Fabian Reese Faces Hate and Threats on Return to Hertha Berlin’s Olympiastadion

“I was prepared very well over the past weeks,” Fabian Reese said of the reception waiting for him. “The decibel level will be a bit higher.” The VfL Wolfsburg striker was talking about the whistles and insults he expects when he returns to Berlin’s Olympiastadion on Saturday evening, and the warning lands like a measuring stick for what has become one of the ugliest homecomings in German football.

The match — Hertha, the 2. Bundesliga table leaders, against Wolfsburg, kickoff 8:30 p.m. local time, broadcast on Sky — has been overshadowed by a campaign of abuse. Since the start of the season, Reese and his fiancée have received hate messages across multiple channels, including massive threats, WELT reported. The abuse has reached the pitch: when Wolfsburg played a DFB-Pokal first-round match against Altglienicke at Hertha’s under-23 stadium, Reese was insulted and cursed at by children under 10 years old, according to the report.

Whistles, threats and an upgraded security team in Berlin

Reese, the best 2. Bundesliga player of the past four seasons with 46 goals and 45 assists for Hertha, shut down his Instagram account, took a break from interviews and stayed silent in the week before the match. Some Hertha fans accuse him of being a traitor who followed the money, and that narrative has spread through the second tier. At away games against Wolfsburg, he has been whistled by fans with no connection to the dispute.

Both clubs know about the threats, including ones tied specifically to Saturday’s game, and are in contact with each other, WELT reported. Security around the Olympiastadion is being stepped up for the visiting supporters and Reese’s entourage. Hertha has also publicly asked its own fans for restraint: “Fabian Reese put himself at the service of our club for over three years and, in our view, did not deserve this form of reaction,” the club said in a statement. While acknowledging that a transfer can trigger “disappointment and emotions,” Hertha added: “We wish that Fabian receives the respect he earned with us upon his return.”

The transfer WELT reports Hertha itself pushed

Reese’s own account, as reported by WELT, complicates the traitor narrative. He says Hertha’s leadership approached him early, before the end of the season, to push him toward a move. He initially did not want to leave the city he loves — he had announced a contract extension with Hertha until 2030 in front of the fan curve in May 2025 — but then heard sentences like: “Your footprints have become too big for the club.”

The underlying reason, WELT reported, was money. Hertha needed to generate transfer fees of around 15 million euros by the end of June. By that point only Kennet Eichhorn had been sold, for just under 9 million euros to Leverkusen, and negotiations with other departures were stalled, so the Reese sale was forced through. The urgency is shown by the fact that Hertha did not insist on the 12.5 million euros written into Reese’s release clause but negotiated freely instead.

Several clubs were interested — Freiburg reportedly offered 5 million euros, Hoffenheim 6.5 million, and Bremen was also interested — but Reese’s preference quickly settled on Wolfsburg. The newly relegated Wolfsburg did not offer more salary than the established Bundesliga sides, but the club was among the first to offer proximity to his family and his fiancée’s, and there was no doubt there that Reese would be a key performer. Wolfsburg initially offered Hertha a fixed fee of around 6 million euros plus a bonus on promotion, WELT reported, but Hertha wanted 8 million euros upfront. The clubs agreed on that figure, announced the move without explaining the background, and Hertha has avoided doing so to this day.

Reese’s answer: “It hurts me”

Those circumstances, Reese has told friends and teammates, have at minimum fueled the hate messages and whistles, and he remains bitterly disappointed about them. He has not spoken about it as openly as he did at the start of the season, when he reacted to whistles in Karlsruhe: “It hurts me, it wounds me. I take that home with me.”

After scoring against Osnabrück last Saturday, he celebrated by miming chatter with his hands and then covering his ears. “There was a lot of talk,” he said of the gesture. “Quite a lot of opinion for quite little background information.” What he means: he is being condemned for events he can hardly be blamed for.

Ahead of the return to the stadium where he extended his Hertha deal until 2030 in May 2025, Reese is aiming for harmony. “I’m really looking forward to the game,” he said. “I had a great time in Berlin. I have to be careful not to step on the wrong side. It’s nice that Hertha is successful.”

The contrast he has lived through is stark. When he became Hertha’s matchwinner and fan favorite, supporters waited outside his Berlin apartment to celebrate him, and he could hardly take a step unmolested in the otherwise anonymous city of 3.9 million people. His private life shrank to almost nothing. He has since given up the Berlin apartment; his new address in Wolfsburg is secret. And still the hate messages and threats arrive online.

Leitl keeps it “sober”

Trainer Stefan Leitl tried to defuse the tension around his former player’s return. “I really want to look at this emotionlessly and very soberly,” Leitl said. “As far as my personal bond or connection to Fabian is concerned, that is still good and nothing has stuck. And I’m also happy that he’s coming back, and I’m happy that I don’t just have him on the phone but can also talk to him in person.”

Saturday at the Olympiastadion

The top-of-the-table clash between Hertha and Wolfsburg kicks off Saturday at 8:30 p.m. local time at Berlin’s Olympiastadion, with coverage on Sky. Reese has said he expects the noise to be higher, and the enhanced security measures around the stadium reflect why: a player once celebrated in the stands is now, for a section of the home crowd, a hate figure.

Questions fans are asking about Reese’s return

Why are some Hertha fans so angry at Fabian Reese? Because he left for VfL Wolfsburg in the summer after signing a contract extension until 2030 in May 2025, and some fans read the move as betrayal and a money grab. WELT reported that Hertha’s leadership itself pushed the sale because the club needed to raise around 15 million euros in transfer fees by the end of June.

Has Reese actually received threats? Yes. WELT reported that Reese and his fiancée have received hate messages and massive threats across various channels since the start of the season, including threats tied to Saturday’s match, and that both clubs are aware and coordinating on security.

How much was the transfer fee? The clubs agreed on 8 million euros upfront, according to WELT, even though Reese’s release clause stood at 12.5 million euros and Hertha negotiated freely rather than demanding that sum.

When and where is the match? Hertha vs. Wolfsburg at Berlin’s Olympiastadion on Saturday at 8:30 p.m. local time, broadcast on Sky, with Hertha leading the 2. Bundesliga table.

What has Reese said about coming back? He said he is “really looking forward to the game,” that he “had a great time in Berlin,” and that he expects the decibel level to be higher — while also saying earlier in the season that the whistles hurt him and that he takes them home.