In Germany, football reputations carry political weight. BFC Dynamo is located specifically in East Berlin and like several East German clubs, Dynamo\u2019s fan base has long been associated with right-leaning ideology. A stigma that has sharpened as the far-right AfD party (Alternative f\u00fcr Deutschland) has gained traction in recent years.<\/p>\n
The AfD is known for anti-immigrant rhetoric; during last year\u2019s European Championships, it criticized<\/a> the German team for being \u201ctoo woke, too diverse, not German enough.\u201d Some clubs have publicly condemned<\/a> the AfD, Dynamo however is not one of them.<\/p>\n \u201cI see a change in the fan scenes,\u201d Stenny said. \u201cThey are getting more conservative, more right-wing. There is a real influence of the AfD policy on the football fans.\u201d<\/p>\n When I first mentioned to a German journalist that I planned to attend a BFC Dynamo match, he warned me not to go as a person of color, as it might not be safe.<\/p>\n Stenny Bamer,<\/a> wearing a blue beanie and black tracksuit, tells me he wants to see this stigma change at a kickoff party for Gesellschaftsspiele, an NGO that promotes inclusion through sport. The organization is hosting young athletes from S\u00e3o Tom\u00e9 and Pr\u00edncipe, an island nation off the western coast of Central Africa, for a two-week exchange.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I was a normal fan, I loved this reputation because everyone was like, \u2018Oh, Dynamo is coming.\u2019 But now, he pauses, \u201cI would say that the reputation is far away from reality,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The event takes place at the Haus der Fu\u00dfballkulturen, or House of Football Cultures, in Berlin\u2019s Prenzlauer Berg district where Stenny works as a social worker for the fan scene of BFC Dynamo through the Fanprojekt der Sportjugend Berlin.<\/a><\/p>\n Fanprojekt is an independent initiative created by the Berlin Sports Organization to engage football fans aged 14 to 27 whose home teams are either BFC Dynamo or Hertha BSC, another club based in Berlin. It hopes to foster inclusion, anti-discrimination, and a sense of community through football culture.<\/p>\n Prior to joining Fanprojekt, Stenny obtained a degree in Philosophy and Economics from the University of Potsdam and worked as a social worker at a refugee camp in Hamburg. He spoke critically on the camp\u2019s conditions, citing cockroach infestations and how his supervisors would treat refugees.<\/p>\n \u201cI said, bro, you cannot let people [live] in conditions like this, and what they said is, yeah, it’s our own fault. We were not clean.\u201d<\/p>\n However, Stenny\u2019s supervisors didn\u2019t make any changes, and when he spoke out again on numerous instances, they would often ignore his comments. This experience impacted how Stenny sees his job as a social worker.<\/p>\n \u201cEven if some ministry is paying for me, I’m not there for the ministry. I’m there for the people and I always had the feeling that, like the ministry in that area who was in response of the refugees, always saw it the other way around, \u201che said in semi-broken English.<\/p>\n \u201cSo as a social worker it’s my aim to be there for my clients, in this case the refugees,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n This commitment to the people he\u2019s assisting rather than the institution that employs him has led him to FanProjekt. However, the world of sports is not something new to him, as he shared, he\u2019s been a devoted football fan since his late teens.<\/p>\n \u201cI was interested in football violence,\u201d he said with a smirk, fully aware of how crazy it sounds. \u201cThis is what Dynamo is famous for. For football violence and hooliganism, and when I was young, I was fascinated by this part of football.\u201d<\/p>\n Stenny\u2019s role is to guide the fan community toward inclusion and away from the racism, xenophobia, and right extremism that often<\/a> plays a role in the stands.<\/p>\n In one match<\/a>, spectators in the stands were heard shouting Juden-Schweine<\/em>, meaning \u201cJewish pigs.\u201d At another game<\/a>, fans chanted Arbeit macht frei \u2013 Babelsberg 03<\/em>, which translates to \u201cwork makes you free \u2013 Babelsberg 03.\u201d Babelsberg 03 is a German football club located on the outskirts of Berlin, and the phrase is infamously associated with the entrance of Auschwitz<\/a> and other Nazi concentration camps.<\/p>\n Although Stenny works with Dynamo, he points out key differences in how other Berlin-based football clubs, particularly Hertha BSC approach social issues.<\/p>\n \u201cHertha really has a straight line with racism, with anti-Semitism, with homophobia,\u201d he said. \u201cThe management has a clear opinion, and this changes the fan culture. If the club is open-minded, the fans get more open-minded.\u201d<\/p>\n At Dynamo, the shift has been slower. Anti-immigrant sentiment and nostalgia for old identities sometimes coexist with loyalty. He recalls how a Nigerian player was renamed by fans with a German nickname because they could not pronounce his last name. \u201cEverybody loved him,\u201d he said, \u201cbut I always had the feeling it was also a little bit of making a joke out of his name.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI would never say to an immigrant person, go to a BFC Dynamo game because there are a lot of far-right extremists,\u201d he said. Germany has 84 million people, 25 million with immigrant backgrounds, yet many including AfD supporters resist diversity.<\/p>\n On the field, diversity is normal. \u201cFor players, migration is quite normal. If you want to play in a high-level club, you move from like Germany to England. Migration is part of the system,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n In the stands, it\u2019s different. \u201cNearly 100% of the fan blocs don\u2019t reflect society. They are mainly heterosexual, white, male guys,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Berlin is composed of approximately 30% of immigrants but according to Stenny, that is not reflected at any of the clubs. \u201cYou will not find them [immigrants].\u00a0 The stands don’t reflect the society and the migration part of society,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n That disconnect between multicultural teams and homogenous fans is discouraging, yet Stenny hasn\u2019t given up on the possibility of change.<\/p>\n He noticed a change in attendance following the pandemic, which excited him. \u201cA lot of young people came to our stadium. With more people, for sure, more normal people also come to a game.\u201d By \u201cnormal,\u201d he means less aggressive than the traditional Dynamo supporters. Still, he admits hesitantly, \u201cwe are a club with a higher potential for making trouble.\u201d<\/p>\n For Stenny, the problem isn\u2019t always the fans, the club\u2019s reputation follows them. \u201cIf we go for an away game, the police are always thinking, \u2018Oh, Dynamo is coming. We must bring a lot of police.\u2019 That makes away games more trouble than necessary. The image is also part of the problem,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n That image, he adds, is difficult to change, though some clubs have shown it\u2019s possible. \u201cIn some clubs, it comes from the top down. In others, like St. Pauli, it came from the fans themselves,\u201d he said.\u00a0 While Stenny is optimistic, he is also realistic about how deep tradition runs in the sport. \u201cFootball is a real heavy tradition in Germany. It\u2019s hard to change something here in the football system.\u201d<\/p>\n After the Syrian War in 2015, he claims that many clubs helped refugees, but momentum faded.<\/p>\n \u201cIf I watch the last five years,\u201d he said, \u201cnot one of the big clubs is really taking care of this topic.\u201d<\/p>\n Still, Stenny believes football still has the power to build acceptance, especially for immigrants. Once a fan of Dynamo’s chaotic culture, he now hopes that energy can fuel something more inclusive, a fandom that mirrors modern Germany rather than resists it. Whether that change begins from above or within the stands remains uncertain.<\/p>\n Regardless of what lies ahead, Stenny said he\u2019s not going anywhere, determined to make diversity in the stands as visible as it already is on the field.<\/p>\n \u201cImmigration will always be part of humanity. To accept this and show that it\u2019s normal should also be one big value of the clubs.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In Germany, football reputations carry political weight. BFC Dynamo is located specifically in East Berlin and like several East German clubs, Dynamo\u2019s fan base has long been associated with right-leaning ideology. A stigma that has sharpened as the far-right AfD party (Alternative f\u00fcr Deutschland) has gained traction in recent years. The AfD is known for<\/p>\n