On the afternoon of January 27, 1990, the Olympic Stadium in West Berlin was filled with fan chants from East and West. They celebrated and cheered already before the match and did not let the bad January weather spoil their mood. The stands at the friendly match between the second division teams were full. Tickets on this day cost a uniform 5 Deutschmarks West and 5 Marks East. Over 50,000 fans came to witness the first derby between the two Berlin clubs after 28 years of a divided city.
The TV commentators described the stadium as having an "international match atmosphere". That is how friendly the spectators were in their celebrations. Before, during and after the match, fans dressed in blue and white and those in red and white embraced each other. In this way, they tied in with a fan friendship that arose because Hertha BSC in the West and the 1. FC Union in East Berlin had not been in direct sporting competition for decades. A popular chant among the fans was: "There are only two champions at the Spree: Union and Hertha BSC." To the GDR’s sports and party official’s annoyance, with this chant, the fans expressed their support for both clubs – and their dislike of other Berlin clubs, especially BFC Dynamo, which was considered a Stasi club.
The fact that the match ended 2:1 for Hertha was a side note in the fans’ celebration. Their euphoria was for a sense of freedom and community. Finally, even a professional who had previously played in the GDR league scored the first goal for the club from West Berlin. Without the fall of the Wall two months earlier, goal scorer Axel Kruse could not have been standing on the pitch: in the summer of 1989, he had fled to the West and, due to his existing contract, was still banned from playing. The opening of the inner-German border allowed Hertha to negotiate a transfer fee with Kruse’s former club in December 1989, and the striker was able to start for Hertha at the Olympic Stadium in January.
In the following months, many professional footballers left their clubs. In the GDR, the state assigned players their club. Now they were able to decide for themselves where they wanted to live and play. Many accepted offers from the Federal Republic. There was talk of a "sell out" and the "struggle for existence" of the GDR clubs. The cooled mood was already noticeable at the return match on August 12, 1990. Instead of 51,000 fans, only 3,500 fans watched the 2:1 victory of Union Berlin in the stadium. Ultimately, both clubs became local rivals in the wake of German reunification. It would take 29 years before the two faced each other in a first division match.
