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.