A Green-White happy end

Thomas Güttler (right) and Jochen Salewski (left) showed up last Saturday at WUSEUM with an original invitation from 25 years earlier from current supervisory board chairman Willi Lemke.
First Team
Wednesday, 10.04.2013 / 12:40

Thomas Güttler and Jochen Salewski were the main figures in their own small fairytale at the match against FC Schalke 04 - as they followed through on an SV Werder invitation to a home match 25 years later...

Thomas Güttler and Jochen Salewski were the main figures in their own small fairytale at the match against FC Schalke 04 - as they followed through on an SV Werder invitation to a home match 25 years later.

At the end of the 1980s, the two men from Dresden met Gerda and Wolfgang Schreck from Worpswerde and Udo and Ilse Immermann from Bremen. The friendship which overcame the borders of East and West Germany turned the two Dynamo Dresden supporters Güttler and Salewski into Green-Whites fans as well. The two young football fans even received information about the club and even SV Werder fan merchandise from their friends in Bremen.

In October 1988, the former Werder manager Willi Lemke officially invited the two Dresden men to Bremen as a gesture to Lemke's friends the Schrecks. The two youngsters were to be guests at a European Cup home match against BFC Dynamo - a dream for the two Dresden natives. But a dream that initially was shattered. Güttler never received his invitation. The East German State Security ministry Stasi had intercepted it. But his friend Salewski was luckier and received his letter. "I went to the police and officially asked for outbound passage," said Salewski. After a short inquiry, the officials kept the letter and Salewski was not allowed to leave East Germany for the match.

When Güttler looked into his Stasi files a few months ago, he held in his hands for the first time the invitation from 1988. After that he wrote a letter to Bremen and told them his story. He promptly received mail from Werder's offices - this time reaching him in due time. Werder wanted to uphold their invitation and invited the two friends to Bremen once again. And Güttler and Salewski showed up in Bremen on Saturday for the Bundesliga match against Schalke with the original invitation. "Now, everything has come full circle," said the two fans, whose dream finally was fulfilled - even though their heroes Dieter Burdenski and Mirko Votava were no longer on the pitch.

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