WHY reunification failed football 

Union Berlin has already reached the Bundesliga

Well, RB Leipzig can’t count because the club has been founded after the reunification

To be honest, even the West Germany clubs can't compete in the Bayernliga.

The point you're trying to make around 9:00 is kind of misleading: In the 2014 world cup team, Kroos was the only one born in East Germany, meaning he is the only east german to win the world cup, ever. There were more people born in Poland in that squad...

Seems like the East Germans were treated like East Germans instead of getting treated like Germans.

THE problem here was to relegate everybody but two teams. WTF?

As an Englishman I found this fascinating. I always wondered why the bundesliga lacked clubs from the east.

Union Berlin is a former eastern club who now plays in the Bundesliga. They are actually pretty compelling at the moment.

Although Italy it's unified from 1861, the italian football league mirrors the same situation: with all the economical power moved from south to north, when football born here the teams founded from Rome to Palermo didn't got much success or titles: we waited something like 80 years to see Napoli win a title (from Campania); other clubs like Bari, Catania, Lecce or Avellino rarely appeared in Serie A, and if we count the clubs that took part at least 1 time in the major league that belong to south Italy we see only 14 teams on 67 (which is the 20%). The reality is that there's still no interest in bringing some wellness in this area and we still wait to economic benefits, that clearly could improve the sport (and in this case) football system.

Good video, very interesting to learn about the history of German Football!

There is a former GDR club in the Bundesliga now as Union Berlin got promoted this summer.

Also Energie Cottbus, who spent 4 seasons (if I'm not mistaken) in 1. Bundesliga.

Union Berlin is a very respectable club

I blame David Hasselhoff.

it gets better and better, but in little steps. the 3.Liga is stacked with East German Teams now .. Halle, and Magdeburg are fighting for the 2.Bundesliga, and so on .. i live in between of both Cities, and the Season Magdeburg was in 2.Bundesliga? the whole Region went crazy ..

Es ist komisch, wenn ein Deutscher einen Beitrag auf Englisch verfasst.

the magnitude of work done by this channel is tremendous the linkage between history, politics ... etc with sports is something very few people consider well done!

No. RB Leipzig is NOT an "Ost-Klub".

I loved the kind of club names in GDR(1st 2nd tier). Eisenhüttenstädter FC Stahl, Rotation Berlin, Aktivist Schwarze Pumpe etc..

The main conclusion from this video: Bring back the short shorts!

Love the use of So Here We Are by Bloc Party in the intro, great video overall!

I love the reportage, footage, history throwback, highlights split. Good quality, fascinating to watch. Nice quality. Greetings from Russia. Love your work.

Thank you for your videos that provide narrative to the Bundesliga and German football in general. As an American who is a big fan of the league, it's difficult to find English speaking media that goes over the history of German football compared of course to available media of the EPL, La Liga, and Serie A. Keep coming with the good shit!

I’ve always been fascinated by big East German clubs not reaching their potential. Being from Scotland I always knew about Dynamo Dresdenand Hansa Rostock. Are these clubs growing their way to the top?

Michael Ballack was born in Görlitz not in Karl-Mar-Stadt

Great video but RB Leipzig are everything except an East German team

Dynamo Dresden has been promoted all the way to bundesliga 2 since this video was made

Very eye-opening and informative. Thank you.

Great video! Fascinating Football history

In Leipzig gibt es nur Lok und Chemie! (In Leipzig only Lok and Chemie - Those are the two former big teams from Leipzig who have a great history and tradition)

Great, great channel, super interesting reportages... kudos!

Fantastic video. One of the best i've seen on YT

Union Berlin was a GDR-Club. It is in the Bundesliga

Interesting piece !!! 👍👍👍

I remembered when I was young waiting to for the whole week to your program called FOOTBALL MADE IN GERMANY

Hey....this was a terrific story....very interesting - thank-you!

I love how dw has a channel dedicated to football only.

The grass is not always greener on the other side.

A very good report

Bloc party in the backround lol I love it

Congratulations. Very good documentary.I also want to add that the fall of East German clubs had many reasons. One of the reasons was the huge difference between the economies and the mentality of doing things between East and West. In 1990 the organization and the ways things were done in sports, state and economy in the east must have been VERY ALIEN to the West German state. The East german secret police(STASI), the east german army, the east german factories had sport teams. After reunification and disapearence of East german police and army why would Bundesnachrichtendienst(german secret service) take dynamo teams or why would Bundeswehr take football teams( ASG Vorwärts Leipzig, ASG Vorwärts Berlin etc)? In democracy no one could force them to do it. Like no one could force private business men from the West to take football teams of East German factories that were closing down. Market economy works different from State economy. Anyway Im happy that RB Leipzig and Union Berlin are doing well in German first League and hope that other teams will join soon. It seems that little by little we learn market economy here in the east but we still have a long way to go. 40-50 years of Communism are not easy to brush aside.

Der Wahnsinn! I had no idea how badly the East German clubs got screwed by West Germany. A similar conversation occurs from time to time in the UK. The discussion is of the Scottish clubs and English clubs joining together into one league system but most people (in Scotland anyway) are 100% against it because it would threaten the very existence of some clubs.

Great Video , great Channel einfach grandios . Grüße aus Deutschland

This was really interesting. Thanks.

I love the content of this video...Felt kinda bad for the former East German players but overall this is a good video

If a team from the East builds a team from the right principles and eventually gains enough promotions to the Bundesliga it would be respected

I think Poland was the same situation like East Germany. Simple remedy for those teams is time. Working with kids, youth, learning from best clubs at west. Put efforts on community around city where the club is situated. Well, I lie to myself, in Poland we cannot make good clubs, people only focus on money jhere, but I wish all good to deutche freunden and hope you will be great cuz I remember watching with my father RUN on rtl and I remember watching Hansa Rostock is bundesliga. Great video. I subscribe this channel :)

You guys need to KEEP THIS SHIT UP! What Copa90's been doing as of late is a crime to football on YT! You and the 2 HITC channels are the best!

whats ed sheeran doing playing for germany

Red Bull Leipzig isn't an eastern football Club

Fantastich content :) well done guys

Really enjoyed this video

Glad to know some German Football History Nice Video Thanks 😄😄😄😄😄😄😄😄😄😄😄

Wasn't Dynamo Berlin the "Stasi Team"?

I live in GDR, my Football Club was in the second devision and bis were somewhere in 10. Devision or something

I don't even watch football, but I watched this video for the history. Superb video.

I do not follow football at all, and this video was really interesting to watch.

This is one of the better and largely successful attempts to explain the development of football after reunification. However portraying RB Leipzig as a positive example is a big blunder and factually totally incorrect. If anything Red Bull abused the (from a capitalist point of view) cheap opportunities to manufacture a money making machine in the former GDR. I am not an "Ossi" but after the initial enthusiasm about reunification West German arrogance took over and any East German accomplishments were brushed aside. Perhaps there were not too many of those but a reunited Germany had a golden opportunity to (literally) make the best of 2 worlds, not only in football but in society as a whole. However rich West Germany simply saw an easy possibility to become even richer. Child care, women's rights, affordable housing and a general sense of community was left on the wayside. Only now, more than 30 years later some recognize what was lost.

Good video. I knew nothing those developments. It would be good to see East German clubs make a come back.

This channel is better than Copa 90

What about Union Berlin?

Andy Thom! Andy Thom! Andy, Andy Thom! He gets the ball and he scores a goal, Andy, Andy Thom! I loved Thom when he was with Celtic. Great player! Hail Hail! 🍀🍀🍀

Great video

I used to watch Soccer Made in Germany with host Toby Charles on the U.S. PBS stations (probably 1979-80 or so). Remember Lokomotiv Leipzig, Carl Zeiss Jena, and Dynamo Dresden. Never really thought about what happened to them after those times. Interesting video to say the least.

Ich würde diesen Channel ja feiern, da die gut recherchiert und geschnitten sind, aber der extreme deutsche Akzent geht so verdammt auf die Nerven.

No matter what happens, I'll always love Bundes liga

Fun fact for you; Uwe Rosler was the last player to score a goal in a game at the Dell in Southampton (you know, the club that bought Kevin Keegan from Hamburg, are in the premiership and have Austrian, Ralph Hasenhttl as manager)....Uwe is a legend in Southampton too.

This really opened my eyes.

It´s a shame, how the merge of the leagues was managed.

I think it would be better if you speak german and have subtitles ^^

Dumb question but what's the name of the song at the beginning of the video? It's a proper earworm

It's because reunification itself has mostly failed. The "shock therapy" of the GDR has been quite traumatic on most of the former East.

4:20 "RED BULL Leipzig" hahaha

Union?

What a great video

This has been my dream to learn about the Germany football system

0:28 Uwe rösler deutsche suuuperman, shalalalalalalala, uwe rösler han kan viiiinna han, shalalalalalalalalala, uuuuuuwwwweeeeeee röööösler!

Boah die deutschen Akzente tun echt weh in den Ohren 😀

Great video, it's interesting what you learn about society and life through football. Great to learn about Germany and the impact of the fall of the wall. I looked at the German political election results in 2017 after watching this video, and wasn't surprised to see the AfD party getting significantly higher votes in the east of the country than the west. The issues the football clubs faced in East Germany are similar to its economic issues in general of the region. Hope things improve step by step!

1:33 "there are seven?!" - Chandler Bing

Now there are 2 east German teams are in the bundesliga: rb Leipzig and UNION berlin

What do you mean no East German club is a part of Bundesliga? What is Union Berlin then?

Awesome and extremely interesting story.

I am a Hibs fan and we had a player from East Germany. Matthias Jack was a CDM and he was born in Leipzig. He played for both Lok and Chemie before the wall came down he was also capped 8 or 9 times for the DDR national team, After the wall fell he moved to Fortuna Düsseldorf then us then he went back to another old East German club Erzgebirge Aue. So Hibs have the East German connection

It's quite symptomatic of how the whole reunification went. The reunification was basically East Germany accepting the West Germany's capitalist system. Logically, people, factories and football clubs weren't able to compete in such environment - people lost their jobs, factories closed and football clubs got relegated. In Germany, you call this process of deregulation and privatisation "Reunification", in my coutry we called it "running down the West". Today, 30 years after the Iron Curtain fell, we're all unified, but still not equal. If you ever wondered why is AfD so popular in eastern Germany (or far-right in the eastern block generally), start looking here for reasons.

Wismut AUE! atm second most succesful team of the former East. ;)

As an American I want to really get into bundesliga especially since both sides of my family are from Germany and I still have family there but I'm not sure what team to support

I am a really recent football fan from America, I don't know why the hell I'm watching this, but this is interesting as hell. I'm just learning about relegation and all that fun stuff. It's neat that things are being explained like this.

"Arsene Wanger"

My wife is German, and I still have a soft spot for the DDR. Beyond football, the administrative West have done more damage to the former East than most people realise

1:55 that was my first game in the stadium

9:40 "now its fantastic to live there" except for saxony, we dont talk about saxony xD

So comrades you too feel the mess the Wall's fall caused

"...And since 2005, we even have an East German Chancellor". Not something to brag about...

The audio guy needs to work on his art: having the different pieces of BGM come and go so frequently like that was quite distracting imo.

This is interesting, I didn't know that the former GDR had established clubs and successful ones at that, but yet many have never made it to the "modern" Bundesliga. I may advertise myself as a Gooner (Arsenal supporter), but when it comes to German Football I am Grun-Weiss VfL Wolfsburg all the way!!! ....and this coming after I bought a 1998-99 Wolfsburg jersey back in 2010 and finding out later they were once Deutscher Meister 2009 (to us Americans, Champions!!!) currently owning a 2002 New Beetle GLS and have been a VW enthusiast since 1998, having also owned a 1999 Beetle I got then brand new BITD. And since I will be getting ESPN+ added to my TV package I will definitely be looking forward to returning to my beloved original international football home, the Bundesliga, and yes, I WILL catch a bit of that Berlin Derby now that both Hertha and Union are finally in top flight together. Hey, the Bundesliga are more than just Bayern and Dortmund, we all know that, and its up to the two Berlin clubs, RB Leipzig and rest of the East to now prove it to the rest of the world!!!

Would be interesting to see an American style format in Germany with a Western and Eastern conference and then playoffs between the teams, even in a cup competition.

shouldve said "why reunification failed"

You have to consider that the GDR was way smaller than West-Germany both in terms of land area and population.

The way the two leagues were put together is scandalous, unbelievable.