Football: Hertha BSC: With the death of Kay Bernstein, the revolution dies

When Hertha BSC hosts Fortuna Düsseldorf on Sunday at the start of the second half of the 2nd Bundesliga, one player will be missing. Kay Bernstein, the president of the Berlin football club, died last Tuesday, completely unexpectedly and at the age of 43, far too early. “I want to promise you something: as long as I’m captain, I will continue to pursue our dreams and fill them with life.” With these words, Toni Leistner, Hertha’s leader on the football field, said goodbye to Bernstein via Instagram. It is entirely conceivable that the Berliners can confirm their upward trend in sport even in this situation. The fight for Bernstein’s dreams such as promotion or the cup final in the Olympic Stadium will drive her. However, it seems inconceivable that the club will be able to continue on the very remarkable path set by the president.

The sympathy for the death of Kay Bernstein is unusually great and extends far beyond the blue and white club boundaries. Marc Lenz, managing director of the German Football League (DFL), described Bernstein as someone “who had an incredible impact on football.” That doesn’t sound dutiful, you have to earn such great appreciation. Bernstein succeeded in this because he represented his ideas openly and honestly, especially when they had to be fought for. As recently as November, he criticized the fact that certain structures at the DFL and DFB were not designed for progress, but very often for self-preservation.

For Bernstein, values ​​were not just words to create a good mood. This is shown by his story, from fan and lead singer in the Ostkurve to the president of Hertha BSC. In 1998 he co-founded the ultra group “Harlequins,” which said it was proud of having driven the Nazis out of the Olympic Stadium. A little later he was instrumental in turning the newly formed fan scene, which was declaring war on the professional football system, into a nationwide movement. Michael Gabriel, head of the fan project coordination office (KOS) remembers this., in the nd conversation: »I met Kay when he was 19 years old. At that time, in 2001, we organized the first ultra conference in Germany with the aim of breaking down the speechlessness between the DFB and clubs on the one hand and the new fan culture of the ultras. Even back then, Kay stood out for his commitment, reliability and communication skills. So the impetus for the first nationwide fan demonstration in May 2002 came from him – and because it took place before the cup final in Berlin, he organized it straight away.

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The KOS calls it unusual, as a higher-level institution of a single person from the fan scene obituary to dedicate. She did it anyway. This sentence describes Bernstein’s meaning: “The conference and the demonstration were the starting signal for the founding of the nationwide fan organization “Pro 15:30”, which later became “ProFans”.

Saturday, 3:30 p.m.: The return to the traditional kick-off time, like the desire for more fan rights and participation or the decriminalization of fans, is one of the long-standing demands of the active scenes. Bernstein also represented this. But he wouldn’t have become President of Hertha BSC in the summer of 2022 if he hadn’t wanted more and thought bigger. He wanted to stop the increasing commercialization by minimizing dependence on television money, setting a salary cap or taking measures against excessive consultant fees. He also linked the topic of sustainability to the kick-off time of 3:30 p.m. because then many people would be able to travel by train again.

While the fight for better football will continue, the passing of Kay Bernstein is probably the end of a revolution for Hertha BSC. Michael Gabriel describes it like this: “Kay Bernstein’s assumption of the presidency was a kind of glimmer of hope for many football fans nationwide because his goal was to bring Hertha, the self-proclaimed Big City Club, closer to its members and fans again.” Bernstein has undoubtedly achieved this. The increase of more than 10,000 members alone speaks for this.

Dario Minden also regrets Bernstein’s death. The spokesman for the nation’s largest fan association “Our Curve” told “nd”: “With more people like him in leadership positions, a different kind of football would be possible. A football that doesn’t offer itself to any potential source of income without any values, but one that belongs to those who love it.” Hertha BSC will not find someone like Kay Bernstein; he was not only an exceptional president, but was also involved in the operational business every day – for the “cultural change in the club”, as he himself described it. Fabian Drescher, interim president until the fall, promised to continue Bernstein’s “Berlin Way”. But who will stand up, as Bernstein did, against Hertha’s current investor 777 Partners, who sees the time for the “hyper-commercialization of football” has come?

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