2:4Ernst-Reuter-Oberschule

Stralsunder Straße 54

Kids love to play football in their free time.

Thomas Häßler grew up in Berlin’s Wedding district and learned to play football at the club Meteor 06; later he left that club to join the Reinickendorfer Füchse (Foxes), a famous club in the Reinickendorf district. Like many other talented players, he left West Berlin early on, at the age of 18, and signed his first professional contract with the 1. FC Köln (Cologne). His international career began there, and in Cologne his Berlin dialect earned him his nickname “Icke.” On November 15, 1989, he scored the winning goal for a 2:1 win against Wales in the final World Cup qualifier leading up to the 1990 World Cup. Thus, only a few days after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Häßler made it possible for Germany to compete for the championship title in the World Cup. In the tournament the DFB’s all-star team captured the title for the third time, and fans from both German states cheered the team’s triumph. Together with Pierre Littbarski, who was also born in Berlin, Häßler has been one of the most popular players on the team. When asked about his time at the Ernst Reuter high school, Häßler wryly answered: “School had highs and lows for me. But football always was among the highs.”

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