Sportgemeinschaft Dynamo Dresden e.V., commonly known as SG Dynamo Dresden or Dynamo Dresden, is a German association football club based in Dresden, Saxony.Grüne, Hardy (2001). Enzyklopädie des deutschen Ligafußballs 7. Vereinslexikon. Kassel: Agon-Sportverlag. . They were founded on 12 April 1953 as a club affiliated with the East German police and became one of the most popular and successful clubs in East German football, winning eight league titles. The club is known for its dedicated fan culture of Dynamo Ultras, and elaborate choreographs.
After the reunification of Germany, Dynamo played four seasons in the top division, Bundesliga, from 1991 to 1995, but have since drifted between the second and fourth tiers. The club competes in the 2. Bundesliga, the second division of German Football following promotion in the 2024–25 season.
The club's traditional kit colours are gold and black, derived from the official city flag and the coat of arms of the city of Dresden.
History Early years (1950–1954)
The city of Dresden played a significant part in German football before and during World War II. Local football team Dresdner SC won the national championships in 1943 and 1944. The occupying Allied authorities dissolved organizations across Germany, including sports clubs like Dresdner SC, after the war as part of the process of denazification. Dresdner SC was reestablished in 1946 as SG Friedrichstadt. However, the eastern part of Germany, including Dresden, was under Soviet control, and the sports club was considered too bourgeois by authorities.
SG Friedrichstadt met ZSG Horst Zwickau at the Heinz-Steyer-Stadion in Dresden on 16 April 1950. The match would practically decide which of the two teams that would win the East German championship in the 1949–50 season. The match was attended by 60,000 spectators at the Heinz-Steyer-Stadion. The SED First Secretary Walter Ulbricht and his entourage were also present. ZSG Horch Zwickau had been founded only one year earlier and embodied the form of organization that the SED and the state leadership wanted to promote for the sports movement they propagated. ZSG Horch Zwickau won the match 1–5 and became East German champions. The match was characterized by a very physical play from ZSG Horch Zwickau and several controversial referee decisions in favor of ZSG Horch Zwickau. The players of SG Friedrichstadt left the pitch without greeting their opponents and thousands of angry Dresden spectators invaded the pitch. East German sports authorities took these events as a pretext to dissolve SG Friedrichstadt and delegate the players to BSG VVB Tabak Dresden.
The city needed a new, ideologically safe representative in the DDR-Oberliga. BSG VVB Tabak Dresden was planned to take over the place of SG Friedrichstadt in the DDR-Oberliga. However, most players from the former team of SG Friedrichstadt, including player-coach Helmut Schön, did not agree with the move to BSG VVB Tabak Dresden and left Dresden to join Hertha BSC or other clubs under the German Football Association (DFB). To save the place in the DDR-Oberliga for Dresden, the place was instead given to SV Deutsche Volkspolizei Dresden.
SV Deutsche Volkspolizei Dresden played in the lower-tier Stadtliga Dresden at the time of the dissolution of SG Fredrichsstadt. SV Deutsche Volkspolizei Dresden was thus able to enter DDR-Oberliga without having to progress through divisions. To keep its place in the DDR-Oberliga, the team of SV Deutsche Volkspolizei Dresden would be reinforced with players from all over the country.
SV Deutsche Volkzpolizei Dresden was originally founded as SG Volkspolizei Dresden in 1948. The head of the Volkspolizei Kurt Fischer ordered the founding of a central sports association for all sports communities of the Volkspolizei around East Germany on 20 June 1950. The new sports association was named SV Deutsche Volkspolizei. SG Volkspolizei Dresden was thus incorporated into the new sports association and renamed SV Deutsche Volkspolizei Dresden. The order from Fischer also contained the passage that the best football players in the sports communities of the Volkspolizei should be concentrated in the now first-tier SV Deutsche Volkspolizei Dresden.
The 40 best players of the various Volkspolizei teams in East Germany were then brought together for a training session in Forst in July 1950. Coaches and picked out 17 players from 11 different cities who were delegated to Dresden to form the team. SV Deutsche Volkspolizei Potsdam lost its five top performers to Dresden, including Herbert Schoen, Johannes Matzen and Günter Schröter, and was severely weakened. SV Deutsche Volkspolizei Dresden quickly established itself as a force in East German football, finishing in fourth place in its first season of the DDR-Oberliga. The team then won its first title in the 1951–52 FDGB-Pokal.
The new sports association SV Dynamo was founded on 27 March 1953. SV Dynamo was formed from SV Deutsche Volkspolizei and the sports communities of the Ministry of State Security, commonly known as the Stasi. The president of SV Dynamo was Erich Mielke, at the time deputy head of the Stasi. SV Deutsche Volkspolizei was incorporated into SV Dynamo and reformed as Dynamo Dresden on 12 April 1953. The official founding date of Dynamo Dresden has since been 12 April 1953. Shortly after this, the club claimed its first league title.
However, success proved to be the club's undoing. The team Dynamo Dresden was relocated to Berlin in November 1954 to play for the new sports club SC Dynamo Berlin in the DDR-Oberliga. The remainder of Dynamo Dresden was left to regroup in the second-tier DDR-Liga, taking over the place in the DDR-Liga, as well as points and goals, from dissolved SC DHFK Leipzig. Political factors and pressure from Erich Mielke were probably the main reasons behind the relocation of Dynamo Dresden to Berlin. The relocation was meant to provide the capital with a competitive team that could rival Hertha BSC, Blau-Weiß 1890 Berlin and Tennis Borussia Berlin, which were still popular in East Berlin and drew football fans to West Berlin.
Re-emergence (1954–1969) Dynamo Dresden was left with a team composed of youth and reserve players and had dropped to the fourth tier by 1957, playing in the local Bezirksliga. Dynamo Dresden began to climb the divisions, though, and by 1962 they were back in the DDR-Oberliga, and although this first season ended in relegation, they bounced back immediately. They recovered equally well from another relegation in 1968, and remained in the Oberliga from 1969 until its dissolution in 1991. This relegation came after a fourth-place finish in 1967, which enabled Dynamo's first foray into European football – they entered the 1967–68 Fairs Cup, where they were eliminated by Scottish side Rangers in the first round.
East German football was reorganized during the 1965–66 season. Ten football departments were separated from their sports clubs to create ten dedicated football clubs () (FC). The best talents in the country were meant to be concentrated in the new dedicated football clubs, with the object to bring stability to the game at the top level and to develop players for the national team. It had long been planned to merge Dynamo Dresden with the football department of sports club SC Einheit Dresden, to concentrate the best footballer in the regional district in one club. This had been done in Leipzig. However, a tug of war developed between Erich Mielke and the SED First Secretary in Bezirk Dresden Werner Krolikowski. Erich Mielke did not want to give up Dynamo Dresden, while Krolikowski advocated for the establishment of a civil football club. The stalemate continued for one and a half years. The football department of SC Einheit Dresden was reorganized as FSV Lokomotive Dresden on 12 January 1966. Dynamo Dresden was then declared a regional district center of excellence () in Bezirk Dresden by the regional district board () of the DTSB on 5 August 1968. The club could now draw on the best players in the whole regional district.
Dynamo Dresden would enjoy the same funding and the same privileges as a designated football club, although it retained its designation as a "Sports Community" () (SG). Without this support, the club's future success would have been hard to achieve.
Glory years (1969–1978)
During the 1970s, Dynamo established themselves as one of the top teams in East Germany, under the management of Walter Fritzsch. They won five league titles (1971, 1973, 1976, 1977 and 1978), and two cups, (1971 and 1977). They battled with 1. FC Magdeburg for domination of the league, and became the most popular team in the country, regularly drawing crowds of 25,000, around three times what other clubs were attracting.
Dynamo also began to establish themselves as a presence in European football – they played in European competition every year during the 1970s, and eliminated some big names – beating FC Porto, Juventus and Benfica on their way to four quarter-final finishes. During this time Dynamo came up against West German opposition for the first time, losing against Bayern Munich 7–6 on aggregate in the last 16 of the 1973–74 European Cup. Dynamo Dresden lost the first leg 4–3 away in Munich and managed a 3–3 draw home at the Dynamo-Stadion. The Stasi had tapped the salon at the Interhotel Newa in Dresden where the Bayern Munich team held their final meeting before the second leg. A message with information about the line-up of Bayern Munich was quickly sent by motorcycle to the coach of Dynamo Dresden Walter Fritzsch in preparation for the match. On three occasions they were eliminated by English side Liverpool, twice in the UEFA Cup and once in the European Cup, and each time Liverpool went on to win the competition. On three other occasions in the 1970s, Dynamo were eliminated by the team that eventually won the tournament — Leeds United in the 1970–71 Fairs Cup, Ajax in the 1971–72 European Cup, and Bayern Munich in the 1973–74 European Cup. In 1973, Hans-Jürgen Kreische was the first Dynamo Dresden player to be named East German Footballer of the Year, and was followed by Hans-Jürgen Dörner in 1977. Kreische was the league's leading goalscorer on four occasions, and was named in East Germany's squad for the 1974 World Cup, along with teammate Siegmar Wätzlich.
Capital dominance (1978–1991)
BFC Dynamo stood out among other clubs within SV Dynamo. The club was located at the frontline of the Cold War and was a representative of the capital of East Germany. This meant that the club had to be well-equipped. BFC Dynamo was considered the favorite club of the president of SV Dynamo and the head of the Stasi Erich Mielke. Under the patronage of Erich Mielke and the Stasi, BFC Dynamo would get access to the best training facilities, equipment, coaching staff and talents.
East German football had generally been set up in favour of the designated football clubs (FC), who had access to talents within designated areas. Dynamo Dresden was a center of excellence in Bezirk Dresden, which meant that the club had privileged access to talents in the whole regional district. However, BFC Dynamo would be able to draw on talents from all parts of East Germany, except Bezirk Dresden. The club benefited from a nationwide scouting network, supported by numerous training centers (TZ) of SV Dynamo. BFC Dynamo would have the best material conditions in the league and the best team by far. BFC Dynamo won ten consecutive titles, from 1979 to 1988. Of all clubs, Dynamo Dresden was the most affected by their success, finishing runners-up on six occasions.