The anniversary is coming! No matter how VfL Wolfsburg performs. At the end of the coming season, VfL can look back on 25 years of the Bundesliga! In one piece. Of the current Bundesliga clubs, only FC Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, Bayer Leverkusen and Eintracht Frankfurt can claim that. But besides Wolfsburg, only Leverkusen and Munich have never been relegated from the upper house. 25 years of the Bundesliga – before the anniversary comes, we’ll take you on a little journey through time. Match day after match day. In the last second division season.
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25 years – not a very big anniversary in many areas. Rather unusual in the Bundesliga. Exceptionally consistent. Because only eleven clubs from a total of 56 Bundesliga clubs since 1963 have played more than 25 seasons in a row in the upper house.
The little VfL Wolfsburg. For a long time he was number 5 in the north – behind Bremen, HSV, Braunschweig and Hanover. Feared in the Oberliga, but in the 2nd Bundesliga the team from Elsterweg was only six years of its history, in the Bundesliga the wolves were not known at all. Wolfsburg stood for Volkswagen. Period. Until there with a trainer Uwe Erkenbrecher, manager Peter Pander and officials like Wolfgang Heitmann and Manfred Aschenbrenner Visions gave and in 1992 again succeeded in promotion to the 2nd division.
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A single-digit position was the goal of VfL for the 1996/1997 season. A cautious and realistic approach after a troubled 18 months, in which only Gerd Roggensack had led VfL into the 1995 cup final as the successor to Eckhard Krautzun, who had made it to the quarter-finals. The semi-final 1-0 at the higher class 1. FC Köln through a goal from Siggi Reich remained the highlight under Roggensack. For promotion, he no longer led the team that had long been promoted.
Roggensack had already been replaced by ex-HSV professional Willi Reimann in October 1995 after a home 0: 5 against Bochum. The gnarled Hanseate was able to advance a team that was very well-known on paper with his stoic manner, so that they remained unbeaten 14 times in a row in the second half of the 95/96 season. Then it went into a very special season.
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The fifth day of the second division season 1996/97
What was like that before: The child murderer and sex offender Marc Dutroux continues to move people not only in Belgium. In the meantime, Dutroux, who is still in prison, has explained to the police where two other girls’ bodies can be found. Mourn for Reinhard “Stan” Libuda. The best right-winger in the world at the time, who tricked for Schalke 04 and Borussia Dortmund and played the opponents in rows dizzy, died at the age of only 52. VfL signed the Bulgarian international striker after several weeks of negotiations Petar Mihtarski, who also started in the DFB Pokal. But that set it at the third division Energie Cottbus Cup off with 0: 1. Winger Michael Butrej was not in the squad for the upcoming game in Essen. Like hundreds of other car owners, he had to go to the police. In the course of the investigation into the murder of Wolfsburg businessman Edgar Brock, which has not yet been resolved, the officials checked the owners and drivers of dark station wagons with Helmstedt license plates.
The game: It was actually clear beforehand who would win – if VfL could shake off the cup. The hosts lost four games from the start, only scoring two goals but conceding twelve. The close end result belies the course of the game. Because that was clear. “VfL only had two opponents,” wrote the WAZ at the time. “The audience before the break, goalkeeper Marc Petrick in the second half.” Over 7000 fans mercilessly whipped the already looming relegation forward, celebrated standard situations frenetically, almost as euphorically as goals. But Wolfsburg never had any problems. Mihtarski harmonized well with Piotr Tyszkiewicz, who had been promoted from contract amateur to professional before the game. The common linguistic basis helped to achieve harmony. The Pole Tyszkiewicz: “We both speak a little Russian too.” The Bulgarian Mihtarski made perhaps his best game of his total of 18 (including the trophy) for Wolfsburg. He never scored a goal, but here he prepared the 1-0 with Detlev Dammeier in an exemplary manner. Mihtarski, Dammeier, Jens Keller and Tyszkiewicz – among others – later couldn’t get past Petrick when there were huge opportunities. All the same. Wolfsburg jumped on a promotion place for the first time that season – and could even have been first with one more gate in this floodlit game on Friday at the end of the day.
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The statistics
Rot-Weiss Essen – VfL Wolfsburg 0-1
(6. Sept. 1996)
Essen: Petrick – Schreier, Pickenäcker, Tomas (73. Grein) – Margref, Scharpenberg, Milanko, Zedi, Helmig (64. Holick) – Vier, Klein (56. Beyel).
VfL: Zimmermann – Maucksch, Tomcic, Jensen – Präger, Deering (77th Kapetanovic), Ballwanz, Dammeier, Keller – Tyszkiewicz (86th Meißner), Mihtarski.
Referee: Hufgard (Mömbris). Viewers: 7400.
Tor: 0: 1 (32) Tyszkiewicz.
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Yellow cards: Scharpenberg, Milanko, Vier / Keller, Tyszkiewicz, Präger, Maucksch, Balwanz.
WAZ player of the game: Mihtarski.
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In an AZ / WAZ series, we trace the path to promotion – follow it match day after match day parallel to the new Bundesliga season. We don’t yet know what the end of the season will be in 2021/22; all the fans know what was the end of the season in 1997. But some were still young then, some not even born.
You can take part in this journey through time. Feel free to send us emails if you also like photos (as files, no originals, please; to [email protected]) with your special memories of games, or post them on the corresponding match day in the sports buzzer post that will appear at Facebook.
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