When Dirk Zingler has something to say, many listen very carefully. As recently, when the president of the 1. FC Union announced that his iron would be the only Bundesliga club to represent the east, because the RB is not from here. Köpenick’s polarizer may have seen a favorable moment in his opinion because the red and white are active in the Europa League, where on Thursday they will meet Swedish record champions Malmö FF in the return match at Alte Försterei. In any case, Zingler made himself heard, also because he speaks for the current leaders, who, being the fourth consecutive day, can no longer be dismissed as a flash in the pan. As Nina Hagen sings: We in the East always go forward.
A Hamburg weekly promptly picked up the through ball and asked how readers of its newsletter viewed Zingler’s opinion. The question was – coincidentally or intentionally – posed rather narrowly, namely: “What do you think: RB Leipzig is not an East German club because of the RB?”
1. FC Union: President Zingler makes fun of RB Leipzig
Double negation, which is not common in German, is already lurking in the question, which often causes irritation. It would have been more understandable: is RB Leipzig an East German club? With this question, a yes is a yes and a no is a no.
Even when public television still had a monopoly status and Germany was effectively divided into East and West, career council dean Robert Lembke was very annoyed with “What Am I?” From that point on, the riddle team avoided the linguistic pirouettes by starting their questions with, “Am I right in assuming that …?” It can also be twisted.
Long story short: 69.1 percent disagree with Zingler. More than two thirds, this is clear. According to the evaluation, nearly seven out of ten people answered “no”. Isn’t the RB an East German club? No! Translated it means: He is one. Hard? Certainly, the German language is like that. On the other hand, significant doubts are likely to be raised as to the significance of the result.
How much Orient is there still in the Bundesliga?
IMAGO / Christian Schroedter
Paul Jaeckel (right) and Paul Seguin hold the eastern flag at 1. FC Union.
Coincidence – but if you ask Paul Jaeckel about his goal in the 1-0 win recently in Stuttgart, then it was pure intention – still fuels the discussion about being East Germany days later. With the question of how much Orient there is in the Bundesliga and in German football.
The years are long gone when Matthias Sammer and Ulf Kirsten, Thomas Doll and Dariusz Wosz, Marko Rehmer and Michael Ballack, Andreas Thom and Bernd Schneider wore the federal eagle jersey. With Toni Kroos, the last great strategist of the area between the Ore Mountains and the Baltic Sea, Börde and Lausitz disappeared from the league and the DFB team.
National coach Hansi Flick relies on two Ossis
However, Hansi Flick brought two Ossis into his staff, which remained under the radar: Danny Röhl (33) is from Zwickau and is one of his assistants, Dr. Stephan Nopp (43) is from Frankfurt (Oder) and is a game analyst. Bundesliga coaches are also not badly represented. Almost all Union fans know the past of Rostock-born Steffen Baumgart, Marco Rose always plays at home in Leipzig, so to speak, and Enrico Maaßen, 38 from Wismar, who led FC Augsburg to 10th place. so far, he has recently joined the team. However, to get to the Bundesliga, everyone had to make a detour, Baumgart via Paderborn, Rose via Mainz and Salzburg, Maassen via the youngsters in Dortmund.
Let’s go back to Jaeckel, for which, as a boy from Eisenhüttenstadt, geographically you couldn’t go further east. After Robert Andrich, he is only the second player from here to score a Bundesliga goal for the Irons. He is not alone at 1. FC Union. Paul Seguin is from Magdeburg, his father Wolfgang was part of the big 1. FC Magdeburg, which were the only East German team to win a European Cup in 1974 and in which all (!) Players at the time they came from the district. Kevin Möhwald started playing football at Rot-Weiss Erfurt.
There are many Ossis at SC Freiburg
But otherwise? After Tony Jantschke (from Hoyerswerda) in Mönchengladbach and Felix Uduokhai (from Annaberg-Buchholz) in Augsburg, there is a particularly large number of players who claim a permanent place in their team and who come from the Dirk Zingler area means playing the first violin and Marcel Schmelzer (from Magdeburg) ended his career in Dortmund in the summer, no.
At best, SC Freiburg can keep up. Nils Petersen comes from Wernigerode, Kevin Schade, who ended up in Breisgau via Babelsberg and Cottbus, was born in Potsdam, and Noah Weißhaupt belongs to the Weißhaupt dynasty of Thuringia. His father Marco is from Erfurt, where his father Jörg and his twin brother Horst played for Rot-Weiss in the GDR Oberliga.
In this regard, since Dirk Zingler is in his element, at most only one person was even happier with Jaeckel’s first Bundesliga goal than him, only Paul himself.
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