considered their club to be a genuine football club, unlike BFC Dynamo. However, even as a civilian club, Union Berlin was also part of the sports political system. The founding of the Union Berlin was organized by the then SED First Secretary in Köpenick Hans Modrow. Like Herbert Warnke, Hans Modrow would be a sponsoring member of the club. The most important positions on the board of Union Berlin were exclusively held by directors of state-owned factories or SED representatives. Union Berlin was state-funded and all decisions in club had to be reported to the all-powerful central sports agency DTSB. The DTSB stood in turn under direct control of the SED Central Committee. The rivalry between BFC Dynamo and Union Berlin began in the mid-1960s. It was initially based on the geographical proximity to each other. BFC Dynamo and Union Berlin were two clubs from East Berlin in the DDR-Oberliga. BFC Dynamo struggled in the 1966-67 DDR-Oberliga and was threatened with relegation. The feud between the two clubs began when fans of Union Berlin mocked BFC Dynamo with a banner saying "We greet the relegated" during a league match at the Stadion an der Alten Försterei on 26 April 1967. Union Berlin won the match by 3–0 and BFC Dynamo was eventually relegated to the DDR-Liga at the end of the season. BFC Dynamo immediately bounced back and managed to establish itself in the DDR-Oberliga. However, Union Berlin would be the stronger of the two teams until the 1970s. Union Berlin surprisingly won the 1967–68 FDGB-Pokal, but was also relegated to the DDR-Liga after the 1968–69 season. The rivalry between the two clubs intensified in the early 1970s. The player of Union Berlin, Klaus Korn, was suspended from all sports after a heated derby at Sportforum on 28 October 1970. The performance of the referees had been "catastrophic" according to private notes from the then Second Club Secretary and Vice President of Union Berlin Günter Mielis, and the match ended with riots. Klaus Korn had insulted players in BFC Dynamo with slurs such as "Stasi-pig". The DFV Legal Commission imposed a one-year ban on Klaus Korn after a circumstantial trial. The DFV Legal Commission also demanded that Union Berlin considered his exclusion from the club. Klaus Korn was then excluded from the club and would never play in the DDR-Oberliga again. Unrest broke out again at a derby in Hohenschönhausen