
The Bio-Brotbox organisation has been active for many years in numerous German cities and regions in promoting healthy child nutrition. The campaign involves giving first year schoolchildren reusable lunch boxes with ingredients from organic farming. Bayer 04 have supported this campaign in Leverkusen in recent years and have often been directly involved in filling the boxes at NaturGut Ophoven. CEO Michael Schade, Wendell (pictured above in 2016 with the mayor Uwe Richrath) and Stefan Kießling have all helped to fill the lunch boxes with healthy items.
This year, Bayer 04 are supporting the thirteenth campaign in Leverkusen. The club has donated 1,800 muesli bars for the boxes to be handed to 1,620 first years shortly after they start school at the beginning of September. The communal packing event will certainly involve another member of the Werkself when the date is confirmed.
This year’s patron also has a very close connection to Bayer 04: Wilfried Schmickler (63),born in Hitdorf, is a cabaret artist and has always been a passionate supporter of the Black and Reds. “A healthy diet helps children feel good and learn well. Education is the most important issue at the moment where there is still a lot to achieve,” said Schmickler at the campaign press conference.

Attacking midfielder Paulina Bartz is leaving Bayer 04 Leverkusen for good on a permanent move to Hamburger SV in the Google Pixel Women’s Bundesliga. The 21-year-old, who was on loan to the newly promoted side in the winter, originally had a contract to 2027.
Show more
The Bayer 04 Football School opened in 2007 – now this successful programme is getting a new name and a new logo: with immediate effect, the Bayer 04 Football School powered by BarmeniaGothaer is becoming the Bayer 04 Football Academy powered by BarmeniaGothaer.
Show more
Rüdiger Vollborn has been at the club for 40 years, he holds the record number of Bundesliga appearances for the club (401) and is the only Bayer 04 player to have won both the UEFA Cup (1988) and the DFB Pokal (1993). And the Berliner stayed with the Werkself after ending his impressive playing career as he worked as a goalkeeping coach for the following nine years. Vollborn now works under the Bayer Cross as a fan liaison officer and club archivist. Since February 2021, the personal Black and Red lexicon takes Werkself fans under the heading of 'Rudi recounts...' on a brief trip through the history of Bayer 04 every month…
Show more
The sustainable use of the BayArena seats removed as part of the current stadium upgrade has taken on a new dimension: Following on from numerous Bayer 04 fans receiving their ‘Undefeated Champions seats’ and various clubs and community organisations from Leverkusen and the wider region having collected the dismantled seats, Blau-Gelbe Kreuz e.V. also made their way to the BayArena recently. The German-Ukrainian aid organisation took away around 2,100 seats; in Ukraine, these will be used to upgrade the sports infrastructure of two clubs.
Show more