Reiner Calmund, Leverkusen’s manager from 1976 to 2004, weighed 187 kilograms, making him the heaviest personality in the Bundesliga for a long time. Bayer’s Brazilian Tita affectionately called him “fat little bandito”.
Incidentally, Calmund’s busy work for the club prompted Helmut Kohl to get involved in the transfer policy of the Bundesliga in 1990. Because Bayer 04 wanted to sign a third top player from the East in the wake of the fall of the Berlin Wall after Andreas Thom (BFC Dynamo) and Ulf Kirsten in Matthias Sammer (both Dynamo Dresden), the Chancellor intervened.
The long-time doer: Reiner Calmund celebrated with the team after the DFB Cup victory in 1993
Source: picture-alliance / Roland Scheidemann
“You can’t just buy out the GDR so easily,” warned Kohl. A unique event in the history of the Bundesliga, which did not help Eastern football. Sammer went to Stuttgart and became champions with VfB in 1992.
Start with a novelty
That, too, only happened at Bayer: in 1988, the club, which had never won a title before, won the UEFA Cup with head coach Erich Ribbeck. The fact that a German club began its trophy collection with a triumph in the European Cup is a novelty.
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After losing 3-0 in the first leg at Espanyol Barcelona, Bayer made it 3-0 at home in the second leg on May 18, 1988 by the end of regular time thanks to goals from Tita, Falko Götz and Cha Bum-kun. After the goalless extra time there was a penalty shootout in which captain Wolfgang Rolff, Herbert Waas and Klaus Täuber scored to make it 3-2 for Leverkusen.
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The Leverkusen line-up: Rüdiger Vollborn (photo, right) – Rolff, Erich Seckler, Alios Reinhardt, Knut Reinhardt – Christian Schreier (46th Waas), Andrzej Buncol, Ralf Falkenmayer – Cha, Götz, Tita (62nd Täuber).
66 letters
The first club name contained 66 letters, a year and a period, and it wasn’t really suitable for fan chants. From July 1, 1904, the works association took on the name Gymnastics and games club 1904 of the paint factory formerly Friedrich Bayer Co. Leverkusen take part in the game operations.
Völler comforts Brehme
May 18, 1996, Ulrich Haberland Stadium: Bayer Leverkusen and 1. FC Kaiserslautern meet on the last matchday of the Bundesliga season in a direct duel to stay in the league. The starting position is clear: either Rudi Völler will be relegated with the Werkself or Andy Brehme, his fellow World Cup winner, will be relegated with Kaiserslautern. Bayer has a better starting position and a point would be enough in front of their home crowd. Pavel Kuka gave the strong Palatinate team the lead in the 58th minute, but Markus Münch unexpectedly equalized eight minutes before the end of the game. Leverkusen stays in, Lautern has to leave the Bundesliga for the first time after 33 years of membership.
Rudi Völler (l.) and the now deceased Andreas Brehme were close friends
Quelle: picture alliance / dpa
What follows is one of the most touching television moments in Bundesliga history. Brehme bursts into tears and lets his emotions run wild. Völler, whose career ends that day, has never seen Brehme with tears in his eyes. Joy and sorrow compete, he instinctively puts his arm around his friend in the “Premiere” studio. Later he says: “Better him than me.”
Nickname patented
In 2010, Bayer AG patented the nickname “Vizekusen”, which was acquired in football, with the German Trademark and Patent Office in Munich. It was an act of self-irony after a total of five second places in the Bundesliga.
However, the king of the second places is Borussia Dortmund, which finished a total of nine championships behind the champions. SV Werder Bremen and FC Schalke 04 (seven) also often narrowly missed the title.
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With Leverkusen there is now a completely new German champion for the first time in 15 years. Bayer is the 30th club since 1903 to win this title (excluding the GDR champions). Number 29 was VfL Wolfsburg in 2009. The championship has so far remained a one-off event for 13 clubs.
A club sees red
145 sending-offs were handed out against Bayer players in the Bundesliga. Although the club missed the first 16 years (1963 to 1979), it is second only to VfB Stuttgart (148), who played exactly 400 more games. After red cards (82), Leverkusen are even the front runners. Statistically, a Werkself player is sent off every 10.5 games – but none this season!
No team in the history of the Bundesliga saw more red cards than Bayer Leverkusen
Quelle: picture-alliance/ dpa
And (of course) a Leverkusen player also tops the list of Bundesliga professionals with the most dismissals. Former national defender Jens Nowotny (photo, right) was sent to the showers early eight times (five red, three yellow-red) – as was the Brazilian Luiz Gustavo (Hoffenheim, Bayern Munich, Wolfsburg / one red, seven yellow-red).
TOP FIVE
1. VfB Stuttgart 148
2. Bayer Leverkusen 145
3. Hamburger SV 125
4. Werder Bremen 122
5. 1. FC Cologne 119
The 9:1
Bayer Leverkusen won that much on March 18, 2000 against newly promoted SSV Ulm 1846. It was the setting of the record for away goals in a Bundesliga game, which MSV Duisburg (9-0 at Tasmania Berlin) has held since 1966. Since then, no team has scored so many goals in a game away from home.
Own goal from Ballack
May 20, 2000: Three points ahead on the last matchday and still not champions – that only happened to Bayer. Leverkusen lost 2-0 away against newly promoted Unterhaching, which was legendary and started by an own goal from national team captain Michael Ballack. Much to the delight of his later club Bayern Munich, who at the same time defeated Werder Bremen 3-1 and was unexpectedly able to celebrate the championship after all. “This club will never win anything. Never, never, never,” groaned 04 player Emerson after the final whistle. The Brazilian will have to correct himself.
Own goal with consequences: Michael Ballack’s mistake cost Leverkusen the championship in 2000
Quelle: Bongarts/Getty Images
A little satisfaction for Bayer: In 2012/2013, eventual champions Bayern Munich lost their only game of the season at home against Leverkusen (1:2). Bayer had already achieved the same feat in the 1986/1987 season, when the Werkself triumphed 3-0 in Munich.
From Cramer to Daum
Dettmar Cramer, Erich Ribbeck (twice), Berti Vogts, Michael Skibbe, Rudi Völler, Heiko Herrlich, Hannes Wolf – no club employed more former or later German Football Association coaches in the Bundesliga than Bayer (eight).
Christoph Daum, then coach of Bayer Leverkusen, came close to becoming the German national coach
Quelle: Bongarts/Getty Images
There would even have been nine if the designated national coach Christoph Daum hadn’t cost himself his job with a hair sample in the legendary cocaine affair in October 2000 – also at Bayer 04. What was remembered was his protestation of innocence on October 9, 2000 after the submission of the Hair sample that ultimately convicted him: I’m doing this because I have an absolutely clear conscience!
When Lattek was relegated
The Bayer Cross first appeared on the team’s jerseys in May 1936, on the occasion of a promotion game against Solingen 95. It was worn regularly from the 1936/1937 season onwards.
Among others, Udo Lattek, who won the most German championships as a coach (six with Bayern Munich, two with Borussia Mönchengladbach). He played for Bayer from 1955 to 1958 and experienced the only relegation of his career with Leverkusen: in 1956 from the first-class Oberliga West.
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