The term cult club is used way too much, but we can't describe Union Berlin different. The club of the punk scene of East Berlin and the resistance against the GDR regime is an experience on itself, if you can get a hand on a ticket.
In 1920 the precursors of the club already played here, and for Union there hasn't ever been another home. You can't simply imagine this club in another stadium, leave alone a modern arena. The Stadion an der Alten Försterei is a great football stadium, with just 22.000 places, of which 80% being standing places. The location on the edge of a forest gives the stadium something fairylike, especially at evening matches.
At the front side of the stadium (at the street An der Wuhlheide) stands a quite remarkable independent villa, white with red window frames, in the club colors of Union. It's the Alte Försterei, the old forester's house. This was for years the head quarter of the club.
We love those giants electric scoreboards which you see in some of the older German stadiums, but at Union they have an even more beautiful way to display the score. Between Sektor 2 and 3 there's a little brick house that's being used as scoreboard: when a goal is scored, a man opens the windows and hangs another number on the wall. That the stadium has gotten fancy video walls in the meantime doesn't bother him, he keeps doing his job dutiful.
On the outside of the stadium (behind block T) there's a giant, red helmet. It's the 'Stadionbauerdenkmal', a monument in honor of the fans who voluntarily took care of a big part of the renovations of the stadium.
The biggest real prize that Union Berlin every won did it win in 1968, when they managed to win the Cup of the GDR, in that time the national cup and in that manner a serious prize. In front of the main entrance is the 'Pokalsieger-Denkmal' created, in honor of the 50th birthday of this win.
One of the best-known fan cafes of Union Berlin, the 'offside trap'. It's at the Hämmerlingstraße, right next to the youth academy of the club and a couple of minutes walking from the stadium.
When you get of the train at Köpenick, you're directly on the good place. Here you'll find several Union-cafes where it's fun before and after matches. On the corner of the Stellingdamm and the Mahlsdorfer Straße you'll find for example ‘Bierstübchen Hauptmann von Köpenick’, which has a beautiful collage with match posters of Union.
Panenka is a bar in a different district of East Berlin, but really worth a visit. Here you really see the punk image of the club, with many anti-fascist utterances and skulls on the wall. The wall are also decorated with lots of shirts of Union Berlin, but also from other befriended clubs. Panenka is at Weichelstraße 27 in the district Friedrichshain, a little bit more to the centre of Berlin.
Union Berlin is booming and therefore, the stadium will always sell-out. It's the only downside to the club, that it's so hard to get tickets for home matches of Union. A requirement to get tickets is that you become member of the club, which cost you just 10 euros and you can do on the official website of the club. The tickets that will come available for sale are being divided under the members who subscribed for the raffle for this specific match.
There's hardly any parking space at the stadium. What you can do is park your car at park and ride Altglienicke, from where you take the S-Bahn to station Schöneweide. Here you can change to tram 60 or 67, which bring you to the Alte Försterei.
From the city centre of Berlin you best take the S-Bahn as well. Line S3 passes the Hauptbahnhof, the Alexanderplatz and the Ostbahnhof, and if you take it in direction of Erkner you get off at Köpenick. You're immediately in the heart of the Union district and the stadium is a 10 minute walk from the station.
Images: BSR Agency, Coddou
