Dynamo Dresden

Lore & Background

The city of Dresden played a significant part in German football before and during World War II. Local football team Dresdner SC won the national championships in 1943 and 1944. The occupying Allied authorities dissolved organizations across Germany, including sports clubs like Dresdner SC, after the war as part of the process of denazification. Dresdner SC was reestablished in 1946 as SG Friedrichstadt.

However, the eastern part of Germany, including Dresden, was under Soviet control, and the sports club was considered too bourgeois by authorities. SG Friedrichstadt met ZSG Horst Zwickau at the Heinz-Steyer-Stadion in Dresden on 16 April 1950. The match would practically decide which of the two teams that would win the East German championship in the 1949–50 season. The match was attended by 60,000 spectators at the Heinz-Steyer-Stadion.

The SED First Secretary Walter Ulbricht and his entourage were also present. ZSG Horch Zwickau had been founded only one year earlier and embodied the form of organization that the SED and the state leadership wanted to promote for the sports movement they propagated. ZSG Horch Zwickau won the match 1–5 and became East German champions. The match was characterized by a very physical play from ZSG Horch Zwickau and several controversial referee decisions in favor of ZSG Horch Zwickau.

The players of SG Friedrichstadt left the pitch without greeting their opponents and thousands of angry Dresden spectators invaded the pitch. East German sports authorities took these events as a pretext to dissolve SG Friedrichstadt and delegate the players to BSG VVB Tabak Dresden. The city needed a new, ideologically safe representative in the DDR-Oberliga. BSG VVB Tabak Dresden was planned to take over the place of SG Friedrichstadt in the DDR-Oberliga.

However, most players from the former team of SG Friedrichstadt, including player-coach Helmut Schön, did not agree with the move to BSG VVB Tabak Dresden and left Dresden to join Hertha BSC or other clubs under the German Football Association (DFB). To save the place in the DDR-Oberliga for Dresden, the place was instead given to SV Deutsche Volkspolizei Dresden. SV Deutsche Volkspolizei Dresden played in the lower-tier Stadtliga Dresden at the time of the dissolution of SG Fredrichsstadt.

Did You Know?

• Dynamo Dresden's traditional kit colours are gold and black, derived from the city flag and coat of arms of Dresden.
• The club's first European appearance was in the 1967–68 Fairs Cup, where they were eliminated by Rangers.