Historic Defeats
The Old Lady’s heaviest home defeats: as of
The Old Lady’s heaviest home defeats: as of December 2019, those are two 0:6 losses.
December 2019, those are two 0:6 losses. On March 17, 2012, Hertha lost 6:0 at home to Bayern Munich on Matchday 26. Hertha also lost by the same score at home to Hamburger SV on Matchday 21 of the 1979/80 season.
Biggest away defeat: in the Berlin disaster season
Biggest away defeat: in the Berlin disaster season of 1990/91, Hertha were hammered 6:0 away at Werder Bremen on Matchday 24....
of 1990/91, Hertha were hammered 6:0 away at Werder Bremen on Matchday 24.
Fourteen goals conceded! Hertha BSC have never let
Fourteen goals conceded!
in more goals in a competitive match than they did on June 2, 1957. In a final-round game for the German championship, the Berlin club lost 14:1 to 1. FC Kaiserslautern in Wuppertal. Kaiserslautern’s 1954 World Cup winners Fritz and Ottmar Walter as well as Horst Eckel scored six of the 14 FCK goals.
Longest losing streak: eight defeats in a row
Longest losing streak: eight defeats in a row from Matchday 2 to Matchday 9 of the 2009/10 season....
from Matchday 2 to Matchday 9 of the 2009/10 season.
Most defeats in a season: 23 in 1990/91.
Most defeats in a season: 23 in 1990/91....
BSC — Financial Stability Score
Hertha ist das Berliner Paradox: Größter Markt Deutschlands, aber chronisch underperforming. Das Windhorst-Desaster hat die Bilanz zerstört. Der Weg zurück führt über Jahre disziplinierter 2.BL-Arbeit.
Bitter Moments
Longest run without a win in professional football:
Longest run without a win in professional football: in 1990/91 Hertha BSC went from Matchday 16 to Matchday 32 without a single victory....
in 1990/91 Hertha BSC went from Matchday 16 to Matchday 32 without a single victory.
The 2012 relegation playoff collapse ranks among the
The 2012 relegation playoff collapse ranks among the club’s low points because of the circumstances.
club’s low points because of the circumstances. Hertha BSC snatched a playoff spot on the final day of the 2011/12 Bundesliga season with a 3:1 win over Hoffenheim – only to suffer one of the most painful defeats in club history against Fortuna Düsseldorf, third in the second division. The 2:1 first-leg defeat in the Olympiastadion could not be overturned in the return match.
It ended 2:2.
Dyskobolia Grodzisk Wielkopolski: internationally, only the ...
Dyskobolia Grodzisk Wielkopolski: internationally, only the first-round UEFA Cup exit to the Polish club with the reporter-unfriendly name Dyskobolia Grodzisk Wielkopolski comes close to that disaster.
Dyskobolia Grodzisk Wielkopolski: internationally, only the first-round UEFA Cup exit to the Polish club with the reporter-unfriendly name Dyskobolia Grodzisk Wielkopolski comes close to that disaster. The two matches ended 0:0 and 0:1. Hertha were out.
When Kaiser Wilhelm II was still on the
When Kaiser Wilhelm II was still on the throne: the worst season of all came long before the European Cup was even invented.
throne: the worst season of all came long before the European Cup was even invented. Kaiser Wilhelm II was still residing in the city when the club finished the 1894/95 season in the top division of the Deutscher Fußball- und Cricket-Bund with 0:26 points and a 2:72 goal difference, going straight back down.
The 1980s: the most embarrassing decade in Berlin
The 1980s: the most embarrassing decade in Berlin was the 1980s.
was the 1980s. After playing in the UEFA Cup in 1979, the decline reached an early peak in May 1980. Level on points with Bayer Uerdingen, Charlottenburg’s club finished the Bundesliga season but went down because their goal difference was two goals worse, despite what was then the highest points tally ever by a relegated team.
Modern Low Points
Promotion came back after two years. But in
Promotion came back after two years.
1982/83 the Berliners finished bottom of the Bundesliga and were relegated again. The elevator downwards really started moving then.
After three seasons in the second division, a 2:0 defeat at Alemannia Aachen in May 1986 sent the club down into the amateur Oberliga.
From then on Hertha usually played its home games in the Poststadion in front of no more than 2,000 spectators. The highlight of that decade of horror was the 1987/88 top game against Türkiyemspor Berlin, which drew 12,000.
Number three in the city: at times Tennis
Number three in the city: at times Tennis Borussia Berlin and Blau-Weiss 90 threatened to push the club down to third place in Berlin.
Borussia Berlin and Blau-Weiss 90 threatened to push the club down to third place in Berlin. In 1986/87 Hertha BSC won the Oberliga Berlin but failed in the promotion playoffs. A year later, on June 19, 1988, Berlin returned to the 2. Bundesliga and, just in time for German reunification and backed by money from film-rights trader UFA Sports, launched their most successful post-war era apart from the 1970s.
The title thrown away: the missed championship in
The title thrown away: the missed championship in 2008/09 was a financial disaster for the club.
2008/09 was a financial disaster for the club. In spring 2009 all of Berlin was dreaming of the Meisterschale. A BILD editor even carried a copy through the Brandenburg Gate in anticipation of the victory parade manager Dieter Hoeneß wanted.
None of it happened.
A 3:1 loss to a resurgent Borussia Dortmund and a 0:0 draw with Schalke on Matchday 33 cost Lucien Favre’s side a possible title. It got even worse: a 4:0 defeat away to already relegated Karlsruhe knocked Berlin out of the Champions League places.
Number one in Berlin? Usually yes, but at
Number one in Berlin?
times that is wishful thinking on Hertha’s part. Particularly bitter was the cup defeat to western Berlin neighbors Tennis Borussia Berlin in the DFB Cup round of 16 on October 28, 1998. The then second-tier Violets blackened Hertha’s eye and won 4:2 in the Olympiastadion.
The same happened again in autumn 2019 when Hertha lost the first Bundesliga derby against Union Berlin in Köpenick 1:0.
The Old Lady produced many embarrassing results in
The Old Lady produced many embarrassing results in the Bundesliga years.
the Bundesliga years. The season that Hertha’s rivals probably enjoyed most was 1990/91. In the club’s first Bundesliga season after reunification, Hertha achieved next to nothing. Established arrivals like Uwe Rahn, Armin Görtz and André Winkhold did not come off – and in the end the team finished 18th.
Worst final placing: 1990/91 – as before in
Worst final placing: 1990/91 – as before in 1982/83 and again in 2009/10 – Hertha went down as bottom club....
1982/83 and again in 2009/10 – Hertha went down as bottom club.
Worst goal difference: 84 goals conceded and a
Worst goal difference: 84 goals conceded and a minus-47 goal difference were surely not what veteran goalkeeper Walter Junghans had in mind....
minus-47 goal difference were surely not what veteran goalkeeper Walter Junghans had in mind.
Fewest points: in 1990/91 Berlin took just 17
Fewest points: in 1990/91 Berlin took just 17 points, or 14 under the old two-point system.
points, or 14 under the old two-point system. It was the worst overall return in the traditional club’s history and the third-worst in Bundesliga history.
Fewest wins: Hertha BSC managed only three victories
Fewest wins: Hertha BSC managed only three victories in 1990/91.
in 1990/91. At home there was just one – a 1:0 win over UEFA Cup participants Eintracht Frankfurt. Away from home the Berliners stormed the arenas in Nürnberg and Krefeld-Uerdingen.
Most defeats: Hertha suffered 23 losses in 1990/91
Most defeats: Hertha suffered 23 losses in 1990/91 – a club negative record for the two-time German champions....
a club negative record for the two-time German champions.