Lichtenberg derby: Lighting up Berlin's lower league scene

Words: Damiano Benzoni

Images: Damiano Benzoni

Some derbies are called eternal. Others seem destined never to take place. Some lie dormant for years and then erupt.

The question is always whether it will feel like a true derby when the latter happens. Or it will be just a match between two unfamiliar teams who happen to share the same location?

Berlin knows this all too well, as the now heated rivalry between Hertha and Union has lived the span of only a handful of matches. Political division and alternating fortunes meant the two clubs have met a little more than a dozen times in competitive matches.

In Lichtenberg, an East Berlin district of around 310,000 inhabitants, SV Sparta Lichtenberg and SV Lichtenberg 47 finally met again after a history of only sparse encounters. The two teams played a handful of seasons in the same divisions during GDR times, the first match between them to be found in the early Fifties if not even in the late Forties.

But while Lichtenberg 47 yo-yoed between the second and the third division of the GDR league, Sparta spent most of its East German existence roaming the lower series.

After Germany’s reunification, the paths of the two teams ran almost parallel, L47 constantly one or two divisions ahead, until this summer. L47 was unlucky to lose its Regionalliga spot and was thus demoted to the Oberliga, the fifth division, while Sparta enjoyed a successful season.

Not only did they reach the Berlin State Cup final, but they also managed to be promoted from the Berlin-Liga to the Oberliga, setting the scene for the first ever league derby between the two sides since 2005/06, and the first official game between the two sides since a Berlin State Cup game in 2016.

©Damiano Benzoni/ Terrace Edition. SC Sparta Lichtenburg vs SV Lichtenburg 97.

If anyone harboured any doubt, the Lichtenberg match is a true derby. It’s clear from the queue at the ticket counter. Around 750 people have gathered for the fifth division match in a sunny late September afternoon. After all, both teams have had a strong start of season, L47 only dropping three points in six games, while Sparta got four wins, a draw and a single loss.

It was a heated derby on the pitch, right after the kick-off: not a minute had passed and L47 were already leading thanks to a spectacular long-range effort by Gabriel Figurski Vieira, clipping both posts before crossing the line. Sparta hit the post twice before, in the seventh minute, Sebastian Reiniger made it 2-0.

After that, the already noisy L47 supporters could sing with ease, overtaking a somewhat subdued home support, even though Miloš Dujković curled the ball in for Sparta from a free kick to make it 2-1.

The entire first half was laden with chances for both teams, and Sparta hit the upright once again in the opening minutes of the second half. When Dujković was red-carded in the 72nd minute, L47 put the game to bed comfortably, happy to sit back and let the clock tick.

If this derby will ever become a mainstay of the Oberliga, a regular fixture, we will have to wait to know. For sure, it wasn’t lacking in emotion and it did feel like a real sporting occasion.

Images shot on Canon EOS Rebel t5i (digital).