Fußball 101: Fan Friendships

Bayern and Bochum. Nürnburg and Schalke. Karlsruhe and Hertha. How did these fanbases become famous friends?

About an hour into Hertha Berlin’s first game of the season, the fans on the Ostkurve do something that would make most football fans raise an eyebrow. They start singing the opposition’s name.

On the other side of the Olympiastadion, the Karslruhe fans return the favour. For the next few minutes, the two sets of ‘rival’ supporters engage in a mutual display of respect and affection. Since the 1970s, these two fanbases have engaged in a ‘Fußballfreundschaft’; a ‘football friendship’ to the English speakers.

Across Germany, seemingly unconnected clubs enjoy warm relationships; meeting with each other in semi-official events and entirely informal piss-ups, before walking to the game together and enjoying each other’s company.

On this sunny summer’s day, KSC fans mingle with the BSC home fans, demonstrating their badges in the home end with absolutely zero fear of reprisal. The Karlsruhe supporters unveil multiple flags demonstrating the insignia of both clubs. A few rows in front of me, some young lads are sticking ‘freundschaft’ stickers on their friends.

It goes without saying that this idea is anathema to most English fans. I wouldn’t go as far as to say there are no friendly relationships between fan bases in the UK, but they are often drawn along lines of mutual hatred or hyper-specific short-term circumstances. For example, when Brighton and Charlton used to play each other regularly, it would only take five or ten minutes before The Valley or The Amex would rise as one for a resounding chorus of ‘Stand up, if you hate Palace’; the enemy of my enemy is my friend after all. While we were in the midst of our battle with our owner Roland Duchatalet, the Seagulls faithful joined us for a protest. One of my favourite memories as a Charlton fan is singing ‘Twist and Shout’ with Coventry City fans outside the directors entrance to The Valley as we both railed against our respective club hierarchies before both sets of supporters threw toy pigs on the pitch. Still, that never led to a long-term or sustained ‘friendship’.

So where does this tradition come from? How do clubs mark their ‘friendships’? And how does it feel for a newly transplanted Hertha fan to experience their first taste of the festivities?

The oldest friendship exists between Bayern Munich and VfL Bochum. Again, these two clubs seemingly have little in common. Much like Hertha and Karslruhe (700km), there’s a significant distance between the two (620km). They are hardly equals in terms of success or support: Bayern have won 33 Bundesliga titles and boast more than 400,000 members while Bochum’s roughly 30,000 mitglieder watch their side routinely yo-yo between the first and second tier.

This unlikely partnership was formed on the 3rd November 1973, when a Bayern side including Franz Beckenbauer and Sepp Maier won 1-0 away at Bochum thanks to a goal by Uli Hoeneß. A group of Bayern supporters were attacked after the game following unrest in the stadium. The ‘Bochumer Jungen’ (Bochum Boys’), ironically now the oldest fan group affiliated with the club, stepped in, protecting the Bayern fans before taking them to a local tavern for a conciliatory drink. The story goes that those two groups of fans exchanged details, and arranged to meet up for future festivities.

In the return fixture the Jungen did a lap around the Olympiastadion. They carried a banner saying ‘VfL Fanclub greets FC Bayern’ cementing a relationship that is still going strong. In 2023, Bayern’s Sudkurve marked the 50th anniversary of the union with a tifo, while the Bochum block displayed a banner that read “Found decades ago - connected forever.”

Some three years later, a group of Hertha fans were warmly welcomed on an away trip to Karlsruhe. The KSC faithful offered them transport to the ground from the train station, dropped them off at the pub en route, and sent them home with a going away beer, even after the Old Lady won 3-0 in their backyard.

In the following years, a number of other special bonds between football clubs began to pop up. Some are ingrained, others are more like situationships between Ultras groups.

For example, nobody can really explain why Borussia Dortmund and F.C. Köln are supposed to be pals. Anybody’s best guess is their mutual dislike of Borussia Möchengladbach and Schalke, as well as Köln’s role in helping BVB to the title in 2011 when they beat Bayer Leverkusen in the final weeks of the season.

Conversely, Schalke and FC Nürnberg’s bond is deep. Similarly to Bochum and Bayern, the relationship starts with a group of fans hitting it off, however, this time there’s no wanton violence. Just the threat of it.

The legend goes that two Nürnberg, Monika and Stefan, met a Schalke fan called Peter on a train. They struck up a conversation, and agreed to meet when the clubs next played each other. This friendship broke down a rivalry between the two sides. In an interview with the Schalke official website, Peter says he and 20-30 friends from Gelsenkirchen were met with “pure hatred” on a visit to Bavaria shortly after, but once their impending beatdown was diffused by their hosts, the foundations of a burgeoning relationship were laid. That was further solidified when Peter and his friends protected travelling Red Devils fans from other Schalke fans during an away game. So began a 40 year relationship which has seen the two sides release collaborative away strips, coverage by international media and countless beers sunk between the two parties. Both clubs support the other in their respective rivalries, with Nürnburg adopting a distaste for BVB and Schalke harbouring animus for Greuter Fürth.

Markus Weisner, a Schalke fan who lives in Nürnburg, summarised the relationship between the two clubs in an interview with the BBC as, “a very special friendship. In my opinion it is unique. Every moment in the stadium is special.”

Certain friendships have fallen by the wayside, too. Hertha and Union fans fostered a friendship across the Berlin Wall during the 1970s and 80s. When the wall fell, a special friendly between the two sides was held to celebrate reunification of Haupstadt and Germany as a whole. The breakdown of that friendship is probably overblown, with many fans still viewing their existing rivalries as more significant (Hertha with Tennis Borussia and Union with BFC Dynamo), but any inkling of warmth between the two has disintegrated as they started to play each other regularly in the 2010s.

Listen to Episode 1 of our podcast, to hear Jacob Sweetman break down the relationship and history between Hertha and Union.

How intensely the friendships are celebrated can vary from game-to-game, especially if there’s been a lengthy spell without the two sides facing each other. As we’ll see below, the celebrations between BSC and KSC fans were fervent in the 2021/22 season, as the two clubs hadn’t faced off for 13 seasons. Tifos are almost certainly a given, while ultras will sing each other's songs.

Of course, that doesn’t mean the friendship extends to the action on the pitch. On the final day of the 2007/08 season, Schalke consigned Nürnburg to relegation while chasing Champions League qualification. Last year, Bochum spoiled Bayern’s 125th anniversary celebrations with a 3-2 win. It seemed that Karslruhe and Hertha were happy to play out their recent fixture with friendship in mind; neither team seemed willing to piss the other off in a lacklustre 0-0 draw.

That isn’t to say attending that game wasn’t enjoyable. Often, football atmospheres are defined and ranked by the inherent animosity generated between two sets of fans. But what I saw at the Olympiastadion was unlike anything I’d seen at a football match before. The lack of any danger probably meant families felt more comfortable bringing their kids. It was loud, but relaxing at the same time. Would I want it at every game? No. But that’s what makes these friendships a special and welcome part of the German football experience.

POV: An English football fan’s first experience of the ‘Fußballfreundschaft’

In the spirit of reaching out and forming new friendships in football, I’ve recruited Joey Corlett to write a little first-person case study for this newsletter. Joey is a Hertha fan, and a member of the ‘Hertha Inters’, a group of international fans united by their love for the Old Lady. Here, Joey recalls his first experience of watching BSC take on KSC back in the 2022/23 season.

Joey hosts The Journeymen Podcast, and also writes for The Terrace Edition. Give him a follow on Instagram for outstanding photos of Berlin’s best grassroots grounds, the barrios of Buenos Aires and Hertha away days.

As Hertha BSC tragically fell into the Bundesliga 2, there weren’t many positives to take, but one of them was finally meeting old friend Karlsruher SC in the 2nd tier. At that point, it had been 14 years since their last competitive meeting and boy, everyone was ready to rekindle that connection.

I was still in the early stages of being seduced by the Old Lady, but it was firmly recommended by friends to make the effort for this game.

Talk of a pre-match march was tossed around with excitement, but it was way more than just that. As we met up by the western S-Bahn stop Messe Nord ICC, with nightfall swamping over us on a cold November night, we made our way to the fabled meeting point of Theodor Heuss Platz. Traffic was still flowing through the busy roundabout, but even 500m away walking up the hill, it was clear to see this was more than just a few fans meeting up to revive old stories of the past. This was a chance for the latest generation of Hertha & KSC supporters to live one of the oldest fan friendships in Germany.

The police eventually locked off the roads as 40,000+ fans rocked up early for the procession to the Olympiastadion with as much pyro, smokebombs and fireworks as you could imagine. The clinking of beers, various chants bouncing around, with everything melting together in a perfect harmony. It was a joyous occasion that blew my mind as an English fan, confused with the idea of two sides ever possibly being 'friends'.

We marched together the last 3km to the stadium, various rounds of flares and chants choreographed into the route that got everyone bouncing or involved. All without a single hint of trouble or problems, considering we were side by side with that night's opposition fans.

The game ended 2-2 under the lights. Both sides of the stadium with even more displays of pyrotechnics and even shared banners. An all-round tremendous 1st experience with 'Die Freundschaft'.