Again Hertha is beaten by Union. But this time not on the pitch, but on a completely different topic. Because Bayer Leverkusen, Bayern Munich, 1. FC Köln and Hertha’s favorite competitor – all these clubs and many more are teams in women’s football. Hertha dances out of line. While the Unioner women’s team plays in the regional league, Hertha’s women’s team is one thing above all – non-existent.
However, Hertha cannot be accused of inactivity in this area either. From 2009 to 2016, the club had a cooperation with 1. FC Lübars, a Berlin club with a women’s department. Since 2020, Hertha has had a new cooperation with the traditional women’s football club par excellence: Turbine Potsdam.
For many, however, that is not enough, so there are serious efforts to introduce a department for female soccer players at Hertha in the near future. They haven’t been in the club since the late 1980s. The official Hertha fan club “Axel Kruse Jugend” (AKJ) writes in an article: “Hertha gives Turbine money and is allowed to put a bee in the booklet for good behavior.”
The accusation is that Hertha is avoiding the responsibility of involving half of the population as active members with the cooperation. “It can’t be that as a child you can’t even have the dream of playing for your favorite club,” says Klaus Gierl, a member of the Axel Kruse Jugend.
Because of this dissatisfaction, a group consisting mainly of members of the AKJ came together to design a plan for a women’s section at Hertha BSC. “It actually started when I said in a discussion three years ago at the general assembly (members’ meeting, editor’s note) that I find it strange that we don’t have a single women’s department,” says Gierl, the belongs to the relevant group.
She would like to submit an application for the establishment of a women’s department at the next general meeting. “Then we’ll just write an application that we want Hertha to have women’s football too.” In May 2022, the first draft application for the next general meeting will be published on the AKJ Twitter account.
Shortly thereafter, in June, an article by Axel Kruse Jugend explains the plans of the women’s team in more detail. From 2023 at the latest, one or more girls’ or women’s teams should be formed and participate as “Hertha BSC” as part of the BFV game operations.
The new Hertha executive committee and the general meeting are by no means averse. A survey conducted by the Axel Kruse Jugend, in which all candidates for the general assembly were questioned, shows that not a single respondent opposes the establishment of a women’s department. President Kay Bernstein also supports the concept. However, he would like to “design the way that the women’s football authority Turbine Potsdam does not suffer”.
And here is the problem: The cooperation between Hertha and Turbine is now essential for the Potsdam team. The club is still a size in the women’s Bundesliga. Nevertheless, the women’s soccer club has a financial disadvantage compared to huge clubs like Bayern Munich or VfL Wolfsburg.
If the cooperation with Hertha is now terminated, it could be fatal for the Brandenburg club. “We would be happy if we could continue the cooperation,” says Turbine Vice President Uwe Reher of the Tagesspiegel. However, it is not an option for Turbine to play under the Hertha name.
Here the Axel Kruse youth agrees. The emphasis for the fan club is on “organic growth” of a newly formed team. No professional license should be purchased from an existing team like Turbine to continue under the Hertha flag. “I find that stupid. Why can’t we just start introducing women’s football from the bottom up?” said Klaus Gierl.
The goal should not be direct promotion to the Bundesliga. In an application from the AKJ to the Hertha Presidium it says: “We do not rule out participation in professional operations, but we do not push it forward with all (financial) means either.” In the past, financial resources have also been repeatedly used as an argument against a women’s department used. Here the Axel Kruse youth sees a possible solution in club contributions, voluntary helpers, regional sponsors and possible sponsoring memberships.
President Bernstein has already confirmed that the issue of women footballers will be on the agenda of the next Bureau meeting in early September. A first step in the right direction, according to Klaus Gierl. “The new executive committee is, I must also praise this, very open and very communicative. So that means we don’t have an appointment yet, but I know that the Bureau is dealing with it,” Gierl told the Tagesspiegel.
The executive committee meeting in September and the general meeting in November will be crucial for the topic of a female football department at Hertha. As of now, there is a good chance that the first Hertha BSC players will appear in the next few years.
