Union Berlin: The Frauen-Bundesliga newcomers making history and disrupting the norm | OneFootball

The famous phrase goes ‘we don’t go to football, we go to Union’, but from next season, the football in question will be of the top flight version. History was made in April when Union Berlin secured their promotion to the Frauen-Bundesliga for the first time.

They are the first side from the capital to reach the top flight of German women’s football in recent years. Union Berlin have had a rapid climb to the top after years of hard graft in the lower tiers.

Securing promotion to the Frauen-Bundesliga

Union Berlin gained promotion with a 6-1 win over Borussia Mönchengladbach in April. Along with the promotion, the side also broke the then record attendance for a 2. Bundesliga game, when they filled the stands of Stadion An der Alten Försterei with 14,047 fans.

The emotions of that day will ring in the memories of Union fans for many years to come. Jacob Sweetman, a Union Berlin fan for nearly two decades and their English social media coordinator for four, called it ‘one of the greatest days in the club’s history’.

“I was terrified, I was absolutely terrified. It was my birthday. I was so emotionally invested in it, and I was down on the pitch at the final whistle to do social media stuff,” Sweetman told Her Football Hub. “I was writing the match report as well. And the emotion, you could feel it from the pitch and the stands. You could literally feel it. It was something else. And you could see it on the looks of the players’ faces.”

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Winning the league

On the last day of the season, Union Berlin secured the league title after a 6-0 thrashing of FSV Gütersloh. The side broke their own league record attendance that day, as they celebrated the league title and promotion in front of 20,132 fans. With an average attendance of 7,190 across the season, the side were the most-attended women’s professional team in Germany. They are also amongst the most-attended in Europe at large.

Sweetman said: “I think the last day of the season, to win the league, and for Lisa Heiseler, the home-grown hero, to win the top scorer’s trophy in the league on the last day, I think that was better [than the promotion game]. With, you know, 20-odd thousand in there, that was something else. For me, that ranks up there with the men winning promotion to the Bundesliga against Stuttgart in the play-off seven years ago.

“That remains as one of the top two days of football in my entire life. It was just the joy, the love, the pride — it was really incredible. I felt incredibly privileged to be a very, very small part of it.”

This iteration of the team has existed since the reunification of Germany in 1990, when BSG Kabelwerk Oberspree Berlin dissolved, and the side inherited their players. Since 2001, the side had moved between the regional league Northeast of Germany’s lower tiers and 2. Bundesliga before finally gaining promotion to the top flight this year. The side turned professional in the 2023/24 season with all players receiving an appropriate contract to reflect this.

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Union Berlin fan support and record crowds

One of the best supported teams in Europe also welcomed 13,213 fans in pre-season in a friendly against Liga F side Real Madrid, which they lost 1-3. This type of crowd for a friendly shows the strength of Union Berlin’s support and what they bring with their promotion.

“It’s been pretty wild,” Sweetman admitted. “To think that three years ago we were playing pre-season friendlies at the Fritz Lesch SportPlatz. There’s sort of nothing, no actual stands or anything there. And now we’re hosting Real Madrid in front of 13,000 people for a women’s team in the Bundesliga is pretty wild.”

Last season, the top flight registered an average attendance of 2,692 — a number significantly lower than Union Berlin’s own average attendance of 7,190. With all three promoted teams playing in larger stadiums, as well as SGS Essen and SC Freiburg, average attendances in the Frauen-Bundesliga look to have an immediate boost.

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Summer signings

Union Berlin have also made a number of summer signings to bolster the squad and keep them in the top flight. Experience in the Frauen-Bundesliga seems to be the area the side want to invest in. With Polish international and ex-Eintracht Frankfurt captain Tanja Pallowek, her Eagles teammate Anna Aehling and Eileen Campbell joining the side this summer, Union Berlin have brought experienced and ambitious players to enhance their championship winning side.

Making history

Despite the history making and the future unchartered, what remains at the centre of this club is the fans, and what they give back to a team that is pushing to disrupt the fabrics of the Frauen-Bundesliga.

“It’s a real vindication in the decision taken by the club to host the games in the main stadium, to give a bit of faith to the fans that they would come,” Sweetman said. “I knew that the fans would come in big numbers because I know this club very well. And, you know, there’s a famous phrase, they all use it. ‘We don’t go to football, we go to Union.’ So it’s about supporting the club. It doesn’t really matter if they’re men or women.

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“We’ve got two teams in the Bundesliga for the first time in our history. This is something that the city can be proud of. I think what the club are doing in terms of giving women’s football its genuine place… not just patronising it, not just a pat on the head or just saying, ‘you can play in the main stadium once a year’. To say, ‘no, it has its place, it belongs at the heart of the club’.

“The website is 50 percent men, 50 percent women, for example. This is how we’re doing it. I think that is something about which we can all be very, very proud, to be honest. But if there’s one thing I know about this side, they’ll fight. People are going to want to beat Union. They’re going to raise their game. Let’s show them a bit of proper Bundesliga football. So it isn’t going to be easy, but I’m incredibly optimistic myself.”

What’s next for Union Berlin?

Union Berlin want to push for more as they go into the topflight. With ambitions of Europe and a point to prove, a debut season of dreams would be the icing on a very large red and white cake. Their season opens at home to familiar competitors FC Nürnberg, who came second to Union on goal difference alone. With some 4,000 season tickets sold, Stadion An der Alten Försterei will be the place to be in the Frauen-Bundesliga this season.

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