Few clubs in the world belong so much to their fans as Union Berlin. Here supporters gave blood to save the club and built the stadium themselves. Its red shirt is, quite literally, made of sweat.

Roots in 1906

The story begins in 1906 in Oberschöneweide, a working-class district in the east of Berlin. Young footballers founded FC Olympia, which merged with other local clubs within the same year. By 1909 the name had become Union 06 Oberschöneweide.

The area was full of factories. That would play a part in the team's shirt as well.

Blue like a worker's overalls

In the early years the team wore an all-blue kit. Opponents said it looked like the overalls of the factory workers, and so the players were dubbed "Schlosserjungs", the metalworkers' boys.

The cry "Eisern Union", "Iron Union", was born around the same time. Ever since, it has been the club's motto and identity.

The switch to red

After the war, Berlin was divided and the club found itself in East Germany. There it changed names and structures several times, as happened throughout sport in the GDR. Somewhere in this period the traditional blue and white gave way to red and white.

On 20 January 1966, 1. FC Union Berlin was officially founded as a purely football club. Two years later, in 1968, it won the East German Cup, its greatest success of that era.

The people's team against the Stasi

In the GDR the great rival was BFC Dynamo, the team backed by Stasi chief Erich Mielke. Dynamo won ten league titles in a row, while Union remained the team of ordinary people.

That is why the red shirt became more than a piece of sportswear. For many fans it was a quiet way of showing that they did not belong to the regime.

Blood and concrete

In 2004 the club was in danger of losing its licence, because the federation demanded a large financial guarantee. The fans launched the campaign "Bluten für Union", "Bleed for Union". They gave blood and donated the money they received from the blood bank to the club.

In 2008 it was the stadium's turn. The Stadion An der Alten Försterei needed renovating and there was no money. More than 2,000 fans worked as volunteers, putting in around 140,000 hours of work in total.

That same season Union won the title in the first year of the new 3. Liga. The renovation was completed with the opening of the new main stand on 12 July 2013, in a stadium the fans rightly feel is their own.

From the East to Europe

On 27 May 2019 Union got past Stuttgart in the play-off and were promoted to the Bundesliga for the first time. In their first season in the top flight they showed they had not come for a stroll, with a key 1-0 win over Paderborn in the fight to stay up. Four years later, in 2023, they finished fourth and earned a ticket to the Champions League. In the group stage they faced Real Madrid, Napoli and Braga. The red shirt that once played in GDR grounds reached Europe's biggest stages.

The shirt as a piece of history

A Union Berlin shirt carries the factories of Oberschöneweide, the GDR years and the strength of a community that never abandoned its team. It is one of the few shirts that seem to belong more to the stands than to the club.

For those who love football with soul, it is a piece worth having.

See our collectible jerseys at sportarena.gr.

Photo: Union fans' choreography at the Alte Försterei – Chivista, Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.