In the turbulent early years of the Bundesliga, divided Berlin – an ‘island’ in the middle of the Soviet zone – was a special case from the outset. And in 1965 Hertha set a sad record off the pitch. The Berlin club became the first team to have its Bundesliga license, for the league founded in 1963, refused by the German Football Association.\n\nNot even a bizarre television appearance by then Hertha boss Wolfgang Holst in February 1965 changed that.
In a program on Sender Freies Berlin titled Madness and Reality, he openly stated that 13 of 15 Bundesliga rivals were paying their players lavish signing bonuses. The motto was: ‘The others do it too.’ It did not save his club.\n\nIn truth, Hertha arguably should never have received a Bundesliga license in 1963 in the first place. To lure stars from West Germany to the divided city, the club paid more money than the DFB allowed.
This ‘serious violation of the regulations’ led to Hertha BSC becoming the first club to lose its Bundesliga license after the 1964/65 season. According to DFB calculations, the Berliners were missing documentation for 192,000 marks – almost 100,000 euros in today’s money, a lot for the time.