There is a heavy police presence in this leafy region of South-Western Berlin today.
The excitement is not generated by the league table, which shows 13th playing 14th in a division where, due to the promotion/relegation system at this level, both hope & hazard are in short supply.
No, it’s “Left meets Right” today in the battle for the political soul of German 4th-tier football (Northeast Region). At least it looks that way.
SV Babelsberg & BFC Dynamo were both historically part of the DDR, albeit then as ‘Karl Marx Babelsberg’ & ‘Berliner FC’.
Post-DDR, Babelsberg ditched the ‘Karl Marx’ but have retained a left-wing, anti-fascist bent. They play at the Karl Liebnecht Stadion. Their ultras have ties with St Pauli & Celtic. Their (frankly, gorgeous) strip is sponsored by Oatly™️ vegan milk. Hilariously, their Torhymne (goal music, played over the PA) is ‘Olsenbanden’, the theme music from 60s Danish crime caper movie, ‘The Olsen Gang’.
I know this doesn’t sound intrinsically hilarious, but just give it a listen. There’s nothing like the sound of semi-comic, vaguely jaunty trad jazz to rub musical salt into a fresh sporting wound.
Anyway, BFC Dynamo swung the other way after 1989, becoming poster boys for the right wing idiocy that footballing flesh is heir to. This (justified) reputation persisted for the following two decades. How prevalent this behaviour remains now, I don’t know. I’ve seen no evidence yet today. On the other hand, I did completely miss an incident involving a mini-platoon of Sieg-Heiling nazis at the Lichtenberg 47 match the other day. So, maybe.
