If I think about it right, SV Werder Bremen was the first club that was brought closer to me in the mid / late 80s. My grandpa was an ardent Werder fan, and while my grandma was preparing dinner in the kitchen in the apartment in Berlin-Friedrichsfelde, he evaluated the results of the 1st Bundesliga with me. 31st matchday of the 1987/88 season. FC 08 Homburg vs. Karlsruher SC 1: 0, Borussia Dortmund vs. FC Bayer 05 Uerdingen 4: 2, FC Bayern Munich vs. VfL Bochum 5: 0, SV Waldhof Mannheim vs. 1. FC Kaiserslautern 0: 2, Eintracht Frankfurt vs. Werder Bremen 0-1. Riedle scored the goal of the day in the 70th minute and thus secured Werder’s place in the sun. Werder Bremen was on the master class – my grandpa was very satisfied. I was allowed to sip a bitter beer to celebrate the day, and Grandma brought mixed bread and cold cuts in through the door.
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What did my grandpa rave about Otto Rehhagel? Funnily enough, they both had a similar gap between their central incisors at the time. “You can whistle,” said Grandpa. “Has all its advantages …” And while I was chewing on the sandwiches with salami and sausage, I thought again about the club names mentioned in the sports show. Homburg, Bayer Uerdingen, Waldhof Mannheim, Borussia Mönchengladbach – that all sounded extremely secretive and mysterious to the ears of a 14-year-old boy from the GDR. And what is the “Werder”?
Over three decades later. When the postman rang twice the other day and handed over the envelope with the two new football primers, I first marveled at the cover of the Mainz primer and then leafed through the green and white football primer. Since you usually turn the pages from back to front, I immediately came across the photo with Otto Rehhagel on page 127. Smiling and calm, King Otto stands next to the author Hannes Köhler, who has already written a few novels and is also one of the goalkeepers of the national team of authors. I turned the pages, marveled at the photo from Istanbul, the photo of Hannes as a 10-year-old goalkeeper and on page 11 the photo of him with a flute, socks, sandals and Werder shirt. That could be sports friend “Salto”. A quick glance at the brief information about the author Hannes Köhler – and the decision was made: The matter seems to be very likeable. I grabbed a bottle of beer and took the soccer primer into the tub. Later I allowed myself – which unfortunately doesn’t happen that often – by candlelight for a whole evening to read chapter by chapter of the Werder Primer.
While I recently liked the view from different perspectives at the football primers about Eintracht Trier and 1. FSV Mainz 05 and the view from the core of the fan scene at the SV Darmstadt 98 football primer, the SV Werder Bremen football primer gives me some very moving private insights . Once again it shows how ingenious the series of soccer primers has become. 40 football primers have already been published on German clubs, four on Viennese football clubs and one on FK Partizan Belgrade. Each primer has its own style. Sometimes, as in the case of 1. FC Lok Leipzig, SG Dynamo Dresden, 1. FSV Mainz 05 and SV Eintracht Trier, a whole team of authors is working on the book, and sometimes it is individual authors who diligently hit the keys . It is obvious that both have their advantages. The advantage of having a single person set to work, as in the case of 1. FC Nürnberg, Eintracht Frankfurt or SV Werder Bremen: You immerse yourself in another life. In the case of the Werder primer, it is very intensive. While the Mainz primer can easily be read bit by bit in the S-Bahn due to the closed chapters, the Werder primer should definitely be allowed two or three hours of rest at a time.
It all begins with King Otto in the first chapter; the book should end with King Otto in the epilogue. However, the unfair teammate Corona got in the way, so the chapter “The New One” and a second epilogue were added. The beginning of the book goes back to the author’s early childhood. Born in Hamburg in 1982. In the Hanseatic City of Hamburg! 1982! At that time, HSV was German champions ahead of 1. FC Köln and FC Bayern Munich! Werder finished in a good fifth place at the end of the 1981/82 season as a newcomer. In the previous season, a break in the northern season of the 2nd Bundesliga had to be undertaken. Somehow it is obvious that as a Hamburg boy, it was not straight to SV Werder Bremen. As a small child he went to the Hamburg Volksparkstadion, but he didn’t get very warm. His mother, who, like Otto Rehhagel, was born in Essen, also came into play. Together they watched on television how King Otto and Werder became German champions in the spring of 1988, and later the performances on the European stage were followed live in front of the flicker box. However, these early memories blurred and mixed up a little. The memories of the 1993 championship title are clearer. Werder managed to leave the big Bavarians behind.
As a Hamburg boy, Hannes Köhler became a die-hard Werder fan, and he also let the ball roll on the pitch. First as a field player, then as a goalkeeper due to his considerable height. In 1990 he looked a little sad and perplexed with sagging shoulders, but the following year his body language is completely different. Arrived at the position of goalkeeper – and continues to do so today.
The individual chapters are – similar to the Eintracht Frankfurt football primer – linked to individual players. In chapter 3 “Eisendieter – Eisenkopf”, Hannes describes how he missed the miracle of the Weser on December 8, 1993. When the score was 0: 3 against RSC Anderlecht, he furiously stomped up the stairs in his parents’ apartment and threw himself into bed, only to fall into an angry, restless sleep at some point. At the same time, as a 20-year-old, I was once sitting in the common room of the training dormitory in Leverkusen-Schlebusch. Old switch! We were astonished when Wynton Rufer (two goals), Rune Bratseth, Bernd Hobsch and Marco Bode were able to turn the CL game against the royal team from Belgium. In the end it was a whopping 5: 3 in front of 29,000 spectators, and Hannes should have been amazed the next morning when he was enthusiastically asked about the game at school.
Every chapter of the Werder primer has a wonderful anecdote ready. Once he defeated the boys from Altona with the school team, in which none other than the young Ivan Klasnic played. In the style of a Netzer, Klasnic had just replaced himself. Who can can. After Hannes Köhler moved to Berlin, he found a new sporty home at the Catenaccio Contras. The author leads the reader through the ages with a very pleasant writing. Studies, soccer, relationships, and tough setbacks in the form of bad panic attacks. Life in Berlin almost made him overwork, the consequences were serious. The heart moved into focus – visits to specialists were on the agenda.
Hannes later moved to Toulouse for a while, and Hannes has always wonderfully linked his personal experiences with the sporting events at SV Werder Bremen. Championship title 2004, DFB Cup win 2009, UEFA Cup final 2009 in Istanbul against Shakhtar Donetsk (1: 2 after extra time), the more recent years from a sporting point of view. A wonderful bow was struck with the game of the national team of authors against the robustly playing Norwegians. The German coach in that game was none other than Otto Rehhagel. The game was won – voilà! – with 5: 3! However, more should not be revealed at this point. Although once in the 80s and 90s my grandfather raved about Werder Bremen and King Otto again and again, I had less to do with the diamond. I went to the Weserstadion twice – in the 1991/92 and 1992/93 seasons. At that time I was doing my training in Leverkusen – and off I went to the Weser with the Bayer fan bus. Hurray, hurray, the Bavarian, he’s here! Into the guest block on a Friday evening. Taken a 1: 1 – and drunk, it went back to the Rhine …
Most recently, my personal conclusion on the soccer primers that came out was almost always positive. I was particularly enthusiastic about the football primer about Eintracht Frankfurt, and the Werder primer now joins my personal top 5. Together with the SGE, Fortuna Köln and FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt. Glubb and SV Darmstadt 98 are also at the top. In short: I can only warmly recommend the green and white soccer primer with the diamond!
Photos: Frank Langkabel, Marco Bertram, Hannes Köhler, nur-der-scf.de, Jean Falkner
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