My friend Johann always told me about Babelsberg and their fans, so I was quite happy to finally be in Berlin when they were at home. Babelsberg is a former East German (DDR) club based in the Babelsberg district of Potsdam. They are an openly antifascist club and currently play in the fourth tier of German football.

Today they were facing Hertha Zehlendorf, a small team from a suburb of Berlin, as Johann explained to me. Kick-off was at 19:00 and due to my work commitments I couldn’t leave Berlin before 18:00, which meant we were quite tight on time. After some additional miscalculations on my part, we arrived at the stadium a bit past kick-off and, as we were informed, we had already missed two goals and a tifo prepared by the ultras. My friend was a bit bummed but I was just happy to be there.

I liked the stadium a lot; it has an old-school feel and most of the sectors are standing. We stood in the ultras section which was pretty much full. The atmosphere was very lively overall. The crowd was diverse and everyone around us was singing and drinking beer. Babelsberg’s main ultras group is called “Filmstadt Inferno” in reference to their district’s notable film heritage—a cool piece of trivia, I thought. They are also twinned with the ultras of St. Pauli.

The level of football wasn’t amazing, as expected, and both teams aren’t doing that well this season. The score was already 1-1 and the home side was looking to regain the lead. They eventually managed to capitalise on one of their attacks when they were awarded a penalty, which they converted into a goal. No more goals were scored in the second half but the away side did get close to equalising towards the end of the match. Home fans and players celebrated together and we took the not-too-long walk towards the station to catch a train back to Berlin.