IF YOU GODOWN TO THE WOODS TODAY. ..
In the tranquil neighbourhood of Altglienicke, eight miles south-east of Berlin’s world famous techno scene, FFT is on the hunt for a disco.
We’re no longer the party animals we once were, but it’s always happy somewhere, right? Alas, this is no time for a boogie: we’re here to meet Lutz ‘Disco’ Hovest, a veteran of more than 200 matches for Union Berlin between 1979 and 1987. We step into the warmth of the suburban bungalow that the former forward shares with his wife, and through to the lounge. Time for a history lesson.
“Back when I played for the club, I never would have imagined Union being above Hertha in the Bundesliga going into a derby game,” says the player who earned his moniker after telling the club’s matchday programme that he was a big Bee Gees fan. Countless interviewees have explained to FFT how they never thought X or Y would ever have been possible. Hovest really means it, though. When Disco played, it was literally out of the question…
BUILT THE WALL
Nowadays, Berlin’s two biggest teams are separated by 14 miles of motorway running around the outskirts of the city – but they were once kept apart by more than tarmac. Until 1989, Union and Hertha were effectively located in different countries, divided into East and West Germany by the Berlin Wall. Erected in 1961 in order to prevent growing defections from the Eastern Bloc, the 155km structure cut off capitalist West Berlin from the surrounding socialist German Democratic Republic (GDR). It would become the physical embodiment of the Cold War.
Running through the heart of the city, the Wall split communities, families, friends and, of course, football clubs. Today, the Berlin derby is one of the most explosive dates in the German football calendar. But there hasn’t always been such hostility between the two teams.
“A lot of people on both sides longed for a united Germany while the Wall was up,” Gerald Karpa, Union Berlin’s club historian, revealed ahead of our visit to Disco’s house. “They would show great support to one another through football. On matchdays at the Stadion An der Alten Forsterei [Union’s ground], you would occasionally hear a roar midway through a game, seemingly for no reason. Then one corner of the ground would break into a song: ‘Ha Ho He, Hertha BSC!’
“Some Union fans listened to Hertha’s matches on transistor radios and celebrated whenever a
