🇩🇪 04 Berlin (Germany)

Wacker 04 Berlin (Germany)

Wacker 04 Berlin. A colourful football club, and one that people would phrase as ‘Always the bridesmaid, never the bride, although they did have a few success stories. Here is the overall one.

Wacker 04 Berlin originally started out named as Reinickendorfer FC West when they were founded on the 25 July 1904. The club then merged with Tegeler FC in 1908 and renamed themselves SC Wacker 04 Tegal. The clubs’ colours were purple and white, and they played at the Wackerplatz. The club played in the Oberliga Berlin-Brandenburg, the topflight division of the Prussian Province of Brandenburg, which included Berlin. The club remained competitive throughout the 1920’s never really challenging for the title, but never getting related either. They then moved to the Gauliga Berlin – Brandenburg league from 1933 onwards until 1945. The Gauliga Berlin – Brandenburg league was the highest football league in the provinces of Brandenburg and Berlin, both in the German state of Prussia. The first season saw Wacker relegated, but bounced back in 1934, gaining promotion at the first time of asking. They didn’t last long in the topflight and were relegated during the 1939-40 season. It seemed that Wacker were a bit of a yo-yo club as they once again gained immediate promotion and remained in the First Division until World War II ended and so did the Gauliga Berlin – Brandenberg division, as it was disbanded in 1945. Wacker competed in the newly formed league, the Oberliga Berlin, but not as SC Wacker 04 Tegal. Instead, the club went with the name SG Reickendorf-West. The club stayed in the division until 1956 when they were eventually relegated. But just as before, the club gained immediate promotion, and played in the Oberliga until 1964 when the league formats were changed again, and the Bundesliga was formed. Wacker went on to play in the Regionalliga Berlin, one of five regional leagues set up, Berlin, Nord, South, Southwest, and West. The five league champions of each region, and the runners-up from the Nord, West, South and Southwest groups went on to play in a promotion play-off to decide who would gain promotion to the Bundesliga. The Berlin group was only given one place because it had significantly lesser teams competing in it.

The first season of the Regionalliga Berlin saw Wacker 04 finished 3^rd, winning fifteen, drawing four and losing eight. The 1964-65 season saw Wacker finish 4^th out of the ten-team group, and way behind the three that finished above them, winning nine games, drawing four and losing thirteen. They finished a total of 17 points behind third placed SC Tasmania 1900 Berlin, a club who gained promotion to the Bundesliga that year. Hertha BSC had their license revoked and therefore were expelled from the Bundesliga, leaving a space open. With Tennis Borussia Berlin losing in the promotion play-offs and the second placed Spandauer SV declining the chance to be promoted, it went to the third placed team. The 1965-66 season saw an extension of the Regionalliga Berlin to 16 clubs, making the prospect of winning it even harder than before for Wacker. Add in the fact Hertha Berlin’s inclusion, a club that were far superior to every other club in the Berlin region at the time, Wacker had to be content with yet another fourth placed finish, winning sixteen, drawing four and losing ten games that season, Hertha Berlin where, of course the champions of the division, winning twenty-nine games and only losing one all season. However, they failed to gain promotion back to the Bundesliga via the play-offs and would yet again be competing in the Regionalliga Berlin the following year. The 1966-67 season provided the same outcome, with Hertha Berlin SC finishing top, winning twenty-eight games, drawing one and only losing one. Wacker 04 Berlin had to settle for 6^th spot, winning fifteen, drawing five and losing ten. On the field they were improving, with a goal difference of plus seventeen. The 1967-68 season saw Hertha Berlin, who had failed once again in the previous year to gain prometon to the Bundesliga via the play-offs, finish top of the division, winning twenty-six, drawing three and losing just game. This time, however, they would be successful in the play-offs and gain promotion back to the Bundesliga, leaving the Berlin division wide open for the next season. Wacker 04, who had finished fourth that season, winning seventeen, drawing six and losing seven, had high hopes for the next season, and were looking to push for promotion to the Bundesliga themselves.

But it wasn’t to be in the 1968-69 season, as they finished fourth once again, winning nineteen, drawing five and losing six. The signs were still encouraging as they finished the season with the best goal difference (+32) and the second highest scorers (93). The following season saw the division reduced to fourteen clubs from the sixteen that had competed in previous years. This didn’t help Wacker’s cause and they finished fifth place, winning thirteen, drawing eight and losing five. However, in the 1970-71 season, they finally qualified for the play-offs, finishing second in the Berlin division, winning twenty-four, drawing six and losing three. They finished behind Tasmania 1900 Berlin by ten points and just one point above third placed Blau-Weib 90 Berlin. They were placed in Group 2 of the pay-offs, but it proved to be too much of a step up as they finished bottom of the pile, winning only one game and losing seven. But this only made the club even more determined to reach the promised land of the Bundesliga and in the 1971-72 season they topped the Regionalliga Berlin by just one point. In fact, the top four clubs that year were only separated by three points. Wacker had won twenty-four, drawn five and lost four games that season. With their previous experience of the play-offs the year before, they were better prepared, however they were not good enough once again, finishing fourth out of the five clubs in their group, winning only twice and losing five times.

The 1972-73 season saw the club gain qualification for the play-off’s for the third year in a row, coming second in the Berlin Division, winning twenty-three, drawing one and losing eight. But once again they found themselves out of their depth, finishing bottom of Group 2 and only winning one game. The 1973-74 season was like a game of Russian Roulette, with the two teams who came first and second being the only two clubs who would not be relegated to the Oberliga Berlin, as German football was looking to re-organise it’s football pyramid, with the introduction of the 2. Bundesliga. Of course, finishing second as Wacker 04 Berlin did that season, also meant they would qualify for the play-offs and have a chance of gaining entry to the top division, the 1. Bundesliga. But once again they failed in their attempt, finishing fourth out of the five clubs in Group 5 and the club had to settle for a place in the newly formed 2. Bundesliga.

The 2. Bundesliga was split into two different divisions, the Nord and the Sud, with the winners of both divisions gaining promotion to the Bundesliga while both second placed clubs in each division faced off to play each other in a play-off. Wacker Berlin didn’t have to concern themselves with any of this, finishing in 13^th out of the 20 clubs in the Nord division, winning thirteen, drawing seven and losing eighteen. The 1975-76 season saw the club flirt with relegation, finishing only a point out of the drop zone, winning eleven games, drawing nine and losing eighteen. But it was just a reprieve as the next season, 1976-77, saw the club relegated to the Amateurliga Berlin when they finished 18^th out of 20, winning only nine games, drawing nine games and losing twenty that season. They didn’t stay in the Amateurliga Berlin for very long, becoming champions in the 1977-78 season and gaining promotion back to the 2. Bundesliga Nord division. However, in true Wacker 04 Berlin style, they were related again, coming dead last in the 20-club division, winning just eight games all season, drawing five and losing twenty-five. It would be the last time Wacker 04 Berlin would compete at such a high level, with the club falling down the divisions for the next decade, playing their football in the third and fourth divisions of German football. In the end, in 1994, while playing in the Verbandsliga Berlin, the fourth division, the club was declared bankrupt and therefore dissolved, meaning that there was no more Wacker 04 Berlin. The fans, however, continued their support elsewhere and joined up with BFC Alemannia, who then briefly unofficially renamed the club BFC Alemannia 90 Wacker, but reverted back to it’s original name in 2013.

Wacker 04 Berlin is the poster club for Yo-Yo clubs all over the world of football, going up and down the leagues throughout it’s history until it just fell down too deep of a hole that it couldn’t recover. They never reached the dizzy heights of the Bundesliga, the top division in Germany, but can still say they were founding members of 2. Bundesliga and therefore have cemented themselves in German football history. What I found most interesting about them was the fact that, when in the Berlin division they always seemed to hold their own, and gaining qualification to the play-offs in three consecutive seasons shows that in Berlin, at least, they were on the better quality sides around. However, their play-off results and then their results in 2. Bundesliga would suggest that maybe the clubs in Berlin were not as good as elsewhere in the country at the time. Wacker 04 Berlin defiantly gave their fans something to cheer about, and did compete in the German cup as well, although never passing the second round. It is a club that, if they were still around today, would orobably still be playing in the lower divisions of German football, or maybe not? Maybe they would have seen a huge improvement and risen through the leagues, eventually reaching the Bundesliga to face clubs like Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund. It could have happened, but lets be honest, if they had of reached the Bundesliga, they would have probably been relegated the season after, and then promoted again. Then relegated. That was just the Wacker 04 Berlin way wasn’t it.