A team capable of gathering many tens of thousands of fans in the stands during their games cannot a priori be uninteresting or boring. This is exactly what one of the oldest football teams in Germany "Hannover 96" is. Born in 1896, over the next 117 years, she climbed twice to the top step of the German championship podium. But it went down in the history of German club football not only because of this …
1: 6 in honor of the anniversary
Hannover 96 decided to celebrate its half-century anniversary in 1946 with a solemn friendly match against Schalke 04 from Gelsenkirchen. The hosts of the field, alas, did not have a holiday, they lost more than large - 1: 6. Thus, the guests took a convincing revenge for the defeat in the two-match final of the German championship in 1938 - 3: 3 and 3: 4.
But even more sad was the club's 100th anniversary celebrated in 1996. This season, "Hannover" has already departed from the second Bundesliga, going to the regional league.
By the way, the replay of the final-38, which brought the leaders of the Hanoverians, the players of the German national team Fritz Dycke, Edmund Malecki, Ludwig Pehler, Johannes Jacobs and their teammates the first championship trophy in their history, was watched by a record number of fans for those years - 95,000 people!
"Tricky" coach of "Hannover" -54
The second and last victory for today in the national championship "Hannover" won in 1954 - in the year of the triumphant victory of the German national team at the world championship in Switzerland. In the decisive match, the team from Hanover, coached by Helmut Kronsbein, nicknamed Sly, defeated Kaiserslautern with a score of 5: 1, for which five world champions played at once.
In the same year, the largest arena in Germany and Europe, the Lower Saxony Stadium, for 86,000 spectators, was built in Hannover, one of those that hosted the FIFA World Cup in 1974 and 2006.
2014 will mark the 60th anniversary of Hannover's second and last victory in the German championship.
Wuppertal miracle
The 1960-1970s were remembered by the fans from Hanover with three pleasant facts. The first of these was the effective performance of striker Hans Siemensmeier, who scored 72 goals in nine seasons and is still the club's top scorer in the Bundesliga.
The second noteworthy fact: in the 1963/1964 season, the record for the average attendance of the Hanover stadium was set - 46,000 people.
Finally, the third fact is the match played in the final round of the national championship in 1972/1973 and later called the "Wuppertal miracle". On this day, Hannover, already almost resigned to being relegated from the Bundesliga, unexpectedly beat Wuppertal 4: 0 and beat Eintracht (Braunschweig), the loser in the last round, retaining a place in the elite league of German football.
Sievers Cup
In 1992, "Hannover" achieved a unique and still unrepeated achievement - won the German Cup, being a team of only the second division of the championship. Goalkeeper Jörg Sievers became the hero of the final game, in which the Hanoverians achieved victory only in the penalty shootout.
The humble Hannover 96 entered the history of German club football by becoming the only team in the second division of the championship that managed to win the Cup of the country.
In memory of Encke
One of the saddest days in the history of the club was November 10, 2009, when the main goalkeeper of the team and the German national team Robert Encke passed away. The footballer, reflecting the blows of his rivals without fear and reproach, could not withstand the blows of fate and depression and voluntarily stepped onto the rails in front of a passing train …
Almost 40 thousand people took part in the funeral of the fan favorite, and one of the streets of Hanover, located not far from the football stadium, began to bear the name of Robert Encke.
Stars of "Hanover"
In addition to the already mentioned leaders of "Hannover" of the 30s and the vice-champion of Europe-2008 Robert Encke, the club, for short, called by the fans "96", included many other outstanding players. The most famous of these is Jupp Heynckes - 1972 European champion and 1974 world champion.
Such celebrity players of the Hanoverian club as Gerald Asamoah, Fredi Bobich, Per Mertesacker, Gheorghe Popescu (Romania), Michael Tarnat and Emanuel Pogatets (Austria), who played for some time in Spartak Moscow, have considerable experience of playing for the national teams of Germany and other European countries.
