Tennis Borussia Berlin (Germany)

Tennis Borussia Berlin

Ground: Mommsenstadion

Capacity: 15,005

Club Founded: 1902

League: Oberliga NOFV-Nord - 5th Tier (current level)

Tennis Borussia Berlin, popularly called TeBe, is a football club with a proud history which attracts passionate support for its home games at the traditional Mommsenstadion.

A Potted History of Tennis Borussia Berlin

Early Years

 

The club's original name was Berliner Tennis-und Ping-Pong-Gesellschaft Borussia, with an emphasis on tennis and table tennis. Within a year, football was introduced, with Borussia quickly becoming Hertha BSC's rivals, the city's leading side.

Borussia twice lifted the Oberliga Berlin-Brandenburg title. Following World War II, TeBe became Berlin's number one but fell away and missed out on a place in the Bundesliga when it was formed in 1963.

Flirtation with the Bundesliga

However, following the then second-tier Regionalliga Berlin championship win of 1973-74, ‘ Der Veilchen’ (The Violets) won promotion to the Bundesliga before they dropped down to the newly formed 2. Bundesliga after just one season. Helmuth Johannsen’s side went straight back up, returning top-flight football to Mommsenstadion.

Again, after a season, TeBe were relegated and then dropped down another level to the third-tier Amateur-Oberliga Berlin at the beginning of the 1980s. After winning it twice, Borussia won promotion back to the 2. Bundesliga.

Financial Concerns 

The club continually struggled financially, but battled through whilst several other Berlin clubs disappeared, merged or had to be re-formed. After one season, TeBe returned to Amateur-Oberliga Berlin, where they remained until 1991-92, when they were placed in the new third-tier division, NOFV-Oberliga Nord. 

The 1992-93 campaign saw the side lift the championship and a return to the second tier. Yet again, TeBe lasted just one season at the higher level. After further reconstruction of the game in Germany, they were placed in the level-three Regionalliga Nordost. 

Licensing Issues and Relegations

Backing from a deep-pocketed sponsor allowed the club to bring in new talent and win promotion. This time, Borussia lasted two seasons before a return to Regionalliga Nord for 2000-01 after the money ran out and the club were refused a license and was forcibly relegated.

A terrible season at the turn of the new millennium saw a further relegation to the fourth tier, NOFV-Oberliga Nord, where Borussia remained until 2008-09, when the league became the fifth tier after further re-organisation. 

The Nadir

The side was soon promoted back to the fourth-level Regionalliga Nord. By the end of the 2010-11 season, TeBe found itself in the sixth-tier Berlin-Liga after a play-off defeat to SC Borea Dresden. Some relief came at the end of the 2014-15 season as the championship was claimed and promotion back to the fifth-level NOFV-Oberliga Nord.

Thiago da Silva's goals helped the side led by Thomas Brdaric to finish runners-up in 2017-18, a position replicated twelve months later as Marco Benyamina and Rifat Gelici joined in the scoring for the team trained by Dennis Kutrieb. 

Fifth-Tier Stability

The team was crowned champions and promoted to the fourth-tier Regionalliga Nordost before Markus Zschiesche arrived as trainer at Mommsenstadion. His side hovered around the bottom of the table until they were relegated in 2022-23, by which time Christopher Brauer had been put in charge of the team.

Umberto Sacchi replaced him as trainer, taking the side to sixth in NOFV-Oberliga Nord when Tom Nattermann led the scoring before Benjamin Eta was put in charge of the team.

My visit

Sunday 11th October 2015

My weekend in Berlin entered its second day. Saturday had been a cracker, and I was out of my bed at the Ibis Hotel opposite the main railway station, nice and early on a cold but bright morning. I was heading to Leipzig to attend the Germany v Georgia Euro 16 Qualifier, but I still had fish to fry in the capital.

The S5 train took me directly to Messe Sud Eichkamp. The large exhibition ground was by the right exit, but looking up the line, the towering floodlights of Mommsenstadion gave the game away to exit on the left.

The pleasant walk through some woods led towards the stadium, before joining Waldschulallee. The view of the Main Stand was already decent, but I was keen to get inside. The tennis courts were across the road, while numerous junior teams and parents were congregating behind the stand, with some going inside.

I had a brief look, but it was mainly entrances to offices and facilities, so I walked to the far end, where I found an open gate. I was soon up on the open terracing at the side of the impressive stand. The stadium had a running track around the pitch. Open terracing curved behind the ends and joined on the far side with the railway below. 

The end I was at had an electric scoreboard at the rear. The final side had a large open terrace paddock with flat standing at the back, with the fantastic old covered seated grandstand behind. One could easily imagine Mommsenstadion staging Bundesliga football in its day. Now, it was the football of Sport-Club Charlottenburg Berlin as well as TeBe.

My brief was to take the same route back. I had just enough time to fit in a look at the Friedrich-Ebert-Stadion, home of SD Croatia Berlin.