DDR. Ranked 16th. Political tensions marked this time, especially 1989, and somewhat football reflected them: the iron grip of Stasi was broken – after 10 years of Dynamo (Berlin) dominance, DDR had different champion. The fresh wind was not strong enough to blow away Stasi and its team away, of course, but it was refreshing to see different champion at last, even if it was still named Dynamo. More in the pure realm of football, there were practically new winners in the Second Division – both so far played only once in the First Division. Yet, Second Division had its own political contribution: after the end of the season two clubs from it plus one third level club changed their names to their original names: ASV Vorwaerts (Stralsund) changed to TSV 1860 Stralsund, Vorwaerts (Dessau) changed to SG 1898 Dessau and the other club in Dessau – third-level BSG Motor became SG Waggonbau’05.
East German Second Division was always peculiar – no big stirring there, former top league teams won, whatever intrigue a championship had depended on the number of the former First Division clubs. And this number was always small, so practically the same clubs moved constantly up and down. This season was a bit different only in that the former First Division clubs were shaky and some among them, especially those which faded long time ago, went to even further oblivion: Aktivist Brieske-Senftenberg, Motor (Babelsberg), and Lokomotive (Stendal) were relegated. In any case, there were few clubs with more successful recent history playing in the Second Division – 8 altogether, 5 of which played in Group B.
Group A. The more interesting group, because here 5 teams competed for top position.
The rest of league was nothing much – here is a typical example: BSG Stahl (Hennigsdorf). They ended 15th, just above relegation zone (which consisted of the 3 already mentioned above former top league clubs).
The battle for 1st place was between BSG Aktivisit Schwarze Pumpe (at the end – 5th with 41 points), BFC Dynamo II (East Berlin) – as a second team, they were ineligible for promotion anyway, 4th with 43 points, FC Vorwaerts (Frankfurt/Oder) – freshly relegated and shaky shape, so 3rd with 43 points, Dynamo (Furstenwalde) – a long time staple of Second Division, but never a factor. However, they were 2nd – distant 2nd! – in 1987-88 and tried to do better this season. And they did: 16 wins, 12 ties, 6 losses, 56-32 goal-difference and 44 points. They did better than the year before, but still finished 2nd – in most dramatic way.
BSG Stahl (Eisenhuttenstadt) clinched 1st place and promotion. Stahl won 16 games, tied 12, lost 6, scored 57 goals and received 32. Stahl prevailed over Dynamo on 1 goal better goal-difference – everything else was the same between them, except Stahl scored 57 goals and Dynamo 56. A rare drama, although the season itself most likely wasn’t great – the battle between 5 teams and the dramatic conclusion of it compensated for the lack of true class. In any case it was the great moment in the history of Stahl – they won a championship exactly 20 years after they earned promotion for the first time.
Group B offered no such excitement.
The most famous team in the league – BSG Chemie (Leipzig) – was not in good shape and finished 5th with 38 points.
One team was stronger than the rest and confidently won the championship.
BSG Fortschritt (Bischofswerda) won 17 games, tied 13, lost 4, and with 47 points left their nearest rival – Vorwaerts (Dessau) – 5 points behind. 71-34 was their goal-difference – the best record in both groups of the Second Division by far. Practically anonymous club, but they already had a brief encounter with First Division football, after winning promotion in 1985-86 – they were relegated right away in 1986-87, so let see what their second try would bring.