'The metalworkers' making history in Germany

In the Bundesliga, Lewandowski's career with history or Halaand and his Dortmund against Eintracht to enter the Champions League have taken the spotlight. But In the big leagues there are many stories to tell and that of Unión Berlin, a team where values ​​are more important than goals, deserves a surface. It is their performance on the pitch that has made them qualify for Europe (Conference League) in its second campaign in the German elite and its strong principles which make it a special club.

Seventh, just two points behind the Europa League that marked a giant like Bayer Leverkusen and ahead of teams with a Champions flavor like Borussia Mönchengladbach and historical ones like Stuttgart or the descended Werder Bremen and Schalke 04, perhaps the greatest pride metalworkers it was to finish ahead of HerthaAs the first team in the capital, as well as being the first team from East Berlin to rub shoulders with titans such as Bayern, Dortmund and company in the first division.

Barely two years ago they celebrated their first promotion to the Bundesliga, the first foray into the first division since German reunification in 1990. Now, thanks to the solidity of the bloc and the good performance of men like Max Kruse, the team's top scorer with 11 goals, has made history and will compete beyond German borders for the first time. Curiously, in a year where the pandemic has deprived the stands of the Alte Forsterei of their voice … and of their owners.

In the face of trouble, devotion to a shield

And it is that, after the fall of the wall, the Berlin Union suffered a tremendous financial crisis that it did not allow them to rise in the category despite their sporting performance, something that managed to appease with the arrival of a sponsor. But what really set the alert was the state of the stadium, already precarious at that time. Many years later, in the 2007-08 season, it was the fans themselves who managed to save their home and more than 2,300 fans of the club became improvised workers and participated in the remodeling of its temple.

That was the first phase of the work. In the second, the fan also played a fundamental role, since through participations of 500 euros they managed to complete the financing plan necessary to finish the work. Hence, we slip that the stands of the Alte Forsterei belong to those who fill it with joy.

Union make force

'Eisern Union', Unión de Hierro, is the anthem shouted by fans who have come to to bleed for your club. And it is that the word union is not only part of the name. In 2004, when the coffers were the worst, sponsors were not the only ones to contribute and 'Bleed for Union' took shape. Donate blood to raise money and thus reduce the debt of the whole Berlin. One more sample of a club that breathes differently, which survived in the German Democratic Republic during the Cold War and competed against a Dynamo Berlin that was favored by the politics of the time.

His nickname, the one we alluded to paragraphs ago, the metalworkers, is the literal translation of Die Schlosserjungs and it comes from the real origin of the club, before its split after World War II. The current uniform is red, but at the beginning of the 20th century (founded in 1906) it was blue, an outfit similar to that worn by workers in the metal industry. in Oberschöneweide, the district in which the club germinated. The passage of time has not smoothed out the worker aroma that the Berlin Union breathes and with the values ​​of its origin more than alive, the Eisern Union it will be heard in Europe next season.