BBM: When, how and why was group founded?
Dennis Müller: The former German Hammer Hearts, renamed two years ago as Hammer Hearts United, were founded in 2008 by Pascal Becker. Before this group started, there were small fan groups of West Ham in several parts of Germany. The idea behind this joint venture of German Hammers was to build up a community where everyone can come together and discuss, enjoy and love the way of the home of the academy of football.
Some of us, the older ones, attended their first games in the 70s and early 80s. That we are not gloryhunters is clear! Most of us are from the working class, so we love the history of West Ham and the way of the definition of football they developed as a part of the famous academy of football which is a trademark in our eyes.
How many members in your group today?
We think that we have now up to 60 peolpe who are commited to the hearts, they come from all over Germany. We travel together and help each other. We don’t want to be the biggest supporters club outside the UK, we just all want to be around other guys who love this club as much as we do.
Where do you watch games?
We try to watch the games in London, that’s the best one for sure. But the fact that the members are coming from every part of Germany makes it difficult to find a bar/pub where you can watch it on the TV with a lot of others of the group. German pay TV also focuses on the top five so we don’t often feature either and often have to rely on the internet.
How many times do members travel to games?
We travel as much as we can to Upton Park. When you look back to the last years, we can say that almost every matchday, someone who is in touch with our club has been there to support the Hammers in the stadium. ‘We are West Ham’s Claret Blue Army’ and ‘Over Land and Sea’ are chants with which we can identify with 100 per cent. We also travel to away games. Even when we were relegated to the Championship we took people to places like Bristol, Peterborough, Cardiff and Burnley and much more. As a group we try to go together to the matches 2-3 times a season. But individually a lot more.
How can you be contacted?
Our website address is hammer-hearts.de and, while we are not on Twitter, you can find us on Facebook under Hammer-Hearts.
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