Breitscheidplatz and the winter break

It has been a while since my last post on this blog but a lot has happened in that time; some of the events were good, some not so much.  My last post was about the 2:1 home win against Mainz which was followed by the remarkable away win against out of form Wolfsburg.  This was followed by some grim viewing for Hertha fans as an awful mistake by Stark gifted the only goal that was needed to allow “low flying” Werder Bremen to take all three points away from the capital.  That loss was a pretty low point, or so it felt at the time. 
​Although the Christmas markets were in full flow that weekend the dismal display with the prospect of an away trip to Leipzig the following Saturday somehow dampened my mood.  Having said this some of the sights to be found around Berlin in the cool night air on that weekend did help a little.

The following weekend saw Hertha travel to Leipzig with very few realistic chances of returning to Berlin with anything at all following Hertha’s stumble the previous week and Fizzy’s recent form the Bundesliga.  Sure enough Hertha were outclassed and the day but just two days later the 2:0 loss was completely put into perspective by the events at Breitscheidplatz on Monday the 19th of December 2016.

Breitscheidplatz is the square at the centre of the old West Berlin with the Europa Centre shopping complex opened in 1965 and Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church (the hollow tooth) which was bombed out in 1943 and retained as a memorial to the horrors of war. During advent it hosts one of the most famous Christmas markets in Berlin. It is my local Christmas market, one that I have visited it on countless occasions so it is one that I know pretty well. On Monday night a truck that had been hijacked was driven into the North Eastern corner of the market with tragic consequences. Having said this, had the truck not veered to the left after entering the market this could have been so, so much worse.
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I had intended to go to the market on the following morning and my son had been there the day before so, on another day the attack could have been even more personal. I visited the scene of the attack on the flowing morning to pay respect to those lost and light a candle in their memory and that of Łukasz Urban the murdered truck driver. I was also was determined to not let any such act put me off going to the market even if it was closed for a few days. Berlin is nothing if not stoic in the face of adversity.

The scenes I found were quite moving and the number of flowers, candles and news crews were astounding. The mood was somber, eerily so in such a normally lively location but any remaining worries about footballing performance evaporated in an instant upon experiencing it.

On Wednesday there was quite a low turnout for the game against Darmstadt at just short of 32,000 and, not surprisingly, the mood was not as festive as it may have been.  There were a number of things organised to remember the victims at the game these included the Hertha social media account profiles being in black and white as well as a minutes silence held before the game.  The fans organised via social media to hold phone torches aloft through the minute’s silence which added significantly to the atmosphere.​

Remembering by torchlight . . .

The following game ended with a 2:0 home win and three more points with goals from Marvin Plattenhardt and Salomon Kalou.  The free kick from Plattenhardt was an absolute cracker going straight into the top right corner of the Darmstadt goal.  Kalou broke free from his defender to get a free header for the second.

The result left the Old Lady in third place over the winter break 2016/17 and the players walked from the dugout towards the Ostkurve to thank the fans as well as wish them a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Not sure who to credit for this photo as it was all over Twitterland after the game. Thanks whoever you are!