DDR had mixed season – familiar and different at once. The vast see of second level provided no excitement. The five groups of the second division hardly had strong and ambitious members – ever! Clubs like Chemie (Premnitz) played there.
Clubs, which even looked alike – the only difference between a photo of Chemie (Premnitz) and one of Chemie (Leipzig) is the goalkeepers’ colours. Same kits… and it is a safe bet that other clubs with this name were also dressed the same. Well, Chemie (Bohlen) was. The club from Premnitz, however, ended 11th in Group C of Second Division – next to last and thus relegated. May be 95% of the second level clubs were entirely unknown and insignificant even in East Germany – first division was out of their reach, out of their dreams.
But there was something curious: a few foreign players appeared here.
Motor (Hennigsdorf) was unheard of club, but had three foreigners in its squad: Plachetko (standing, 2nd from left), Igor Uschakow (crouching last at the far right, 31 years old), and Wladimir Polikarpow (standing, 6th from left to right, 37 years old). Not well known names to be sure – perhaps Plachetko was a bit familiar: he played for CSKA (Moscow) once upon a time. The three Soviet players are interesting for the following reasons: first, Eastern European countries and particularly USSR did not export players during the 1970s (except Poland). Czechoslovakia and Romania did export players in the late 1960s and stopped in the early 70s. Regular exporting started roughly in 1980 – Hungary a bit earlier. Second, Communist countries never imported and exported players between themselves – and the first officially transferred player from one Eastern European country to another was announced at the very end of the 1980s, shortly before the whole system collapsed. Third, the thorny question of Soviet exports and the purely historic matter who was the first export and the list of early Soviets playing abroad. Mind, officially, the first Soviet export is still considered Zinchenko, who went to Rapid (Vienna) in 1980. The general Russian population, including journalists, learned about it well after USSR seized to exist. But Hadzipanagis went to play in Greece in 1975. Shortly after that Armenian player appeared in small club in USA, and returned to USSR. However, technically, these were not transfers – both players were officially allowed to emigrate, because of their nationality. But Zinchenko officially was not a transferred player either – he was registered under different profession, taking his salary not from Rapid, but from the Soviet embassy in Vienna.
So, what about the Russians playing for Motor? If one doesn’t know, then there is no problem. Nobody heard of them, they were never mentioned in the Soviet press – unlike hockey players, allowed to play abroad since the early 1970s. Very likely the Russians were not a news in DDR either – perhaps mentioned casually as names in the sport pages, just because this cannot be avoided, but without nationality or former clubs. And why were they playing in DDR? Only a guess: most likely they were part of the Soviet Army stationed in East Germany. Marian Plachetko (35 years old) clearly suggests so – he was playing for the Army club at home, where players were militarized and many remained in the Army as officers after they retired from football. Plachetko perhaps was an officers, the other two may be just recruits, placed in units in DDR. A little ‘understanding’, nothing official, just on the side – let the boys keep their form and play a bit of football, in the same time helping the local team to stay afloat. Lower divisions permit such ‘muddy’ agreements, for nobody is looking. Yet, these were foreign players in East European club – unique occasion! Was it the first? How many before? Where? It is difficult to unearth information, but there is a legal guiding point to start with: however rarely, East Europeans moved from one to another country to work. Since they were legally there, there was no problem to kick the ball a bit since East European sports were ‘amateur’ in status. No transfers, no contracts, no fees – as far as high level football is not involved. So the Russians played and helped… not much, after all: Motor (Hennigsdorf) finished 8th in Group B of Second Division, 2 points ahead of the relegated…
But they were not the only Russians:
TSG Neustrelitz also had a bunch: Mikhail Forkas (32 years old, his last name misspelled in the German list), Nikolay Litwinow (35), Wiktor Babenko (23), and Wiktor Kalinin (27). Again, not famous players, but the goalkeepr Forkas was champions of USSR in 1972 with Zarya (Voroshilovgrad) and even played a tiny bit for the national team. The second ‘Russian’ club faired even worse than the first: Neustrelitz finished last in Group B and were relegated to third division.
So much for mystery and curious historic events. Second division football took its course and produced its highs and lows. The lows: WM Schmalkalden (Schmalkalden) finished with 6 points in the Group D. They were the team scoring the least number of goals this season – 13. But Nord (Torgelow) was truly the worst: they finished with 4 points in Group A. Lokomotive (Halberstadt), 12th and last in Group C received most goals in their net: 73.
The best were only relatively best, for the 5 group champions had to play still a promotional tournament. As a rule of thumb, there was not great competition in second division – if there was, that most likely meant generally weak teams. Group E was such – Wismut (Gera) won a point ahead of Motor (Weimar) and Kali Werra (Tiefenort) was close behind. In Group D Energie (Cottbus) won 2 points ahead of Vorwarts (Kamenz), and Motor (Werdau) was third 4 points behind Vorwarts. Dynamo (Furstenwalde) edged Chemie PCK (Schwedt) on goal-difference, but only these two fought for the first place – Vorwarts (Neubrandenburg) was distant 3rd – 7 points behind. In Group C and Group A there was no fight at all – Chemie (Bohlen) won Group C 7 points ahead of the closest pursuer. They lost only 1 match this season. Hansa (Rostock) did not lose any match and more: they finished with almost perfect record: 21 wins and 1 tie! They allowed just 8 goals, scoring a league record of 77 in the same time. Vorwarts (Stralsund), one of generally stronger second division members, was second – 14 behind the champions! It was more or less clear by now – and nothing new either: Bohlen and Rostock were just relegated from first division – and were too much for the second division. Far too strong.
The promotional tournament between the 5 group winners simply showed the supremacy of the recent first division members. SC Dynamo (Furstenwalde) finished 5th with 4 points. BSG Wismut (Gera) – 4th also with 4 points. Goal-difference decided 3rd and 2nd place – BSG Energie (Cottbus) lost: 9 points and 10-12.
BSG Chemie (Bohlen) clinched 2nd place – and promotion – also with 9 points, but 13-12 goal-difference. Not an easy promotion, but success came at the end. Chemie was relegated from top flight in 1978-79 and immediately going back.
So was the other relegated team in 1978-79 – FC Hansa (Rostock). They were clearly way above any other second division club in 1979-80 – they lost a single point in the regular championship of Group A. In the mini-championship of the group winners, they lost their only match this season. But won the rest – 7 wins, 0 ties, 1 loss, 20-6, and 14 points – 5 more than Chemie (Bohlen).
Simply the best. But first division was another matter – obviously, the gap between first and second level was enormous: relegated clubs usually stayed in second division only one year. Yet… Hansa was relegated in 1874-75, promoted 1975-76, relegated 1976-77, promoted 1977-78, relegated 1978-79, and again promoted 1979-80. Their pitiful record was the longest, but otherwise typical for the clubs coming from second division – they were relegated right away normally. Too strong for the second league, too weak for the first.