DDR – rather alarming season, because of sharp divisions. Second division – 5 groups of 12 clubs each – was never strong supplier for the top tier, but now appeared as entirely separated entity. The winners, going to the final promotional mini-league, were:
Hansa (Rostock) from Group A,
Vorwaerts (Neubrandenburg) from Group B,
BSG Chemie (Leipzig) from Group C,
FSV Lokomotive (Dresden) from Group D, and
BSG Stahl (Riesa) from group E.
Only Hansa and Stahl really dominated their groups, but still the final round-robin tournament was supposed to be tougher. It was not – Stahl and Hansa walked over. Hansa lost matches, but still ended 4 points ahead of the 3rd placed BSG Chemie (Leipzig), finishing with 11 points. Stahl was 4 points ahead, after winning 7 of the total 8 matches and losing none. They scored 27 goals and received only 4. Well, nothing wrong at first glance – the best proved there strength… except that the winners of promotions were the relegated from first division the previous year. They were measly just an year ago and there not a single to believe that they were really stronger now. Hansa was an interesting measuring stick – they still had one or two real stars and were, on paper, more impressive than Stahl. Yet, they finished well behind the modest club from Riesa. Returning to first division was good, but was it really making the top league more competitive? Unlikely.
Unlikely, because top flight was severely divided: two hopeless outsiders, then a group of 6 clubs far bellow the upper half, yet, feeling secure, for they were also much better than the outsiders, and only relatively strong clubs – far stronger than the lower half of the league, but… there were internal divide even there: one club was seemingly stronger than half of this group, yet, not a title contender. More or less only two clubs really competed for the title.
At the bottom was Vorwaerts (Frankfurt/Oder).
The Army club suffered during the 1970, slowly sinking further and further down the table. Yet, it was hard to imagine them relegated – in the tradition of Communist Eastern Europe, the Army clubs were kept strong and heavily supported by the state. That was the case in DDR too – until 1970. Quiet, but significant change of emphasis apparently happened – first the club was moved from East Berlin to Frankfurt/Oder. The change appeared as relaxing of the state grip on football at first – so far, the Police was not powerful and no longer the Army. But by this season the Police club was gradually getting stronger – not yet dominant, though. As for the Army – the relegation meant that the state did not want this club anymore. Perhaps. Anyhow, Vorwaerts was really weak – they accumulated only 15 points, winning only 3 matches. Thirteenth at the final table and going to taste second division football next year.
Bellow them was a hopeless team even when compared to Vorwaerts – BSG Wismut (Gera). Nothing surprising at a glance – newly promoted clubs were relegated just as quickly as a rule. But Wismut finished with the worst record in the whole history of the East German top league to date: 6 points! They won a single match – Wismut (Aue) distinguished themselves as the only team losing against Gera: 1-2. Only one club had it worse than Gera: SC Fortschritt (Weissenfels) ended without any wins in 1960, but still with more points – 8, from the corresponding number of ties – than Wismut (Gera).
All-time worst… the freshly relegated get ready for their familiar second division habitat in July 1977: Standing from left: Irmscher, Markfeld, Kraft, Korn, Hoppe, Posselt, Neubert.
First row: Schirrmeister, Zubeck, Struppert, Winkler, Kaiser, Kliemang.
Yes, Wismut (Gera) was not strong club – their best years were far back in the early 1950s, then they made a single first division appearance in 1966-67, when they finished last (but with double the points and 4 victories). It was not that much their sorry fate, but rather what the general message was: the second division was not able to promote even slightly competitive club. Looked like the only role of the newcomers was to provide comfortable security for the rest of the league and no wonder it was getting weaker league as a whole, for half of it had no fear and no ambitions, slowly sinking too, but still not in danger of relegation.
The second debutant – and in their case real debutantes, for they never played in first division before – had heroic season: they finished 12th in the 14-team league. BSG Chemie (Bohlen) had no players to speak of, but they were brave and may be helped by the incredible weakness of Vorwaerts (Frankfurt/Oder).
Absolute beginners – and no longer after this season. Chemie ended with 20 points, so they were out of danger long before the end of the season. Yet, they were the worst of the weak lower half of the league – the team immediately above them, Wismut (Aue), had 22 points. True, the best placed of the weaklings – FC Karl-Marx-Stadt – was 7th with measly 24 points, but even among the rabble Chemie was seemingly of lower class. However, they scored a lot: 34 goals – the same number FC Karl-Marx-Stadt scored – the best by far in the lower half of the league. Well, they may have been happy in Bohlen, but it was clear that Chemie was not a great addition to the league – it was sure that the next year they will be trying only to survive again and their chances were small.
Nothing distinguished half of the league:
Clubs like Union (Berlin), having one or two good players, but no ambitions and clearly no class. Not even fancy kits… it looks like Puma, but DDR did not bye from West Germany – the point practically to the end of this state was to use home-made gear, desperately trying to look ‘better’ than the one made by the ideological enemy. 1. FC Union finished at 8th place with 24 points – FC Karl-Marx-Stadt had better goal-difference – which was 6 points behind the lowest of the upper-half clubs. Vast divide. And quite permanent – the league stayed sharply divided until 1985-86.