Hertha BSC is currently experiencing drastic changes. President Werner Gegenbauer and his deputy Thorsten Manske resigned last week, Managing Director Ingo Schiller has announced his departure for the fall. On Thursday, the Berlin Bundesliga team was able to report a first entry with the new coach Sandro Schwarz. On top of that. Just a few hours later, Hertha announced another personnel change at the top.

Torsten-Jörn Klein, 58, is no longer chairman of the club’s supervisory board. The committee was re-elected at the general meeting on Sunday. At its constituent meeting on Wednesday, the five members now elected Klaus Brüggemann, 63, as the new chairman of the supervisory board. Scott Körber, 50, will act as his deputy and successor to the former Hertha professional Andreas Schmidt.

“I would like to thank all members of the Supervisory Board and in particular the previous Chairman, Dr. Klein for the trusting cooperation,” Brüggemann is quoted as saying in a statement from the association. “I hope that the supervisory board will continue to be a role model in the association for constructive work and respectful cooperation.” For Klein, the decision of the board is tantamount to a dramatic loss of importance. Until the general meeting last Sunday, he was even considered a potential successor to Werner Gegenbauer. He was explicitly asked by a member why he was not running for the presidency. Klein, who lives in Hamburg, admitted that he had toyed with the idea two years ago, but then said clearly: “I have no intention of applying to be President of Hertha BSC.”

The previous head of the supervisory board once again demonstrated his eloquence at the general meeting and cleverly got the members on his side. In the election of the supervisory board, only Andreas Schmidt received more votes than the media entrepreneur. In the committees of the association, however, he was seen increasingly critically. The initiative not to re-elect him as Chairman of the Supervisory Board is said to have come from the Executive Committee.

Andreas Schmidt, who would have been the logical candidate for the post at the head of the body with his outstanding election result of 93 percent, did not want to run. He had also ruled out an application for the presidency because such an activity could not be reconciled with his life plans. “If you do something like this, you have to do it with heart and soul and have the time for it,” Schmidt said when asked at the general meeting.

Brüggemann, sports manager, entrepreneur, lecturer and recently also author, was a member of the supervisory board from 2000 to 2004. In 2018 he returned to the board. He also sat on the Executive Committee of Hertha BSC from 2008 to 2011. His deputy Körber, an administrative officer and a member of the Berlin House of Representatives for the CDU, was elected to the supervisory board for the first time in 2010.

In his application speech at the general meeting, Brüggemann had clearly spoken out in favor of paying more attention to costs. This could also have an impact on a personnel matter that his predecessor Klein had apparently actively pursued: filling the position of managing director, which has been vacant since Carsten Schmidt resigned in autumn 2021. Most recently, Robert Schäfer, who was previously employed by Hannover 96, was traded as a possible successor. When asked at the general meeting, Klein admitted that he supported Schäfer’s appointment. That should be done for now