Few European capitals have a football landscape as layered as Berlin’s. The wall that divided the city for decades still runs as an invisible line through the terraces. Look at the football clubs in Berlin side by side and you are effectively reading German history in miniature: an old heavyweight in the west, a cult club in the east, and beneath them a surprisingly deep layer of traditional sides where a Saturday afternoon costs a few euros and offers a completely different kind of football.
Berlin football teams: who plays in which league?
Before the deep dive, the overview. In the 2026/27 season, the berlin football clubs are spread across the German pyramid like this:
- Bundesliga: 1. FC Union Berlin
- 2. Bundesliga: Hertha BSC
- Regionalliga Nordost (fourth tier): BFC Dynamo, VSG Altglienicke, BFC Preussen, SV Tasmania Berlin, Hertha BSC II
- NOFV-Oberliga (fifth tier): FC Viktoria 1889 Berlin, Tennis Borussia Berlin, Berliner AK 07, SV Lichtenberg 47, Hertha Zehlendorf and others
So there is currently one Bundesliga Berlin team and one side a division below it. On a single matchday you can comfortably find five to eight fixtures inside the city limits, which means a football trip here never comes down to a choice between one game or none.
Hertha BSC: the Old Lady and her Olympiastadion
No article about berlin football works without Hertha BSC. Founded in 1892, the club took its name from a steamship that sailed the Havel, and it has been known as die Alte Dame — the Old Lady — ever since. The two German championships date back to 1930 and 1931, and in 1963 Hertha was one of the sixteen founding members of the Bundesliga.
Recent history has been far bumpier. After years of heavy investment under the notorious “Big City Club” project, Hertha were relegated from the Bundesliga in 2023. The 2026/27 campaign is their fourth consecutive season in the 2. Bundesliga, following a disappointing seventh-place finish last year. The ambition to go back up is undiminished, but the division is brutal: Schalke 04, Kaiserslautern, Hannover 96 and 1. FC Nürnberg — known in Czech as FC Norimberk — are chasing the same promotion places. Fittingly, Hertha close the season on 23 May 2027 away at Nürnberg’s Max-Morlock-Stadion.
The setting, at least, remains world class. The Olympiastadion, built for the 1936 Games, holds more than 74,000 and ranks among Europe’s most imposing grounds. It hosted the 2006 World Cup final, it stages the DFB-Pokal final every year, and it is where this berlin football club plays its home matches — sometimes with half-empty upper tiers on a midweek second-division night, but with a sound that hangs in the concrete when the big games come around.
1. FC Union Berlin: the club that built its own stadium
If one berlin soccer club has won over neutral fans over the past fifteen years, it is Union. Officially 1. FC Union Berlin, founded in 1966 with roots going back to 1906. In the GDR era Union was the mirror image of BFC Dynamo: the workers’ club from Köpenick, whose supporters cultivated their own ironic distance from the regime. The 1968 FDGB-Pokal remained their only major trophy for decades.
What made them famous worldwide happened in 2008 and 2009. When the Alte Försterei no longer met licensing requirements, more than two thousand supporters picked up shovels themselves. They tore down the terraces and rebuilt them — unpaid, on their free weekends. The stadium has never been an ordinary stadium since: roughly 22,000 places, the vast majority of them standing, tucked into the forest in Köpenick. Every Christmas, thousands of people gather on the pitch with candles to sing carols together.
The rise on the pitch was just as steep. Promotion to the Bundesliga in 2019, European football within three years, and the Champions League in 2023/24. In 2026/27 this football club Union Berlin begins its eighth straight Bundesliga season, now under Swiss head coach Mauro Lustrinelli. From underdog to established name, without diluting what makes the Alte Försterei special.
The Berlin derby: two cities in one
Since Union’s promotion in 2019, Berlin has finally had a genuine top-level derby. It is different from Munich or Hamburg because the rivalry is not only sporting but geographic and cultural: west against east, big money against self-build, Charlottenburg against Köpenick. With Hertha a division below, the fixture is currently on pause — which is precisely why a possible Hertha promotion is awaited across the city with such mixed feelings.
BFC Dynamo and the forgotten giants
Below the two big names sits a layer most visitors overlook. BFC Dynamo is historically the most successful club in the city: ten consecutive East German titles between 1979 and 1988. That those titles came under the protection of Stasi chief Erich Mielke still clings to the reputation. Today the club plays in the Regionalliga Nordost at the Sportforum in Hohenschönhausen, in front of a passionate and at times controversial support.
Worth knowing too: SV Tasmania Berlin, who played the worst Bundesliga season in history in 1965/66 and have climbed back to the fourth tier after years in the regional basement. Tennis Borussia in their purple and white, Berliner AK 07 from Kreuzberg, Viktoria 1889 — German champions in 1908 and 1911 — and VSG Altglienicke, who have settled remarkably well at the fourth level. Reduce the soccer teams in Berlin, Germany to two names and you miss most of the story.
Planning a football trip to Berlin
A football trip here works for a simple reason: the city is easy to reach by train or short flight, and public transport takes you everywhere. The Olympiastadion has its own U-Bahn and S-Bahn stops; for the Alte Försterei take the S-Bahn to Köpenick or Spindlersfeld and walk the last stretch through the woods.
Tickets. Union sells out structurally, so try the official sale window early or a reputable resale platform. Hertha tickets in the 2. Bundesliga are usually plentiful and affordable. For Regionalliga games you simply pay at the turnstile.
Combine. Plan a long weekend. Friday night in the Regionalliga, Saturday afternoon at Hertha, Sunday at Union — that fits into three days more often than you would think. Check the fixture list in advance, because German kick-off times move around for television.
Stadium tour. The Olympiastadion is worth visiting even without a match. The tour takes in the dressing rooms, the Marathon Gate and the stands, and deals openly with the loaded history of 1936.
Atmosphere. Around the Alte Försterei, beer stands and bratwurst grills fill up hours before kick-off. Get there early, talk to people, and within half an hour you understand why this club feels different.
Final whistle
Berlin football cannot be reduced to one club or one stadium. It is the monumental chill of the Olympiastadion and the wooden warmth of Köpenick, it is the Bundesliga and the fourth division, it is history that has not finished happening. That is exactly what makes the city such a rewarding destination: you come for one match and go home with an entire football landscape.