowing about 15 minutes to get from the station to stadium.
Stadion Lichterfelde, Ostpreußendamm 3-17, 12207 Berlin
10 willy-kressmann-stadion
Regular visitors to Germany’s capital may have visited Golgatha, a long-established Kreuzberg beer garden set in Viktoriapark, among the Top 10 football bars in Berlin. What these visitors may not know is that there’s a football ground right alongside, beyond the expansive terrace with the massive TV screen.
Moreover, the building today housing Golgatha’s main bar was designed to be the stadium offices and changing rooms. The designer was Georg Demmler, whose memorial plaque can be found here. An athlete who competed for Germany at the first two Olympic Games, Demmler was also a stadium architect, who designed this clubhouse and the grandstand for the ground alongside, named after long-term district mayor Willy Kressmann in 2010.
Before then, it was the Katzbachstadion, filled with rubble after World War II and downsized to host Berlin’s leading club representing the Turkish community, Türkiyemspor, whose low-ranking senior men’s team is one of 46 (!) run by this long-established Kreuzberg operation. To find the stadium, take the U6 line to Platz der Luftbrücke and walk along main Dudenstraße to the junction with Katzbachstraße.
Willy-Kressmann-Stadion, Dudenstraße 40, 10965 Berlin
