The Berliner FC Dynamo supporters are the fan community of the German football club Berliner FC Dynamo based in Berlin, Germany. The community's history dates back to the club's rise in East German football in the 1970s. The supporter scene has evolved significantly from its early days in the former East to a contemporary fan base with organised events and activities.
During the East German era, BFC Dynamo's supporters often embraced the cub's on-field success and developed a reputation for provocative behaviour. Official associations with state institutions like the Stasi contributed to the club's controversial standing.
In the modern era, the fan culture includes more traditional supporter activities such as annual fan tournaments and organised fan groups. However, ultras continue to maintain their tradition of vocal and visual support at matches.
Supporter identity is also shaped by local and regional rivalries, most notably with FC Union Berlin.
Supporters East German era BFC Dynamo played only a minor role in football in Berlin until the relocation of FC Vorwärts Berlin to Frankfurt an der Oder in 1971. The club initially had modest support, but with its growing successes in the 1970s, the club began to attract young fans, primarily from the central areas around the Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Sportpark, such as Prenzlauer Berg and Mitte. Many came from working class families in Prenzlauer Berg. One of the first big supporter groups of BFC Dynamo was Black Eagle. The fan club was founded in 1972 and was one of the earliest fan clubs in East German football. Fans of BFC Dynamo were the first to sew their embroidered fan club badges on their jackets. This was a novelty among football supporters in East Germany in the 1970s.
The supporter scene became a focal point for various subcultures in the late 1970s and beginning of the 1980s. There were punks, rockers, hippies and a few early skinheads. Some were left-leaning and others were right-leaning. Football and stadium life offered free spaces that were difficult for the authorities to control. For some fans, being part of the supporter scene was an opportunity to rebel against the East German regime. Most supporters of BFC Dynamo had little to do with the state. It was more important for them to protest, do their own thing and break out from everyday life. Despite cheering for a club associated with the Stasi, supporters of BFC Dynamo were not loyal to the line. Many active fans of BFC Dynamo in the 1980s were against the regime. Also among the supporters of BFC Dynamo, there were enemies of the state according to the laws of East Germany.
Young people were gradually attracted by the provocative image of the club: its successes, its reputation as a Stasi club and the hatred of opposing fans. Some fans of BFC Dynamo found delight in the unpopularity of their club and took pride in the hatred they met. One fan recalled that the 1980s "were my greatest years, as we always had glorious success in provoking other fans" and another one that "we were really hated by everyone". Supporters of BFC Dynamo could respond to the hatred they met by singing chants in praise of Erich Mielke as a provocation. And at away matches in Saxony, they could also throw tropical fruits, which were only available in East Berlin, at home fans.
To cause provocation held a certain appeal, especially at a club like BFC Dynamo. But supporters of BFC Dynamo had nothing to do with the Stasi. The supporter scene of BFC Dynamo was rather full of irony and disgust for Erich Mielke. The supporters of BFC Dynamo identified themselves with the team and its successes. A motto among some supporters was "BFC - okay, Dynamo - no". Some supporters would even cut out the "D" for SV Dynamo from their club patches. They considered the "BFC" to be free from the Stasi, while they thought the "D" symbolized the exact opposite.
BFC Dynamo came to be associated with areas such as Prenzlauer Berg, Pankow, Weißensee, Hohenschönhausen, and certain cafés and restaurants in vicinity of Alexanderplatz. The West had a great influence on the supporter scene of BFC Dynamo. Several fan clubs had English names. The supporter scene of BFC Dynamo in the 1980s included groups such as Black Eagle, Berliner Wölfe, Die Ratten, Black Panther, Iron Fist, Norbert Trieloff, Bobbys, Pirayas, Analen Jungs, Beatles BFC Club, The Little Preussen, Heavy Horses and Madness boys of Preussen. The supporter scene was universally acclaimed as creative and the supporters of BFC Dynamo were considered as one of the funnier crowds. One fan of BFC Dynamo said: "Our goal is to always do something that nobody expects!" Fashion played a big role in the supporter scene of BFC Dynamo. Football supporters in East Berlin shared a sense of superiority over their counterparts in the regional districts. This was also the case with the supporters of Union Berlin, but notably with the supporters of BFC Dynamo.
Football-related violence had spread in East Germany in the 1970s. The supporter scene of BFC Dynamo was still young at the time, while clubs such Union Berlin and BSG Chemie Leipzig had large followings. A trip to Leipzig or Dresden was a difficult task for a supporter of BFC Dynamo. The dislike against BFC Dynamo in stadiums around the country and the hatred of opposing fans welded its supporters together. Supporters of BFC Dynamo would respond to the hostile environment and learn to compensate their smaller numbers by being better organized and more aggressive. One fan of BFC Dynamo recalled: "It was really rumbling at away trips, and only then you felt your own strength. When we went with 200 people against 1,000 Unioners and you noticed: If you stick together, you have an incredible amount of violence." The book "Riot Boys!" by Jochen Schramm depicts the supporter scene of BFC Dynamo and contains stories of violent away trips in East Germany in the early 1980s. Jochen "Ellis" Schramm was a member of the hooligan scene of BFC Dynamo in the 1980s.
Supporters of BFC Dynamo would eventually gain a reputation for being particularly organized and violent. One fan of BFC Dynamo said: "This feeling of being hated is what makes it so appealing." A saying among the supporters of BFC Dynamo was: "We are few, but we are awesome!" () One fan of Union Berlin recalled: "There was hardly an enemy mob against us, we were just too many... But the people who stood in the way of the violence-seeking BFC:ers were very few... The BFC:ers were completely organized. These hundred and fifty people, everyone knew each other. They stood as a block like a wall."
Violent clashes would not only occur with supporters of other East German teams. Supporters of BFC Dynamo would also fight with supporters of opponents in the European Cup. During the match between BFC Dynamo and Nottingham Forest in East Berlin in the 1979-80 European Cup, a hundred supporters of BFC Dynamo allegedly stormed a stadium section with supporters of Nottingham Forest to steal their match shirts and scarves. Serious violence broke out during the team's matches against Baník Ostrava in the 1980-81 European Cup. Violent clashes also occurred with supporters of Partizan Belgrade and AS Roma in connection with the two teams' matches in East Berlin in the 1983-84 European Cup.
The development in the supporter scene of BFC Dynamo eventually caught the attention of the authorities. The Stasi conducted a study on the violent structures of the supporter scene at the beginning of the 1980s. It found that 80 per cent of those committing violent acts were 16–25 years old. Most of them were workers or students. It also found that 20 per cent came from families of the socialist intelligentia. The Stasi eventually assigned a group of two full-time officers from the district administration to the supporter scene of BFC Dynamo during 1982–83 season. The authorities had allegedly been particularly alarmed when supporters of BFC Dynamo unfurled a poster in honour of Lutz Eigendorf with the text "Iron Foot, we mourn you!" () during a match at the Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Sportpark in April 1983. The Stasi considered it the first openly "negative provocation" from BFC Dynamo supporters. From then, supporters of BFC Dynamo were accompanied, observed and documented by te Stasi. This was a measure that had previously also been applied to the supporter scene of Union Berlin.
The Stasi would try to control the supporter scene with a broad catalogue of repressive measures: persistent talks, intimidation attempts, reporting requirements and arrests. It would also try to infiltrate the fan clubs of BFC Dynamo with unofficial collaborators (IM). Numerous supporters of BFC Dynamo were sentenced to long and short prison terms during the 1980s. One fan of BFC Dynamo said that from his environment in 1978–79, there was hardly anyone who had not gone to prison. A number of supporters of BFC Dynamo were also sentenced under the dreaded Paragraph 50/51 of the East German Penal Code. Paragraph 50/51 meant residence restriction (). A supporter sentenced to residence restriction would be assigned a new place of residence in another part of East Germany and prohibited from returning to Berlin. A residence restriction could last for several years. Due to the harassment and the sometimes draconian penalties, more and more supporter of BFC Dynamo started to apply to leave East Germany. The first supporters of BFC Dynamo began to leave for West Germany in 1983–84.
All football fan clubs in East Germany had to undergo registration. According to Stasi information, BFC Dynamo had 22 unauthorized fan clubs and six registered fan clubs in the 1985–86 season. Unauthorized fan clubs were those that were unregistered or did not meet DFV guidelines. Registered fan clubs, on the other hand, were those that were willing to cooperate with the authorities. The figures for the 1986–87 season were 17 unauthoritzed fan clubs and 15 registered fan clubs. This means that 15 out of 32 fan clubs (47 per cent of all fan clubs) at BFC Dynamo were registered in the 1986–87 season. As a comparison, 61 out of 70 fan clubs (87 per cent of all fan clubs) at Union Berlin were registered in the 1986–87 season. East German state television would always try to hide riots from viewers, but the sound recording from football matches posed the biggest challenge. An additional sound system was eventually integrated into the stadium of BFC Dynamo for radio and television broadcasts. The system was also supposed to drown out shouts and chanting from the violent structures, so that television viewers and radio listeners would not hear anything.