Herbst ’73 : East Meets West In European Cup (second leg)

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With the official match ball in hand, French referee ROBERT WURTZ leads the two sides out onto the pitch before the capacity crowd at the Dynamo Stadion for the return leg of the historic European Cup meeting between host DYNAMO DRESDEN, captained by East Germany’s 1972 Olympic bronze medalist FRANK GANZERA (far left), and visitng BAYERN MUNICH, skippered by West Germany’s 1972 European Cup of Nations champion FRANZ “der Kaiser” BECKENBAUER (far right).
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The close loss by the minimum margin and three potentially-vital away goals in the bank from the first leg in Bavaria had left Oberligameister DYNAMO DRESDEN with all to play for in the return leg of the historic European Cup tie with Bundesligakoenig BAYERN MUNICH a fortnight later in the Deutsche Demokratische Republik.

Dynamo Dresden trainer WALTER FRITZSCH made no changes to his Startelf from the initial encounter in the Bundesrepublik Deutschland. As for the other side, Bayern Munich were now without the services of winger BERND GERSDORFF, who had been substituted at the half against Dynamo in the first leg and then subsequently transferred back to the club from whom he had arrived in the summer, Eintracht Braunschweig. Inserted into the Bavarian team was seldom-used EDGAR SCHNEIDER, the 24-year-old former 1972 West Germany Olympic squad member who had started just three of Bayern’s first fourteen games in the Bundesliga thus far.

Bayern Munich trainer UDO LATTEK, more importantly, adopted a particular strategy which proved to be most effective — West Germany international superstar striker GERD “der Bomber” MUELLER was instructed to drift back deep into midfield and allow the in-form ULI HOENESS, the West Germany international midfielder who had found the back of the net in both of the Bundesliga shutout victories against Vfb Stuttgart and Vfl Bochum in the Bavarians’ two matches since the first leg against Dynamo in Munich, to move into the space created up front.

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The ploy worked to perfection right away as Mueller’s markers, including the talented but still only 22-year-old libero HANS-JUERGEN DOERNER, were drawn out of position in the center of the Dynamo Dresden defense. Twice within the game’s first dozen minutes, the 21-year-old Hoeness beat his shadow, the 29-year-old veteran EDUARD GEYER, for pace at the back while giving Bayern Munich the quick 2-0 advantage. A tenth goal of the season in all competitions for Bayern Munich by Hoeness also had Dynamo looking directly from the wrong side of a 6-3 aggregate scoreline.

Dynamo Dresden were not in the frame of mind to fold their tent so early in their home city, however, and pulled a goal back from Olympic bronze medalist and East Germany international defender SIEGMAR WAETZLICH three minutes before the halftime whistle. Inside the home side’s dressing room, Geyer is said to have cried like a baby for his mishandling of the situation. But it would be a pair of youngsters, both of whom went on to have great success at the 1976 Summer Olympic Games in Montreal a few years later, who led the charge with an immeidate second half counterattack for the hosts.

18-year-old midfielder HARTMUT SCHADE finally was able to head the ball into the net following a mad scramble in front seven minutes after the re-start to level the match for Dynamo Dresden and bring the Oberliga club within one on aggregate. Just four minutes later, 21-year-old East Germany international midfielder REINHARD HAEFNER scored again to give the hosts a 3-2 edge for the evening and the all-important, tie-breaking lead by virtue of the away goals rule. And so the socialist David had the capitalist Goliath down but, sadly for the partisan crowd at the Dynamo Stadion, ultimately failed to finish off the Bavarian giant.

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West Germany international striker GERD “der Bomber” MUELLER (13), who scored two critical goals for Bayern Munich in the European Cup of Champions tie with Dynamo Dresden roughly eight months earlier, found his success-rate decline sharply in his second meeting with opposition from the Deutsche Demokratische Republik and could only put a ball off the proverbial woodwork against East Germany in the historic FIFA World Cup match at Hamburg’s Volksparkstadion in late June of 1974.
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Bayern Munich, in fact, responded within a scant 120 seconds after falling behind on aggregate. At the heart of the movement was the two-goal hero Hoeness, who, after, exchanging passes with Mueller, played a ball into the box for Schneider on the left. A last ditch tackle by the Dynamo Dresden defense dispossed the winger, who would not score a goal on any of his ten appearances in either Europe or the Bundesliga for Bayern Munich during the 1973/74 campaign and, after the season, be sent on his way to FC Augsburg.

But the ball fell kindly for the central striker Mueller and the world’s most dangerous Torjaeger at that time quickly swept the ball past advancing Dynamo Dresden goalkeeeper CLAUS BODEN and restored Bayern Munich’s advantage to 7-6 on aggregate.

Another goal from Dynamo Dresden could have sent the match to penalty kicks, as had happened to Bayern Munich in their first round tie with Swedish club FF Atvidabergs. But Lattek’s troops were able to tighten up at the back and survive the final half hour in the German Democratic Republic. And so it, in the end, it was the Bundesligakoenig who were able to outlast the Oberligameister in a back and forth, high-scoring affair over two legs on both sides of the Iron Curtain — but only just.

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The decisive goal of GERD MUELLER (9) for visiting Bayern Munich against host Dynamo Dresden in the second leg at the Dynamo Stadion in Dresden

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November 7, 1973
European Cup of Champions
second round, second leg

3 – DYNAMO DRESDEN ———— Waetzlich 42′, Schade 52′, Haefner 56′
3 – BAYERN MUNICH ————— Hoeness 10′, 12′, Mueller 58′

DYNAMO DRESDEN : Boden; Helm, Doerner, Waetzlich, Ganzera, Haefner, Geyer, Schade (Riedel 78′), Sachse, Heidler, Rau

BAYERN MUNICH : Maier ; Duernberger, Beckenbauer, Schwarzenbeck, Hansen, Zobel, Roth, Hoeness, Schneider, Mueller, Hoffmann

Dresden’s State-Controlled Second Leg

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June 5, 1971 — a heavy and sustained thunderstorm on this particular day still cannot prevent 22,000 passionate spectators from turning out at the Rudolf Harbig Stadion in the “Florence on the Elbe” to see DYNAMO DRESDEN defeat visiting BSG Chemie Leipzig 3-1 and, therefore, clinch the 1970/71 Oberliga title with yet a full two matches to play in the scheduled 26-game season for the top flight of the German Democratic Republic.
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Almost immediately after the draw in early October of 1973 at UEFA’s headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland, set the West German club Bayern Munich against East German side DYNAMO DRESDEN in the second round of the European Cup of Champions, the idea to re-locate the second leg match to the massive Zentralstadion in Leipzig as a substitute for the much smaller DYNAMO STADION in the Elbflorenz was considered but quickly rejected.

Unfortunate for the cash register, then, as according to testimony given, the national stadium in the German Democratic Republic could have been filled three times over.

Dynamo Dresden club chairman WOLFGANG HAENEL later stated in a book about title-winning trainer WALTER FRITZSCH that more than 300,000 requests for tickets had flooded in from all over the city on the Elbe River. Laundry baskets spread about the team’s offices had been required to cope with all the correspondence. The fact of the matter was, however, that the Dynamo Stadion really only had room for 36,000 spectators.

Two thousand tickets off the top were sent to the visiting club Bayern Munich on the other side of the border. The lion’s share of the spaces at the Dynamo Stadion were to be reserved for Stasi security personnel and employees of state-owned companies, “deserving champions of labor and sport in the G.D.R.”, as described many years later by the well-known publication Der Spiegel. By the time all the political rewards were distributed accordingly, a total of only 8,000 tickets at the rather high cost of 8.10 Ostmark would be offered to the general public at large.

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1972 Olympic bronze medalist and East Germany international defender SIEGMAR WAETZLICH (right), who would, in a few months time, feature in the D.D.R. Startelf for the famous match in Hamburg with West Germany at the 1974 FIFA World Cup final tournament, fires the game-winning goal for Dynamo Dresden in the 64th minute of the Oberliga match against visiting Hansa Rostock at the former Rudolf Harbig Stadion in late February during the 1973/74 football season.
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Some of the more ambitious and desperate Dynamo supporters who did not have the proper political connections arrived in the city center of Dresden the night before the tickets for the big return match with Bayern Munich prepared for the cold with blankets, sleeping bags and a good supply of alcohol. According to the official Stasi report, the mostly younger crowd estimated at 2,200 would have grown even larger if not for “agitation” on the part of Dynamo Dresden sports officials as well as a variety of different security personnel. The last available tickets, which formally went on sale at nine o’clock in the morning, were all quickly snapped up within the hour.

Now, it had only been a little over two years since West Germany had gone to Warsaw and defeated Poland 3-1 in an international friendly with roughly 1,300 citizens of East Germany having crossed the border to attend the game. As was noted at the November 17, 1971, meeting of the S.E.D. Central Committee Secretariat, the rulers of the Deutsche Demokratische Republik were rather displeased to learn approximately two hundred of the East German travelers had allegedly ‘supported’ the West German team. Such displays of a pan-German identity ran counter to the new doctrine of the day as now put forth in Erich Hoenecker’s contemporary D.D.R. — that a distinct and separate (read, socialist) German Democratic Republic existed in direct contrast to the capitalist Federal Republic of Germany in the West.

One of the principal goals of the Ministry for State Security’s “Aktion Vorstoss” program implemented for the Bayern Munich v Dynamo Dresden fixture was to prevent any and all unwanted expressions from the East German football audience at the former Rudolf Harbig Stadion. This helps put into perspective exactly why so many tickets were passed out to the politcally-reliable. Even still, the Ministry for State Security were not in the mood to take any chances.

According to the official final report of secret mission entitled “Action Raid”, two out of every five spectators among the 36,000 Zuschauer at the Dynamo Stadion for the European Cup, second leg match between visiting Bayern Munich and Dynamo Dresden were, indeed, present working for the dreaded Stasi in some capacity, official or otherwise.

European Cup Historical Perspectives

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With some of the empty seats easily recognizable in the background, youthful West Germany international star midfielder ULI HOENESS of Bayern Munich seeks to dribble away from his Dynamo Dresden shadow EDUARD GEYER (4), the 29-year-old veteran who was later serving as the national team trainer of East Germany when the Berlin Wall symbolically fell in the fall of 1989, during the historic first leg of the European Cup of Champions tie at Munich’s Olympiastadion in late October of 1973.
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Strange by contemporary standards in Bavaria nowadays, but a crowd of ‘only’ 50,000 had shown up for the first leg at the Olympiastadion in Munich to witness the very first all-Deutschland duel between West German titlist BAYERN MUNICH and visiting East German champion DYNAMO DRESDEN in the second round of Europe’s premier football competition — this a full 30,000 shy of the total that had turned out to see the Olympic battle between the Bundesrepublik Deutschland and the Deutsche Demokratische Republik in the very same stadium at the 1972 Munich Summer Games just thirteen months earlier.

It should be remembered that, at this point in time of the club history, Bayern Munich had still ‘only’ won three domestic crowns in the Bundesliga and had never lifted the prestigous European Cup. As a matter of fact, local supporters of cross-town rivals TSV 1860 Munich took full advantage of ticket availability as well as great delight in singing along to the “Dynamo” song with the one thousand visitors from the D.D.R. (all of whom had first successfully passed a strict government screening procedure in order to obtain the necessary permission) at the Olympiastadion. Sometimes, in the highly-competitive world of professional football, there is just no place for political ideology and/or nationalistic loyalty.

It is also interesting to recall that the passionate, football-loving people of Dresden were, at that time, not free to descend en masse on the city of Munich and swallow up any remaining match tickets, as is certain what would have happened had ordinary citizens of that East German city the simple freedom to travel outside their country to the West; as it was, the 1,000 Dynamo supporters who did appear at the Olympiastadion for the match with Bayern Munich had all been part of a detailed and elaborate plan code named “Aktion Vorstoss” (Action Raid) implemented by the German Democratic Republic’s Ministry for State Security.

Selling out the second leg of this landmark European Cup tie a couple of weeks later behind the Iron Curtain was never going to be anything even remotely resembling a problem, but that would be another story.

Das Stadion An Dresden

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November 7, 1973 — the former RUDOLF HARBIG STADION, the venerable site now officially known at this point in time as the Dynamo Stadion, and its distinctive “Giraffen Flutlichter” in the city of Dresden played host to the historical second leg of the famous European Cup fixture featuring Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich from the Federal Republic of Germany and Oberligameister Dynamo Dresden of the German Democratic Republic.
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The “Giraffe Floodlights”, so nicknamed for their impact upon the local skyline, first arrived on the scene at the still-named Rudolf Harbig Stadion in early September of 1969 for a match between Dyanmo Dresden and a D.D.R. national select side after having been built that summer by the PGH Elektrobau Dresden. Design credit for the lighting system at a sports facility with no roof was given to Manfred Mortensen with the assistance of architect Guenter Schoeneberg and engineer Friedrich Schmidt. The four steel towers, which altogether weighed 60.5 tons, each stood 62 Meters high while leaning at the angle of 20 degrees and originally produced a brightness of 570 Lux, which easily exceeded Union of European Football Association requirements of the 450 Lux minimum needed to host night matches.
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This particular ground in Saxony had been the site of athletic events starting in the late 19th century before the ILGENKAMPFBAHN, financed by successful pharmaceutical businessman Hermann Ilgen, was constructed and first opened in May of 1923 with a capacity for 24,000 spectators. Although the cultural center was nicknamed “Elbflorenz” (Florence of the Elbe), Dresden was just one of many cities in Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany which suffered severe damage from Allied bombing during the thorough and complete tragedy which was the Second World War. The Ilgenkampfbahn was largely destroyed and remained that way in the Soviet zone of occupied Germany for roughly six years after the war ended.
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March 6, 1951 — two socialist workers of the German Democratic Republic repair the stands at the largely-destroyed Ilgenkampfbahn football stadium in the city of Dresden. Six months on in late September of that year, the facility was officially re-opened as the Rudolf Harbig Stadion in honor of the Dresden native who was, perhaps, most recognized for his world record in the 800 meters at Milan in 1939. Harbig, who also established world records in the 400 and 1,000 meters and is the only track and field athlete in history to ever hold these three marks at one time, was later drafted into the paratroopers and rose to the rank of sergeant before being killed in action on March 5, 1944, near Kirovograd in the Ukraine.
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One particular facet of the history of football during the time of the former East Germany was that things were prone to change radically without warning. Clubs changed names often and, occasionally, were ordered off to another city altogether; as this blog has already noted, the entire first team of Dynamo Dresden had been abruptly re-assigned to Dynamo Berlin in January of 1955. In the summer of 1971, it was decided by the political leadership in the D.D.R. that, upon further reflection, the biography of Sergeant Rudolf Harbig did not pass Socialist/Marxist ideological muster so the facility was officially re-named the DYNAMO STADION and was properly designated as such until the disappearance of the German Democratic Republic once and for all in 1990.
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The old Giraffen Flutlichter at the Rudolf Harbig Stadion in Dresden are, like the former Dynamo stars such as HANS-JUERGEN KREISCHE, HANS-JUERGEN DOERNER, TORSTEN GUETSCHOW, ULF KIRSTEN and MATTHIAS SAMMER just to name a few, no longer to be found at the football field in this particular east German region of Saxony today.
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Construction was begun in late December of 2007 to bring the Rudolf Harbig Stadion up to speed with more modern amenities, most notably covering for the spectators. Two years later the work was finally completed, but not before the facility had been chosen by FIFA as one of the venues for the 2011 Women’s World Cup final tournament to be hosted by Germany. In December of 2010, the naming rights to the stadium were sold to GLUECKGAS, a Bavarian energy company.

Fall ’73 : East Meets West In European Cup (first leg)

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Denmark international fullback JOHNNY HANSEN of Bayern Munich (right) and Dynamo Dresden winger RAINER SACHSE, who would later in his career be capped twice by the Deutsche Demokratische Republik, both eye the ball during the opening leg of the historic, first-ever all-German battle in the prestigous European Cup of Champions tie contested at Munich’s Olympiastadion in the Bundesrepublik Deutschland.
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As for the actual game itself, the inaugural all-German encounter in European competition certainly provided more of the back and forth sort of drama and excitement than the abundance of media hype and hoopla on both sides of the Iron Curtain in the three weeks leading up to the match could have ever possibly hoped to have asked for.

Trainer UDO LATTEK deployed the very same Startelf for the match with the Oberligameister at the Olympiastadion in Munich that had, just a few days earlier, taken part in the now-famous “Wunder von Betzenberg” game. This, the second half debacle during which Bayern Munich conceded six unanswered goals in the final half hour to thoroughly snatch an eye-opening 7-4 defeat from the jaws of victory at 1.FC Kaiserslautern in the Bundesliga. So, perhaps it was only fitting that the visitors from Lower Saxony scored first when Bayern Munich’s Denmark international defender JOHNNY HANSEN put the cross from Dynamo Dresden captain and defender FRANK GANZERA into his own net with barely a baker’s dozen minutes played.

WILHELM HOFFMANN had scored nine goals for Bayern Munich during the Bundesliga title-winning campaign the season before but essentially lost his place when the Bavarian club paid a then-record fee to sign West Germany international JUPP KAPELLMANN from 1.FC Koeln and also added attacker BERND GERSDORFF from relegated Eintracht Braunschweig in the summer of 1973. A very first goal of this new term in any competition from the recently restored 24-year-old winger arrived at a fortuitous time, though, and brought Bayern level. The move had been initiated by the versatile BERND DUERNBERGER, the 20-year-old capable of deployment up front on the wing but now replacing injured West Germany international PAUL BREITNER at left back.

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A deflated trio from the reigning two-time West German Bundesliga champions of Bayern Munich — BERND DUERNBERGER (3), the guilty Dane JOHNNY HANSEN (3) as well as FRANZ ROTH (6) — all despair as the East German Oberliga champions collectively celebrate after visiting Dynamo Dresden opened the scoring in the first leg of the European Cup tie at the Olympiastadion in southern Bavaria.
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Duernberger soon delighted the Bayern Munich supporters less than ten minutes later after taking a short pass from club captain and West Germany international libero FRANZ BECKENBAUER just outside the penalty area on the left. After a parallel run across the top of the box, the youngster unleased a wicked and irrepressible right-footer which banked in off the far post and staked the Bavarians to their first lead of the night. A second strike in Europe, then, for Duernberger, who already netted in the first round against Swedish side FF Atvidabergs, and, including Bundesliga contests, marked a seventh goal of this 1973-74 campaign for the former ESV Freilassing youth product.

Dynamo Dresden refused to remain behind for long and the visitors from the D.D.R. equalized when winger RAINER SACHSE was left all alone to easily head past Bayern Munich’s West Germany international goalkeeper SEPP MAIER from close range in the 36th minute. Just six minutes later, the 23-year-old Sachse sent shock waves through the Olympiastadion, if not the whole of Europe, by nodding down another cross from the captain Ganzera out on the left to the unattended GERT HEIDLER in front. The 25-year-old central striker, who later went on to earn 12 caps and score two goals for East Germany, controlled neatly to easily beat the luckless Maier, again from tight quarters.

And so it was the underdog of the German Democratic Republic, conquerors of Italian Serie A giant FC Juventus of Turin the first round, who adjourned for the halftime break in Bavaria a goal to the good. Entirely displeased with the situation, Bayern Munich president Wilhelm Neudecker entered the home team’s dressing room at the Olympiastadion and announced the prize money of 10,000 Deutsche Mark per man would be doubled should the Federal Republic club rally to victory in the second half. Meanwhile, the trainer Lattek decided to withdraw Gersdorff, who had scored two goals before being sent off in the Wunder von Betzenberg, in favor of inexperienced midfielder ERWIN HADEWICZ, the 22-year-old who had made exactly one substitute appearance in fourteen matches for Bayern Munich in all competitions thus far this season.

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West Germany international superstar striker GERD MUELLER of Bayern Munich, who netted twice against the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics during the Final of the 1972 UEFA European Championships in Belgium, looks to settle the ball in front of Dynamo Dresden defender SIEGMAR WAETZLICH (far right), who earned a bronze medal for East Germany at the 1972 Summer Olympic Games hosted by Munich, during the first leg of the historic European Cup of Champions duel at Munich’s Olympiastadion in late October of 1973.
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If perhaps nervously, Neudecker and the rest of the Bayern Munich supporters were made to wait until less than twenty remained in the match with Dynamo Dresden for the score to be knotted once more.

But then youthful West Germany international star midfielder ULI HOENESS, the 21-year-old talent who scored such a magnificent goal against East Germany in the Olympiastadion at the 1972 Munich Summer Games thirteen months ago, floated a high ball into the box that was not properly cleared by the Dynamo Dresden defense. Although Hoffmann could not control cleanly, he wisely allowed veteran midfielder FRANZ ROTH to take over and the 27-year-old with four caps for West Germany, with the aid of a slight deflection of Ganzera, was able to shoot past Dynamo Dresden’s young goalkeeper CLAUS BODEN.

The always-reliable midfielder Roth went on to register eight goals in the Bundesliga over the course of that 1973-74 campaign, but this would stand as the career Bayern Munich man’s only strike in Europe for the season.

Finally, in the 83rd minute, the most lethal striker in all the world at that time stepped to the forefront to decide the match in the Bavarians’ favor. Midfielder RAINER ZOBEL lifted a ball from out on the left wing into the area hoping for Hoeness but none of the four players in the vicinity were able to make contact. After being allowed to disastrously bounce in the box by the heart of the Dynamo Dresden defense, West Germany international star striker GERD “der Bomber” MUELLER met the ball at the back post and finished routinely to record his third strike in Europe and 15th goal of the season in all competitions for Bayern Munich.

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Herbst ’73 : Historic Team Sheet – Bayern Munich v Dynamo Dresden

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In reality, there was no looking back for West Germany international goalkeeper and 1972 Europameisterschaft titlist SEPP MAIER (1) as Bayern Munich club captain FRANZ “der Kaiser” BECKENBAUER (5) and Dynamo Dresden Spielfuehrer FRANK GANZERA (2) lead their respective teams out onto the pitch at the Olympiastadion in Munich for the historic first leg of the European Cup of Champions second round clash on October 24, 1973.
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BAYERN MUNICH
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GK – 29 – Sepp MAIER ———————– (West Germany 66-79: 95 caps)

DF – 29 – Johnny HANSEN —————– (Denmark 65-78 : 45 caps, 3 go)
DF – 28 – Franz BECKENBAUER ——— (West Germany 65-77 : 103 caps, 14 go)
DF – 25 – Georg SCHWARZENBECK — (West Germany 71-78 : 44 caps, 0 go)
DF – 20 – Bernd DUERNBERGER

MF – 27 – Franz ROTH ———————— (West Germany 67,70 : 4 caps, 0 go)
MF – 24 – Rainer ZOBEL
MF – 21 – Uli HOENESS ———————- (West Germany 72-76 : 35 caps, 5 go)

FW – 27 – Gerd MUELLER —————— (West Germany 66-74 : 62 caps, 68 go)
FW – 26 – Bernd GERSDORFF ————- (West Germany 75 : 1 cap, 0 go)
FW – 25 – Wilhelm HOFFMANN

substitutes
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MF – 22 – Erwin HADEWICZ
for Gersdorff (46th min)

Trainer UDO LATTEK’s side were still missing regular left back, West Germany international and 1972 Europameisterschaft titlist PAUL BREITNER (48 caps, 10 goals in his career), who had been out injured since early October; another player not in the Bavarian Startelf was 23-year-old West Germany international winger JUPP KAPELLMANN, who had broken the existing Bundesliga record with his transfer costing 880,000 Deutsche Mark from 1.FC Koeln in the summer but scored just one goal on his first ten appearances (nine starts) with Bayern Munich to begin the 1973-74 campaign.

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Holding the club pennant to be exhcanged, captain FRANK GANZERA (far right), who featured for the East German Olympic XI against the West German Olympische Elf in this very same stadium at the 1972 Summer Games just thirteen months previously, looks down the line of the Dynamo Dresden players ready to contest Bayern Munich in the first leg of the historic European Cup of Champions tie at the Olympiastadion in Munich, West Germany.
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DYNAMO DRESDEN
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GK – 22 – Claus BODEN

DF – 26 – Frank GANZERA —————— (East Germany 69-73 : 13 caps, 0 go)
DF – 25 – Siegmar WAETZLICH ———- (East Germany 72-75 : 22 caps, 0 go)
DF – 22 – Hans Juergen DOERNER —— (East Germany 69-85 : 96 caps, 8 go)
DF – 21 – Christian HELM

MF – 29 – Eduard GEYER
MF – 21 – Reinhard HAEFNER ———— (East Germany 71-84 : 54 caps, 4 go)
MF – 18 – Hartmut SCHADE —————- (East Germany 75-80 : 28 caps, 4 go)

FW – 25 – Gert HEIDLER ——————– (East Germany 75-78 : 9 caps, 2 go)
FW – 24 – Horst RAU
FW – 23 – Rainer SACHSE ——————- (East Germany 77 : 2 caps, 0 go)

substitutes
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FW – 26 – Dieter RIEDEL ——————— (East Germany 74-78 : 4 caps, 0 go)
for Sachse (75th min)
DF – 21 – Udo SCHMUCK ——————— (East Germany 76-81 : 7 caps, 1 go)
for Rau (83rd min)

Trainer WALTER FRITZSCH and Dynamo Dresden had been doing without injured goal-hunter HANS JUERGEN KREISCHE, the reigning Oberliga Torjaegermeister the past three seasons who would later end his career as the third leading scorer in the history of the East Germany national team, for quite some time; another player not in the Lower Saxon Startelf was FRANK RICHTER, the 21-year-old striker who finished the 1972/73 season as the second-leading goal-scorer for the Oberliga titlist.

Dynamo Dresden : Not To Be Denied

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The yellow-shirted Startelf for East German Oberliga champion DYNAMO DRESDEN line-up on the pitch of the Olympiastadion in Munich just prior to the start of the first leg of the historic European Cup tie opposite West German titlist Bayern Munich on October 24, 1973.

left to right — Gert HEIDLER, Rainer SACHSE, Claus BODEN, Reinhard HAEFNER, Hans-Juergen DOERNER, Siegmar WAETZLICH, Christian HELM, Hartmut SCHADE, Eduard GEYER, Horst RAU and captain FRANK GANZERA
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Although most of the 50,000 spectators at Munich’s Olympic Stadium in late October of 1973, most likely, did not realize such, it was actually a noteworthy accomplishment that DYNAMO DRESDEN were even a first division football club in the first place, let alone champions of the German Democratic Republic’s Oberliga competing in the prestigous European Cup tournament.

Less than two decades earlier, SG Dynamo Dresden had made a rapid descent from national champion to regional league (fourth division) side, all as a result of the direct intervention from politically-motivated central authority at the very highest level of government.

The club had been founded in 1950 as SG Deutsche Volkspolizei Dresden representing the local police, who were actually a part of the national police force in accordance with the contemporary East German domestic structure. After the national sports society (for all police clubs) SV Dynamo was founded in April of 1953, the Dresden club was re-named SG Dynamo. During this same time period, the team led by star goal-scorer GUENTER SCHROETER celebrated its first-ever national football championship at the conclusion of the 1952-53 Oberliga campaign.

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To the north in the Soviet-occupied sector of Berlin, however, the G.D.R. Minister of State Security, the extremely influential General ERICH MIELKE, was rather unhappy. The capital city lacked a powerful football club to better represent the ideals and virtues of the superior East German Socialist state, the notorious spy master concluded. As director of the Ministerium fuer Staatssicherheit, the ambitious Mielke had complete control over all law enforcement in the country and, thus, simply transferred Dresden’ first team — all of the players, technically, being policemen — en masse to the club under his personal control, FC Dynamo Berlin.

Amazingly enough, this ‘re-assignment’ went off in January of 1955 — right smack in the middle of football season. What’s worse, the remainder of Dynamo Dresden were ordered out of the Oberliga immediately and dropped into the second division to replace SC DHfK Leipzig. Left to carry on with reserve and youth team players, Dynamo Dresden soon found itself kicking in the fourth division by the 1956-57 season.

With typical German determination and resolve, the club would recover and worked itself back into the Oberliga by the early 1960s. The team were relegated twice more during this decade but resilient Dynamo Dresden bounced right back up to the top flight, though, at the first attempt on both occasions with a pair of second divison (D.D.R.-Liga) crowns, the latter coming in 1969. Two years later, trainer WALTER FRITZSCH succeeded in steering Dynamo Dresden to its second-ever Oberliga title.

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East Germany international HAN-JUERGEN KREISCHE (10) of Dynamo Dresden ranks third on the all-time list for the D.D.R. with 22 goals. Trailing on the left here prior to the start of the historic meeting at 1974 FIFA World Cup is superstar striker GERD MUELLER (13) of Bayern Munich, the all-time leading marksman for West Germany with 68 international goals. Kreische’s father had been a teammate of Helmut Schoen, the trainer for West Germany at the first and last all-German international derby match who had simply driven across the border in his car roughly a decade before the Berlin Wall went up, on SC Dresden’s national champion sides in 1943 and 1944.
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Fortified mainly by a cast of emerging youngsters such as talented sweeper HANS-JUERGEN DOERNER and midfielder REINHARD HAEFNER, Dynamo Dresden captured yet another Oberliga title in 1973. The Saxon club, who featured a pair of defenders who had won a bronze medal at the 1972 Summer Olympic Games hosted by the city of Munich, captain FRANK GANZERA and SIEGMAR WAETZLICH, then claimed the notable scalp of Italian Serie A giant FC Juventus of Turin in the first round of the European Cup. The eye-opening draw with Bundesligakoenig Bayern Munich afforded Oberligameister Dynamo Dresden the mouth-watering opportunity to prove themselves to be the true champion of all German football.

Dynamo Dresden would, however, be forced to face the Federal Republic of Germany’s representative without its leading goal-scorer. HANS-JUERGEN KREISCHE, who would be chosen as the G.D.R.’s Footballer of the Year for 1973, had been seriously injured playing for East Germany in a World Cup qualification match with Romania the previous May and was out long-term. A major handicap, then, as Kreische had recorded 26 goals in 25 Oberliga matches during the 1972-73 campaign to become the East German Torjaegermeister for the third year running.

Undaunted and enthusiastically supported by seemingly all of the citizens in its home city, Dynamo Dresden crossed the border dividing Germany and made its way to Bavaria to face mighty Bayern Munich nevertheless.

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East Germany international HANS-JUERGEN KREISCHE of Dynamo Dresden (right), a 1972 Olympic bronze medalist who finished as Torjaegermeister in the Oberliga on four occasions over the course of his distinguished career, scores one of his 131 goals in the top flight of the D.D.R. here opposite FC Carl Zeiss Jena at the Rudolf Harbig Stadion in Saxony in early May of 1976.

Fall ’73 : Media Circus Comes To Munich

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It was, as later observed by the well-known publication Der Spiegel, a “feast for the West German media”.

Of course, the people in the Propaganda Ministry had their share of fun railing against the capitalist class enemy on the other side of the border in East Germany, too, ever since the draw had been made by UEFA at the Hotel Atlantis in Zurich, Switzerland, in early October, 1973.

Dynamo Dresden trainer WALTER FRITZSCH and ‘department manager’ DIETER FUCHS were besieged with requests for interviews by West German journalists throughtout the whole of their scouting trip to the Bundesrepublik Deutschland to watch two matches of European Cup opponent Bayern Munich later that month. The contacts had been meticulously noted and reported to the Ministry of State Security by Fuchs, who was actually a captain in the Volkspolizei and acting as the official agent for the dreaded Stasi. Only one interview was granted which, as we shall see, did little to effectively diminish either the enthusiasm or enterprise of the West German news media.

The official Dynamo Dresden party traveling to Bavaria would actually consist of 15 players, the trainer and his assistant, the team doctor and a massage therapist — along with five Stasi agents masquerading as football team officials.

Upon arrival at the Esso Motor Inn in Munich, a few members of the West German media inquired if they might be allowed to accompany the Dynamo Dresden team on its scheduled shopping trip in the city. As was mandated prior to the match by the East German Ministry of the State Security prior to the historic European Cup tie, all contact between the Dynamo delegation and decadent Westerners was to be strictly prohibited and so the requests were summarily denied. But the local journalists had jobs to do and so the Dresden team bus was “chased” down the street, as officially reported.

At the shopping district in the Munich center city, the situation degenerated even further.

Despite being told it was against the wishes of the Dynamo Dresden team, photographers swarmed like flies and snapped pictures of the uncooperative players. Reporters shamelessly and persistently made offers to buy gifts for the wives of the players back home, what would East German women behind the Iron Curtain want to have? These attempts at sheer bribery were all rebuked by the Dynamo players, although the Stasi officer did note his official report that he could not personally verify every such instance.

One West German reporter candidly confessed to one of the Dynamo Dresden ‘team officials’ that the newspaper editors had specifically instructed he and his colleagues to to come back with some photos and stories of the East German visitors at all costs or else! … “Non-compliance of the order would (place) their position in danger,” the official Stasi report later read.

The Dynamo Derby (Pt 1)

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The bright, developing midfielder MATTHIAS SAMMER of Dynamo Dresden, already a regular at 21 years of age in the national team of the Deutsche Demokratische Republik, is hauled down by his teammate with the D.D.R. Nationalmannschaft, Dynamo Berlin midfielder RAINER ERNST (right) while defender HENDRIK HERZOG observes during the East German Oberliga match contested on September 24, 1988, in front of 36,000 spectators at the Rudolf Harbig Stadion in the cultural and historical Saxony city of Dresden. (Ulrich Haessler/ADN-ZB/Bundesarchiv)
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Prior to the Mauerfall in November of 1989, the two most powerful teams in the East German top flight the last decade and a half or so were DYNAMO BERLIN and DYNAMO DRESDEN — the Oberliga’s police clubs.

Certainly not like any of the other great Derby fixtures found in Western Europe, the seeds of this unique rivalry in the Deutsche Demokratische Republik were firmly planted with the demotion of SG Dynamo Berlin to the third division at the end of the 1953-54 season.

It was determined to be in the best interests of the heroic East German socialist worker in the never-ending class struggle that a football team in the top national league should be fielded in the country’s capital city. Thus, the entire first team of Dynamo Dresden was ordered — who had been Oberliga champions for the 1952-53 season — to muster in East Berlin and report for training with re-named SC Dynamo Berlin. Not surprisingly, the re-stocked team, quickly earned promotion up to the first division in short order.

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East Germany international striker HANS-JUERGEN RIEDIGER of Dynamo Berlin, who won 41 “full” caps and earned a gold medal at the 1976 Summer Olympic Games in Montreal, Canada, races for the ball with Dynamo Dresden defender UDO SCHMUCK, who made seven appearances for the national team of the Deutsche Demokratische Republik, during the Oberliga match of April 25, 1975, at the Friedrich Ludwig Jahn Sportpark in East Berlin. (Rainer Mittelstaedt/ADN-ZB/Bundesarchiv)
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Dynamo Dresden were summarily left to carry on with the reserve team. To its credit, the club would rebuild and capture more Oberliga titles. But it would be nearly twenty years before the next championship in 1971.

Featuring defender HANS-JUERGEN DOERNER, whose 96 caps for the D.D.R. stand second for all time, Dynamo Dresden won three consecutive Oberliga titles from 1976 to 1978.

At this point, it was decided by all-powerful communist government officials that a new policy was required in order to finally defeat Imperialist Capitalism on the other side of the Anti-Fascist Protection Wall. Now, the East German socialist worker would be served well if once-more re-named FC Dynamo Berlin, who had never, ever won the Oberliga title before, claimed the domestic championship every year thereafter. According to legend, GENERAL ERICH MIELKE, the overlord of the Ministry of State Security (Staatssicherheit, or, more commonly, Stasi), appeared in the changing room after the 1979 title was won to inform the capital city club players of this latest development.