Not all Bayer 04 fans are likely aware that Peter played for the club for eight years. He is probably better known for his many years as assistant coach. That started in 1989 when he is brought to Leverkusen by his former teammate and then head coach Jürgen Gelsdorf. In that role over the next eight years up to 1997, he wins the DFB Cup in 1993 and he saves our club from relegation as head coach for the last five matches in the 1995/96 campaign.
After that season, Christoph Daum is appointed head coach at Leverkusen and he brings Roland Koch with him as his assistant. Peter Hermann takes a back seat but he is not satisfied in his role as second assistant coach. In 1997 he became head coach of the Bayer 04 Reserves. Four years later, Peter again takes charge of the first team. Together with Klaus Toppmöller, he leads the Werkself through probably the most successful season to date in 2001/02 when the club finished runners-up three times. He also worked well with Klaus Augenthaler and Michael Skibbe up to 2008. When Bruno Labbadia brought his assistant coach Eddy Sözer with him to the Rhineland, Peter decided to change clubs.
He was assistant coach at FC Nürnberg for a year but returned to Leverkusen in 2009/10. He started his very successful partnership over four years with Jupp Heynckes. The duo take Bayer 04 to the runners-up spot in 2010/11 and back into the Champions League for the first time in seven years. Heynckes accepts an approach from Bayern Munich and Peter Hermann joins him in the Bavarian capital. The duo win the treble in 2012/13 with FC Bayern becoming champions of Germany, DFB Cup winners and Champions League winners.
Last season, Peter Hermann again took charge of the Werkself together with Hannes Wolf for the last eight games of the season and succeeded in leading the club into the Europa League. Today he is assistant coach of the Germany U20 team and sporting adviser to his former club Alemannia Aachen. Dear Peter, I've always liked working with you and I wish you all the best on your 70th birthday.
Bayer 04 started the new season on 20 July 1950. To the applause from almost 2,000 spectators, the Werkself stepped onto the pitch at the Am Stadtpark stadium and the season target was clear to the supporters: finally achieve promotion to the Oberliga West. Under the direction of new coach Raymond Schwab, who brought one of his Essen players with him in the shape of Karl-Heinz Spikofski, the team did a couple of laps. Coach Schwab gave a speech in front of all the fans where he clearly imparted his request for calm in the stands and he said he hated nothing more than heckling or laughing when mistakes are made. He hoped the Bayer 04 supporters would follow his advice.
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Horst Knauf was born in Cologne on 16 August 1960. As a teenager he played for PSV Köln before signing for the Bayer 04 Leverkusen U19s as a talented midfielder in 1976. He made the move up from the second team to the Bundesliga squad in 1980. Over the following three years he played 39 Bundesliga games and scored two goals. Above all in the difficult 1981/82 season for the Werkself with the play-off games against Kickers Offenbach, he played a big part in saving Bayer 04 with 21 appearances. But under the new coach Dettmar Cramer he rarely made a start and he decided to move on.
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Holger Aden was born in Hamburg on 25 August 1965. He learned all about playing football and, above all, scoring goals at the two Hamburg clubs Niendorfer TSV and TSV DuWo 08 Hamburg. After progression from the youth teams, he played for other Hamburg clubs. One after the other he appeared for Concordia Hamburg, Altona 93 and SC Norderstedt. The centre-forward regularly found the back of the opposition net. He scored 22 goals for SC Norderstedt in the 1988/89 season.
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Michael Ballack was born in Görlitz in the GDR on 26 September 1976. He displayed his talent for football at a young age. After his family moved to Karl-Marx-Stadt, now called Chemnitz, he started playing for BSG Motor ‘Fritz Heckert’ Karl-Marx-Stadt where he constantly continued to develop his ability on the pitch. From year seven he went to the children and youth sports college and there he received systematic support in sport that led, against the background of his increasing ability, to a move to FC Karl-Marx-Stadt. At the age of 16, he had to take a six-month break due to growing pains, but then there was no stopping Michael after that.
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In this video you can watch impressive and important goals in the history of Bayer 04 in the month of August. It is not always about the beauty of the goals but also about remembering special games and players.
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