A German Cup first round tie between third tier Hansa Rostock and Bundesliga side Hertha Berlin was suspended for almost 15 minutes on Monday night due to significant crowd trouble.
The game, which Hertha eventually won 2-0 thanks to late goals from Mitchell Weiser and Vedad Ibisevic, was stopped twice in the second half following a number of incidents related to an ongoing feud between the two sets of supporters.
The first stoppage came just after the half-time break when travelling Hertha fans set off a huge pyrotechnic display in the away end of the Ostseestadion. With part of the pitch shrouded in smoke, referee Robert Hartmann halted play for several minutes.
Worse was to come. Midway through the second half, a huge “FC Hansa Rostock” banner was unfurled over the entire south stand, home to Hansa’s ultras and hardcore supporters and located adjacent to the away end.
In German fan culture, the unfurling of a large banner over the heads of fans is usually a precursor to some sort of planned action, with ultras using the cover to don balaclavas and other disguises before lighting pyrotechnics.
This time, hooded Hansa ultras emerged from under the banner to present a Hertha flag – a huge banner reading “Ostkurve Hertha BSC” which used to adorn the East Stand of Berlin’s Olympic Stadium but was stolen from a storeroom in 2014.
The Hertha ultras responded by firing flares at their goading rivals, who proceeded to burn the banner in full view of the away end and the watching television cameras. Humiliated, the Hertha ultras took down their own banners and left the away end, only to spill back into the block moments later, having seemingly been forced back in by the police behind the stand.
The players were taken off the pitch and play was suspended for almost 15 minutes.
An ongoing feud
The incidents represent the latest episode in a long-running feud between Hansa Rostock and Hertha BSC, whose hardcore fans frequently cross paths in Berlin and the surrounding areas when travelling to and from away games. Brawls and fights on trains and at stations and motorway services are commonplace.
In 2012, a 30-year-old Hansa supporter, officially known to police as a “violent football fan,” was stabbed in the back at Berlin train station, although it was never proven that the attacker belonged to Hertha’s fan scene. Hansa fans have little doubt and displayed a banner on Monday night reading: “No attack on Hansa fans goes unpunished.”
While fire crews extinguished the burning remains of the banner in the buffer zone between the two blocks, home fans elsewhere in the sold-out 22,400-capacity stadium signalled their own displeasure at what was unfolding in the south stand. “And you’re supposed to be Hansa Rostock fans?” they sang disparagingly at their own ultras.
Hansa coach Pavel Dotchev condemned the violence, as did his Hertha counterpart Pal Dardai and Hertha sporting director Michael Preetz, who labelled the incidents as “crimes.”
Unfair treatment
Like their eastern German counterparts at Dynamo Dresden, 1.FC Magdeburg and elsewhere in the former German Democratic Republic, Hansa Rostock fans feel they are unfairly treated in comparison to the punishments handed out to western German clubs.
For a third division side based in the isolated north-east of the country, Hansa boast one of the largest and most loyal fanbases in Germany, travelling in huge numbers to far-flung away games and organising impressive choreographies.
But their notorious ultras’ behaviour has frequently led to punishments including hefty fines, partial ground closures and bans on away fans.
In July this year, Hansa fans were banned from travelling to their club’s away games in Magdeburg and Jena. The ultras announced they had acquired 1,000 tickets for the trip to Magdeburg anyway, where they plan to set aside their rivalry with the Magdeburg fans and protest against the punishment.
Elsewhere in the first round, 91 “potentially violent” Dynamo Berlin supporters were taken into custody ahead of the fourth-tier side’s match against Schalke 04. The Bundesliga team eventually secured an unconvincing 2-0 victory.
Most other first round ties featured some sort of protest against the German FA, the Deutscher Fußballbund (DFB). German fans are unhappy at what they perceive as the over-commercialisation of the game, including inconvenient kick-off times, commercial backers such as Red Bull and the league’s targeting of overseas markets, including a plan for a Chinese U20 XI to play in the fourth tier this season.
The Bundesliga gets underway this weekend.
