A tale of the rise and fall, rise and fall again of the Red Devils of Pfalz...
The small town of Kaiserslautern close to the border with France was not really what you'd call a football stronghold in the early years of German football.
The league structure of German football was based in regions until the formation of the Bundesliga in 1963. That means that Kaiserslautern played in their own region, alongside clubs from Frankfurt, Mainz, Saarbrucken and Kickers Offenbach. Due to the weird times of the WW2 era, they also played against French side Metz and the regions were being reshuffled more often than not.
1940 was the first time they finsihed as runners up of their regional league. Two seasons later the region would be split into two and Kaiserslautern would win the 1941-42 edition, but would not accomplish much in the championship round. It would go on for just a couple more seasons and then Germany was occupied by four different nations, each dividing the country into zones. Kaiserslautern would fall into the French zone.
Kaiserslautern had finished runners up in 1946 but would then proceed to become the elite force of their region, winning it for the next 5 years in a row. They reached the German championship final in 1948 but failed to win. At the same time, they became Champions of Germany for the same time in their 5th attempt for the big trophy. Remarkably, they would fail to defend their championship and their rivals Saarbrucken managed to reach the final, only to lose to Stuttgart. Kaiserslautern returned and proceeded to win the regional championship as well as the German league by beating Stuttgart in the 1953 championship. This was their first 2 league titles in history and they came in a space of 3 seasons. In the meantime, their city was hosting an American airforce base and the Americans would start calling it K-Town, the city developed and was influenced a lot by this. So their championship years came at a time when the city was flourishing compared to other places in the region. It was the place to be in the 50s in the Palatinate-Rhineland region.
This also came at a great time for German football, as their first World Cup appearance since 1938 would take place.
Kaiserslautern had 5 players from that West Germany team in 1954. It was the team that managed to win the tournament by surprisng the world and beating Hungary, a team that had beaten them 8-3 just a few days before the final!
Some of their players were instrumental, such as Ottmar Walter who was playing most of his career with WW2 leg injuries, Werner Kohlmeyer, Werner Liebrich, Horst Eckel and the greatest of them all, Fritz Walter, who was captain of both Kaiserslautern and West Germany.
The stadium of the team was given the name Fritz Walter as a token of respect.
So Kaiserslautern had managed to win 5 regional championships in a row, missed one, then proceeded with another 5 in a row, while racking up 2 German championships in the process and losing in 3 championship finals. Not bad for a regional minnow.
To paint the picture of how great their achievement was and what their potential was like, the league winners table as of 1955 is listed below:
Nurnberg 7
Schalke 6
Greuther Furth 3
Lokomotiv Leipzig 3
Hamburg 2 + 1 (1922 championship was eventually revoked)
Viktoria Berlin 2
Hertha Berlin 2
Hanover 2
Dresdner 2
Stuttgart 2
Kaiserslautern 2
Bayern only had 1 league title by then and Dortmund would proceed to win back to back championships in 1956 and 1957, which were their first ones. Bayern had won in 1932 and their next league title would come in 1969. And the battle of the 70s with Monchengladbach had began as they both had 2 titles by 1971 when Gladbach would win their first titles back to back, then Bayern would win 3 in a row to make it 5 and Gladbach would follow with 3 of their own to make it 5 each. Bayern sustained their quality in the 80s and battled it out with Hamburg initially and later on with Werder and Koln and then we are in the 90s where Bayern and Dortmund (who had just 3 titles until 1994) formed modern German Bundesliga rivalries.
German football has always been about cycles and the 50s was Kaiserslautern's turn to shine.
They would only win the last Regional championship edition in 1963 where they would fail to make their presence felt, but at the same time that earned them an invitation to the newly found Bundesliga. But that did not help matters as they were struggling. Their only other success was reaching the German Cup final in 1961.
12th out of 16 in the first edition of the Bundesliga, barely staying safe.
13th out of 16 in the second edition. No relegation in place as they added two more teams to reach the 18 standard that we still have.
That did not help either with a 15th finish out of 18, but the following year they reached 5th place. Which was a one off as the next year they finished 16th out of 18 and almost got relegated. Same thing almost happened the next season.
Then the 70s came along and they were promising. Two more Cup final runs that went south but that beats fighting for relegation. Kaiserslautern was now a mid-table team save from one scare in 1977. Two years after that, they reached a record 3rd place! Which brings us to the 80s, with multiple 4th place finishes, another cup final loss, the decade was split between top half to open the decade and mid-table finishes at the second part of the decade.
It was in the 90s that this club would resurrect. They did not avoid a midtable finish, but they reached the Cup final once more which they won this time. Their first ever trophy after the formation of the Bundesliga!
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This win would give Kaiserslautern the spirit to fight for the Bundesliga. And they did just that. They won their first ever Bundesliga title in 1991, leaving Bayern in second place.
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One thing you wouldn't really expect to see is that things football in the 80s and early 90s in Germany used to get ugly quite often. The games were very heated and don't forget that Germany was in political turmoil for a long while.
This is from a big game vs Bayern in the championship winning season.
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Celebrations from the championship win. In the video you will see Inter player, Andreas Brehme, being interviewed. He was a former Kaiserslautern player in the 80s and spent also 2 years at Bayern after that. More on him below.
Kaiserslautern could not keep it up and they struggled in their next couple of seasons, but they came back in 1993-94, once Andreas Brehme had returned from Inter and a brief spell at Zaragoza.
They would keep Bayern occupied until the very end and the title was decided on the final matchday:
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A final matchday that's Inter related as the captains of both these teams were Lothar Mathaus and Andreas Brehme. Lothar Mathaus with a similar strike as the 1989 Scudetto would seal the trophy to Bayern's fate for the first time since 1990.
The next year Kaiserslautern remained more competitive and finished 4th.
But the next season, 1995-96, would be the weirdest in their history and possibly one of the craziest seasons in German football history until that point.
Kaiserslautern would win the German Cup for the 2nd time.
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But something had happened a week prior to this final. They don't look ecstatic now, do they?
Kaiserslautern was struggling at the end of the season, winning just 2 of their last 9 games prior to going to the final match.
Their match was against Leverkusen away. This was the team they had beaten in the Cup semi finals.
This was also the first season were 3 points were awarded per win, rather than 2 points.
Leverkusen was also struggling, whilst St Pauli was also in the danger zone and was playing at home vs the already doomed Uerdingen. Koln was up against 5th placed Hansa Rostock away who needed the win to clinch a European ticket.
The last relegation spot was up for grabs and the table was:
13. St Pauli 38 points
14. Leverkusen 37 points
15. Koln 37 points
16. Kaiserslautern 35 points
Results?
Koln would manage to beat Hansa Rostock away, with a 1-0 win, something which also sent Hansa Rostock to 6th place and not in Europe anymore.
St Pauli would surprisingly lose to Uerdingen 0-2 at home.
And then the big deciding game, in two parts:
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With a late equalizer, Leverkusen sent Kaiserslautern down. Only 4 teams were left from the original Bundesliga edition that were never relegated, Eintracht Frankfurt who finished 17th was the other so it was 3 and then Leverkusen helped Kaiserslautern leave it to just 2 of them. Remarkably enough, Koln was the next of the bunch to get relegated two seasons later after they also played v Leverkusen and their 2-0 advantage was neutralized within 5 minutes very late in the game. Hamburg was the last to go down in 2018 for the record.
A change was needed at Kaiserslautern despite the cup success, you cannot just let a relegation slide. Especially the first one. Andreas Brehme was sought after but he opted to remain at the club and bring them back to the Bundesliga.
Enter Otto Rehaghel. Most of the world knows him for achieving a miracle with Greece in 2004, but Germany knew him as the architect of the great Werder Bremen team of the 80s and early 90s. Two league wins, two cup wins, one Cup Winners Cup and always being in contention, Rehaghel was a big name in Germany. So big, that Bayern wanted him to help them dethrone Hitzfeld's Dortmnd. But he didn't like the environment at Bayern, he clashed with their big personalities (Klinsmann and Matthaus in particular) and he was sacked just before the Uefa Cup finals (which Bayern won under Beckenbauer).
It was an odd choice for him to go to the 2nd division after almost being the Uefa Cup winner. He'd still have to play in Europe where they initially beat Red Star 1-0 at home but would then meet a young Dejan Stankovic who sent the return leg to extra time where Red Star went on a merciless 4-0 win with a Deki brace!
Kaiserslautern was soon up again, as they had won the 2. Bundesliga with ease. They were considered a good team as they had not changed much since their Cup success in 1996 and were considered unlucky to be relegated. They were touted to be a mid-table team.
Little did they know. Kaiserslautern was on the path to write history, being the first ever team to win the Bundesliga directly from the 2nd tier. They did this with another Inter acquintance, this time part-time comedy relief Ciriaco Sforza, who had his own incredible story as he moved from Kaiserlautern to Bayern, then moved back to Bayern, then moved back to Kaiserslautern after stopping at Inter only to move back to Bayern. Probably an unprecedented transfer situation.
Another player that grew from that moment and on was Michael Ballack.
It was a rollercoaster of a season for them, with many points and games won in the final 15 minutes or even last minutes of the game.
17th matchday (half way into the season) to keep them top of the leaguw with breathing distance of 4 points from Bayern
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75th minute equlaizer and a 90th minute winner against Hamburg.
Crucial 32th matchday, 2 points clear of Bayern and this epic game vs Gladbach took place
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From 0-2 down in the first half to 3-2 with a last minute winner. Gladbach was fighting for survival that season and they were relegated at the end. With a win here they could have stayed up.
Kaiserslautern though managed to clinch the title with a game to go in the next matchday as Bayern had settled for a 0-0 away draw to Duisburg.
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Andreas Brehme would retire after helping his team win the Bundesliga.
They woud proceed to reach the Champions League Quarter Finals in 1999 where they'd lose twice to domestic rivals Bayern.
Their next expedition would be in the 2000-01 Uefa Cup, after they had secured a ticket via 5th place in Germany, where they would reach the Semi Finals, losing badly twice to Alaves who had initially beaten Inter in the round of last 16.
They would face some above midtable runs in the early 2000s, fall to relegation battling in the mid 2000s and eventually go to the 2. Bundesliga in 2006 but this time they'd stick around a bit longer returning in 2010 as 2nd tier champions which led them to a respectable 7th place. But that would be the end of it as they'd finish bottom of the league in their 2nd year back in the top flight and they'd slowly fall down to the 3rd tier of German football where they currently reside since the 2018-19 season and so far are closer to going back to the Regional championships than returning to the 2nd tier, assuming the season goes on.
One of the greatest fairy tales of 90s football regardless of past, present and future.