The chasm between second and first division was not the only one in East German football – by the end of the 1970s a second big separation settled down: the top league was clearly divided into two groups. Half the league just fought for survival and the other half was way stronger. Newcomers hardly lasted more than a single season. 1979-80 season only confirmed the trend.
BSG Chemie (Leipzig) – winning promotion in 1978-79 – finished last with 15 points. Nothing new… the same happened to them before: promoted in 1974-75 and relegated in 1975-76, for instance.
1.FC Union (Berlin) ended 13th with 16 points and were also relegated.
Union won promotion in 1975-76 – along with Hansa (Rostock) – and since then just fought for survival. Their best season was 1977-78 – 8th place. Inevitably, their stint in first division came to an end… they never improved. The relegation of the second clubs in Berlin and Leipzig meant there will be no derby – if the word is really applicable to East German football – in 1980-81.
The relegated were merely the bottom of the lower half of first division – East German football already settled into vast divisions: the lowly second division, much weaker than the first, then half the top league clearly not a match to the other half. It was marked division, staying stable to the end of DDR, with only few exceptions. First division was evenly divided – 6 points were the chasm between the upper and lower half.
BSG Sachsenring (Zwickau) ended at the top of lower half – 8th with 22 points.
HFC Chemie (Halle) was at the bottom of the strong upper half – 7th with 28 points. But there was one more division in the upper half – 5 teams were more or less equal, yet, far behind the top two. Nothing new and also a sub-division which was to stay. Effectively, East German football came to be dominated by one club, occasionally challenged. Anyhow, the good news in 1979-80 was the second promoted club in 1978-79:
Vorwaerts (Frankfurt/Oder) finished 5th. They were relegated in 1977-78 and came back with a vengeance after an year in the purgatory of second division. In decline since the beginning of the 1970s, the Army club seemingly was coming back – similar revival of Army clubs happened elsewhere in Estern Europe: Dukla (Prague), Honved (Budapest), rebuilt CSKA (Sofia) all came strong by the end of the decade. It looked like Vorwaerts were following the pattern, but a look at their squad did not promise much: there were no famous players there.
Carl Zeiss (Jena) finished with bronze medals.
Hinten v.l.
Helmut Stein(Co-Trainer) – Jürgen Raab – Dietmar Sengewald – Gerhard Hoppe – Hans Meyer(Trainer) – Rüdiger Schnuphase – Ulrich Oevermann – Jörg Burow – Dr.Johannes Roth(Mannschaftsarzt)
Mitte v.l.
Peter Rock(Mannschaftsleiter) – Lothar Kurbjuweit – Konrad Weise – Hans-Ulrich Grapenthin – Detlef Zimmer – Eberhard Vogel – Lutz Lindemann – Dieter Freund(Masseur)
Vorn v.l.
Dr.Manfred Dressel(Co-Trainer) – Andreas Krause – Matthias Kaiser – Dieter Noack – Thomas Töpfer – Gert Brauer – Martin Trocha – Paul Dern(Co-Trainer)
Well done, but… Carl Zeiss had not been title contender since 1974-75. The squad was still one of the best in DDR, the most the boys were able of was to finish on top of the bulk of the stronger half of the league with 32 points. This record left them 10 points behind from those fighting for the title.
And they did fight, the best two. Unlike the previous season, which was one-team show, this year there was real race. Real to a point…
Dynamo (Dresden) lost the title by a single points. The previous year they were also second, but 7 points behind the champions – now they really raced. Strong team, the most consistent club in the decade was showing signs of crisis. Unfortunately – and yet not a common knowledge – Dynamo had no chance of winning no matter what team they had. Was it fair championship or not matters little: Dynamo lacked both scoring and defensive power, compared to the champions.
Second consecutive title for Dynamo (Berlin).
It was not so confident victory as the year before, but Dynamo (Berlin) proved that will stay on top – no one time wonder these boys. Of course, many national team players and pretty much the new generation, pushing aside the heroes of 1974. Younger and less tired team than Dynamo (Dresden), Magdeburg, and Carl Zeiss, to be sure, but were Terletzki, Lauck, Netz, Noack, Rudwaleit, Trieloff, Ernst, Troppa much better than the stars of the other three strong clubs? It is hard to confirm or deny – it was not evident yet that Dynamo (Berlin) will dominate East German almost to the fall of the Berlin wall. It was not clear yet that Stazi will make them unbeatable, with a grip so strong that the top players of the country will play for Dynamo and referees will help them, and back-room orders will diminish whatever opposition existed. For the moment, their title was optimistic and refreshing: a new strong club added to the usual three and no chancy winners either: two consecutive titles meant Dynamo was going to stay, that the East German football will be more competitive than before. So it looked… and it was entirely wrong.