Between 9 and 10 November 1989, Reiner Calmund stayed up through the night watching the fall of the Berlin Wall. Six days later, on 15 November, the GDR's World Cup qualifier against Austria in Vienna gave him the opening he wanted, and Bayer Leverkusen moved quickly to make Andreas Thom their first major East German coup.
The Vienna mission
Calmund used Wolfgang Karnath, who carried both a photographer accreditation and a team-doctor ID, to get close to the GDR camp. Karnath later described edging nearer to the players during the match, saying, "Every time someone jumped up, I slid one seat closer to the players."
Calmund's own line on the approach was just as direct. Speaking to SPORT1 in comments translated from German, he said he wanted to know "how Bayer can benefit from the fall of the Wall". He also summed up the method as "The quick eat the slow".
Thom was number 1 on Calmund's wish list, and a meeting in Berlin led to a verbal agreement. A few weeks later, the deal was completed for 2.5 million D-Mark.
The East German race that followed
The Thom move was only the start. Calmund also targeted Matthias Sammer and Ulf Kirsten, both of Dynamo Dresden, and met them at a luxury hotel on Lake Chiemsee. Helmut Kohl then urged Bayer's leadership to think carefully about the optics of one club buying out half of East German football.
Kirsten's path became the longer-running success story. He was eventually signed from Borussia Dortmund for 3.5 million marks and finished his Bayer Leverkusen career with 182 goals in 350 Bundesliga matches, becoming the club's most successful Bundesliga striker of the 1990s.
Leverkusen sit fifth in the Bundesliga after four matches with seven points and a +5 goal difference, while their current league return includes 10 goals scored and five conceded. The club has moved on from the Wall-era scramble, but the Thom deal still reads like the moment when speed and nerve gave Bayer an edge.
Written by Jack Mercer with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 1 outlet. How we work →
