Berliner Fussball Club Dynamo e. V., commonly abbreviated to BFC Dynamo () or BFC (), alternatively sometimes called Dynamo Berlin, is a German football club based in the locality of Alt-Hohenschönhausen of the borough of Lichtenberg of Berlin.
BFC Dynamo was founded in 1966 from the football department of SC Dynamo Berlin and became one of the most successful clubs in East German football, with numeours appearances in international football. The club is the record champion of East Germany with ten consecutive league championships from 1979 through 1988.
BFC Dynamo competes in the fourth tier Regionalliga Nordost. The club enjoys a cross-city rivalry with 1. FC Union Berlin and a historical rivalry with SG Dynamo Dresden. The rivalry with Union Berlin is part of the Berlin derby. The team plays its home matches in the Sportforum Hohenschönhausen.
History
Colours and crest
The colours of BFC Dynamo are claret and white. The colours were inherited from SC Dynamo Berlin and followed the claret colour scheme of SV Dynamo. BFC Dynamo has been playing in claret and white since the club's founding, with the exception of a period in the 1990s. The BFC Dynamo home kit has traditionally been a claret shirt, paired with claret or white shorts and socks. The team is occasionally nicknamed "die Weinroten", which means "the Clarets".
The BFC Dynamo away kit has traditionally been a white shirt, paired with claret or white shorts and socks. However, a variety of away kits have been used at different times. The team used green away shirts from the end of the 1960s until the mid-1970s. Green was the colour of the Volkspolizei, which was the official sponsor of BFC Dynamo during the East German era. The green away shirt was then exchanged for a white away shirt, paired with red or white shorts and socks. The team used entirely red away kits during the 1981–82 and 1982–83 seasons. The red away kit was then exchanged for an entirely claret away kit. The team again used white away shirts from the 1985–86 season. The 1985–86 season also saw the instruction of an alternative claret and white diagonally striped away shirt. The diagonally striped away shirt would be used for the rest of the 1980s.
The club was rebranded as FC Berlin on 19 February 1990. A pure white was set as the new match colour with immediate effect. FC Berlin then adopted a red and white colour scheme. In the eyes of the supporters, the red and white kit looked a lot like 1. FC Union Berlin. The club played in red and white home kits for most of the FC Berlin era, but wore a black and red striped home shirt, paired with black shorts and socks from the 1996–97 season through the 1998–99 season. The club returned to its original club name on 3 May 1999 and consequently also later returned to its traditional colour scheme.
The crest of BFC Dynamo during the East German era featured a stylized "D" for SV Dynamo and the lettering "BFC" in red and yellow on a white background, surrounded by a yellow wreath. BFC Dynamo abandoned its East German crest when the club was rebranded as FC Berlin on 19 February 1990. The club used two different crests during the FC Berlin era. The first crest featured a stylized image of the roof of the Brandenburg Gate with the lettering "FCB" underneath and the club name "Fussballclub Berlin" in capital letters at the bottom, in white on a red background. It was only briefly used at the beginning of the FC Berlin era in 1990. The second crest featured a stylized image of a football with the Brandenburg Gate in front, the lettering "FCB" at the top and the club name "FC Berlin" at the bottom, in red on a white background. This crest was used from the spring of 1990 until the end of the FC Berlin era.
BFC Dynamo reclaimed its East German crest when the club returned to its original club name on 3 May 1999. But the club was no longer in possession of the crest. The club had neglected to seek legal protection for its East German crest after German reunification. The neglect was likely due to managerial inexperience. Protection of trademarks was neither necessary nor common in East Germany. The crest was now owned by Peter Klaus-Dieter Mager, commonly known as "Pepe". Pepe Mager was a famous fan of Hertha BSC and a fan merchandise dealer. The club tried to recover the crest from Mager though court action, without success. The ownership of the crest was instead passed on to Rayk Bernt and his company RA-BE Immobilien- und Handelsgesellschaft mbH.