SAMSTAG 15:30

Founded: Dec 28, 1965
Club Members: 27,700
Nickname: Kogge
Coach: Bernd Hollerbach
Captain: Franz Pfanne

DDR Oberliga Champions: 1
FDGB-Pokal: 1
Bundesliga.2 Champions: 1
Landespokal Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Winner: 7

Web Site: www.fc-hansa.de

Rostock is a port city, linked to Germany's Baltic coast by the cold, choppy Warnow river and it occupied a key trading position during the glory years of the Hanseatic League, or 'Hansa ' - a trading confederation of merchant guilds and towns in Northern Europe during the late middle ages. When trade shifted to the Atlantic during the 17th century, Rostock slowly lost its importance but evidence of the medieval city state's prosperity and maritime-mercantile influence can still be seen today - not least in the identity of its football club.

The crest of FC Hansa Rostock features a Kogge (cog) - a flat-bottomed, high-sided sailing ship that evolved from Viking long boats to move goods between the ports of the 'Hansa ', and the club's branding and iconology revolves around typical seafaring, swash-buckling slogans with one of the most popular terrace chants being "What Shall We Do With The Drunken Sailor?" Fan-made graffiti and stickers plastered around the city make clear claims to be 'Baltic Men of the Sea', and together it projects an image that's very different from other fan identities across Germany. Yet, despite all the maritime references, Hansa's origins are actually found a long, long way from the sea.

In state socialist East Germany, Rostock enjoyed a privileged position and despite the straightened economic realities of being on the 'wrong' side of the Iron Curtain, resources were diverted north to rebuild a city shattered by World War 2. It soon became the nation's prime port and until the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, a ferry service across the Baltic to Sweden ensured that it remained one of the few places in the GDR to maintain contact with the 'Imperialistic West'. The grace and favour of the politburo didn't stop with post-war industrialisation either. When the authorities began reshaping East German football in the mid-fifties, they took the view that, as an important regional hub with a new stadium, Rostock should have a decent team. In a move bearing all the hallmarks that would later became de-rigueur  in the republic, instead of slowly building a competitive side from scratch, the apparatchiks decided to simply ship one in from elsewhere. 

The unlucky club was BSG Empor Lauter who came from a small mountain town near the Czech border in Saxony, and because the region had become something of a football hotbed in the East, the theory went that with plenty of other sides from the area already playing in the top-flight DDR Oberliga - BSG Wismut Aue and BSG Motor Zwickau among them - the loss of one wouldn't be of any great blow. And so, in the early hours of 28th October 1954 - lured by the promise of a new apartment, holidays, better shopping and higher wages - Lauter's players, staff and their families boarded a train for the 300 mile journey to Rostock hoping that the locals wouldn't catch wind of their 'voluntary forced resettlement'. Football fans in East Germany however weren't, then at least, passive recipients of party orders and once news of the squad's clandestine departure got out, there were plenty of them waiting for the 'traitors' at the station where they clashed with police, delaying the train for hours. Although they were ultimately powerless to prevent their team's relocation, the fans' show of strength was enough to persuade several players - including Rudolf Hertzsch, Johannes Friedrich and captain Walter Espig - to stay behind.

Those that remained on board headed north to join the newly formed SC Empor Rostock and after been given Lauter's place at the top of the table, they played their first match, a 0-0 draw with Chemie Karl Marx Stadt, on the 14th November in front of 17,000 people at the Ostseestadion. Over the next decade, they became known as the "Eternal Second " on account of the number of runners-up medals they collected - losing cup finals in 1955, 1957 and 1960 before falling just short in the Oberliga in three successive seasons between 1962-1964.

The state authorities weren't the biggest fans of football  - the collective was more important than the individual after all -  but they recognised its importance to foreign relations. Football allowed the GDR to not only break through its diplomatic isolation but "highlight even more clearly the superiority of our socialist order in the area of sport ". Showing off in sport would only enhance socialism's reputation - at least, that was the belief of Stasi chief Erich Meike, and he introduced reforms intended to improve the standard of football in the east leading to a case of out with the 'not-so-old' and in with ... a new club. At 6:32pm on 28th December 1965, SC Empor Rostock were consigned to history, and the city's Hanseatic trading legacy was called upon as FC Hansa Rostock were officially founded - one of 10 so-called Schwerpunktclubs  (focus clubs) given free reign and funding to cherry pick the best players to foster a strong national side for a nation whose leaders were obsessed with their image.

The diverted resources never quite matched those given to the twin Dynamos (Dresden and Berlin) though and over the next couple of decades Hansa became mired in the mud of mid-table obscurity as falling attendances, the rise of hooliganism and widespread corruption destabilised the once great league. But then in 1991, with the curtain closing on the GDR, the political turnaround matched a turn in Hansa's fortunes as they defied all expectations to become champions of the last-ever edition of the DDR Oberliga (for that season it was called the NOFV Oberliga) - claiming the title with three games to spare after a 3-1 win at the Ostseestadion against nearest challengers SG Dynamo Dresden. Having finally secured their first piece of silverware, Hansa travelled to East Berlin's Friedrich Ludwig Jahn Sportpark a few weeks later for the FDGB-Pokal final against Stahl Eisenhüttenstadt where Jens Wahl's first-half goal was enough to lift the trophy and complete a memorable double. The "Eternal Second " were finally first and they were the last.

Hansa kicked off the 1991-92 season in the new pan-German Bundesliga and, as the Oberliga's last champions, they also had a berth in the final draw of the European Cup before its 'UEFA Champions League' rebrand. Unlike other East German clubs who'd seen key players and staff seize the opportunity to head for better-paid gigs in the west following the fall of the wall, they were able to keep most of their double winners together - thanks mainly to the fee paid by Hertha Berlin for Axel Kruse when his suspension for the treasonous act of Republikflucht  (defection) during Hansa's pre-season trip to Copenhagen in 1989 was overturned by the DFB (German FA).

Domestically, Hansa started the post-reunification era well - beating 1.FC Nuremburg, FC Bayern München and Borussia Dortmund in their first three games before their European adventure began with a trip to the Nou Camp to face an FC Barcelona team built around the talents of Michael Laudrup, Hristo Stoichkov, Ronald Koeman and Pep Guardiola. The 'Blaugrana ' were an all-star team and a daunting opponent but confidence was high in the German camp with their coach Uwe Reinders boldly predicting a 2-0 win for his side. Two goals for Laudrup and an own goal by Hansa's Jens Dowe however put Barça firmly in control of the tie and dampened anticipation for the return leg in Rostock. That didn't stop Hansa's board from jacking up ticket prices for the match though and poor advance sales meant that only 8,500 fans were in the Ostseestadion to see Michael Spies' spectacular diving header give the men from Mecklenburg-Vorpommern their most famous, yet ultimately futile victory. 

The Catalans took care of more German opposition - 1.FC Kaiserslautern (the 'West' champions) - in the next round and went on to lift the European Cup that season thanks to Ronald Koeman's extra-time winner against Sampdoria in the Wembley final. And Hansa? Relegated from the Bundesliga at the end of the campaign despite a final day victory over Eintracht Frankfurt which denied the Hessen club their first-ever Bundesliga title. However, although the Kogge had capsized, they hadn't sunk and after righting themselves, they outpaced FC St Pauli and Fortuna Düsseldorf to the Bundesliga.2 title in 1995. The transition to the German top-flight was handled much better this time and sixth-place finishes in 1996, 1998 and 2000 marked the club's high-water mark in the Bundesliga during an unbroken 10-year spell which saw Rostock play in seven of them as the only former GDR club in the league - earning them the nickname 'Lighthouse of the East'.

Pride comes before a fall however and Hansa were back in the second-tier by 2005 despite the signing of former Liverpool and Ajax playmaker Jari Litmanen as, along with other clubs in the former East Germany, they struggled to compete financially with their western counterparts post-reunification. Following the sale of star player Oliver Neuville to help keep the Kogge afloat, Hansa returned to the Bundesliga two years later for a single season cameo before chaos and disorder characterised another tumble down the leagues which saw them not only crash into Bundesliga.2, but carry on into the third tier for the first time after losing both legs of a relegation play-off against FC Ingolstadt in 2010.

Hansa regrouped and by the time the 2011-12 season kicked-off, they'd managed to claw their way back into Bundesliga.2. Once again though, the stay was a brief one and, after overextension and mismanagement had brought the club to the brink of bankruptcy, the Rostockers spent the next decade trying to regain their footing in the 3.Liga. After several seasons of middle order ranking, they came close to ending their exile from the Zweite  in 2020 with a late run post-COVID shutdown that fell just short in the end, before coach Jens Härtel guided them over the line on the final day of the 2020-21 'Geisterspiele ' season - a 1-1 draw with regional rivals VfB Lübeck enough to secure automatic promotion alongside none other than fellow 'Ossies ' SG Dynamo Dresden.

Hansa return to the 3.Liga this season but with former glory, a unique heritage and a large fanbase that refused to abandon ship in the rough seas of the post-reunification years; it might only be a matter of time before the Kogge are ready to set sail for the Bundesliga again.