5 of the best kits worn by clubs playing on the East side of Germany

Football was weird in the 1970s and 80s; political tensions began to spread from society onto the terraces, money began to plague the game, but most of all kits started to look ugly and really garish and disgusting sponsors started to pop up on football shirts. There was none of this in East Germany – the strips were plain, simple and quite straightforwardly stunning.

Amos Murphy takes a trip back in time to behind the iron curtain and uncovers five of the best kits worn by clubs playing on the East side of Germany:

5) 1. FC Union Berlin, 1970s

Probably the most 1970s thing you’ll ever see, this punchy crimson kit, topped off with the sharp white collars that look like they’ve been snatched straight off a shirt that really strange science teacher might wear, was the visual identity of Berlin’s second biggest club.

Having been situated on the opposite side of the wall to city rivals Hertha, FC Union Berlin yo-yoed between East Germany’s Oberliga and DDR-Liga without much success.

A lot of their tribulations on the field can be accredited to the East German government favouring ‘elite’ clubs and not ‘people’ clubs, like Union were.

Now seen as Berlin’s ‘trendy’ club, they have spent the last decade sitting comfortably in the 2. Bundesliga.

4) Dynamo Dresden, 1988-89

One of East Germany’s most successful and famous sides, Dynamo Dresden were synonymous with their hazardous black and yellow strips.

Exposure for clubs behind the Iron Curtain was limited, with Western audiences only ever hearing about clubs like Dynamo Dresden when they played on the continent.

And it was this kit, worn in Der Kriesel’s 1988 UEFA Cup tie against Scottish side Aberdeen, which makes our list, purely for its unique collection of slightly off-centred diagonal lines on both the shirt and shorts, drawing resemblance to a Dewalt drill case.

Like Union Berlin, Dynamo Dresden are now also stalwarts of the German second division.

3) Karl-Marx Stadt, 1978-79

A mediocre member of East Germany’s football leagues for most of the 20th century, there were no hints of mediocrity in Karl-Marx Stadt’s kits.

Sleek, classy and utterly beautiful, this sky-blue and white number is a ray of sunshine in an East German world of industrialised monotony.

Karl-Marx Stadt would go onto to display their stunning kits on the European stage in 1989, progressing through two preliminary rounds of the UEFA Cup, before being knocked out by eventual champions Juventus in the third round of the competition.

After German reunification in 1990, Karl-Marx Stadt changed their name to Chemnitzer FC and are now languishing in Germany’s lower divisions.

2) FC Magdeburg, 1973-74

1974 was a good year for German football, both on the East and the West. Die Manschaft – the West German national team – saw off Johan Cruyff’s Netherlands’ side in the World Cup final, Bayern Munich won the first of three consecutive European Cups and a plucky East German side from a mining city on the banks of the river Elbe won the European Cup Winners’ Cup.

It was in this plush-white and royal-blue accented kit that FC Magdeburg shocked the continent and defeated Giovani Trapattoni’s AC Milan side, becoming the first and only East German team to win a continental title.

Winning 2-0, Magdeburg’s entire line-up consisted of players from East Germany, whilst Milan’s contained all but one Italian – Karl-Heinz Schnellinger, an imperious sweeper who also happened to be a West German international.

Magdeburg are another former East German club with their glory days behind them, now yo-yoing in Germany’s lower leagues.

1) FC Lokomotive Leipzig, 1986-87

Number one on our list of the finest club kits from the East side of Germany goes to this tasty blue and yellow ‘v-neck’, worn by Cup Winners’ Cup runners-up Lokomotive Leipzig.

Winners of the first ever German football league title in 1903, Loksche as they are colloquially known, were an ever-present at the top of the Oberliga, but despite a string of East German cup victories in the 1970s and 80s, they couldn’t ever rekindle former glories and lift the league title, finishing in second place on three occasions.

But their finest hour came in 1987 when they faced an Ajax team of Frank Rijkaard, Dennis Bergkamp and Marco van Basten in the final of the European Cup Winners’ Cup.

Valiantly losing 1-0, Lokomotive couldn’t follow in the footsteps of Magdeburg three years prior and lift the trophy, but they sure looked good whilst finishing second.

Whilst the shorts might look like something you’d find at the bottom of a spare PE kit box, the slick design of this shirt, with the highlighted horizontal stripes, topped off by the iconic trefoil Adidas logo, is everything we love about football shirts from this strange, but wonderful era of kits.

There you have it, 5 of the best football kits from the Eastern side of Germany. Did we miss your favourite club from the DDR? Let us know your opinion and have a look at all the other proper cool stuff we have on Twitter and Instagram.