On 4 February 1899 a group of sixteen-year-old schoolboys in Bremen founded a football team with a ball they had just won. On 4 February 2027 Werder Bremen turn 128 years old. That prize was the start of one of the best-loved stories in German football, dressed in green and white.

A prize football and an island in the Weser

The founders were pupils from Bremen merchant families. In a sports contest they won a football as a prize and decided to start their own team. The sources disagree about the event: some speak of a tug of war, others of a relay race.

The date has its own mystery too. No founding record survives, 4 February rests on an account given in 1961, and the statutes from 1912 to 1933 said 1 February. The club, however, consistently celebrates on the 4th.

The German word Werder means a river island or land built up by deposits from the water. The team took its name from the Stadtwerder, a piece of land on the river Weser where it first played and trained.

The river has stayed part of its identity ever since. From 1930 Werder played most, and later all, of its home games at the Weserstadion, the former ABTS-Kampfbahn on the Peterswerder, right beside the Weser.

Lebenslang Grün-Weiß

"Green and white for life" says the title of the club song, and those are the team's colours. For decades the home shirt alternated between green and white, but since the 2008-09 season there has been no predominantly white home shirt.

There were two surprising exceptions. In the 1971-73 seasons Werder wore red and white, the colours of the city of Bremen, and in 1976 it played in a blue shirt because of sponsor Norda. Today those shirts are true collector's items.

The diamond with the W

The first crest, in 1899, was a monogram of the letters FVW. It was followed by a green badge with the founding year, a black one with a green stripe in 1911 and a green oval with a white W in 1924.

In 1929 the diamond appeared, and with small changes it is still worn today. The only exception was a spell in the 1970s with the Bremen coat of arms. Above the crest on the shirts shines a star for the four Bundesliga titles.

Rehhagel, Schaaf and the miracles on the Weser

The championships came in 1965, 1988, 1993 and 2004, along with six German Cups. The golden era bears the name of Otto Rehhagel, who was in charge from 1981 to 1995. On 6 May 1992, at the Estádio da Luz in Lisbon, Werder beat Monaco 2-0 with goals from Klaus Allofs and Wynton Rufer to lift the Cup Winners' Cup.

Fans especially cherish the "miracles on the Weser", European games in which the team overturned ties that looked lost. In 2004 Thomas Schaaf, a former Rehhagel player, led Werder to the first double in its history. Players who wore the shirt include Rudi Völler, Karl-Heinz Riedle, Miroslav Klose, Aílton, Diego, Mesut Özil and Claudio Pizarro.

Celebrate with us

From a prize football in the hands of schoolboys to the stadiums of Europe, Werder have stayed true to the river and to their colours. Happy birthday, Werder, green and white for life!

See our collectible jerseys at sportarena.gr.

Photo: Werder Bremen's Weserstadion – Detlefrueter, Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.