Back in the summer of last year, a number of us travelled to Germany for the pre-season friendly in Augsburg. We were surprised to meet several German Rangers fans who had travelled considerable distances to be at the game.
Since then several of them have travelled to the UK to attend both home and away games. Paul Finney and I discussed last weekend about running a feature on them for the Indy R’s site so I then mailed several of them with a short list of questions and their responses are shown below:
Name: Clark Schworm
Q: When and how did you first become aware of QPR ?
A: 1975
Q: What made you decide to start following Rangers as your English team ?
A: The Rangers support in Cologne in December 1976 at the UEFA Cup 3rd Round second-leg tie that QPR lost 4-1 on the night, but went through on away goals.
Q: Who is your German team ?
A: Schalke 04
Q: When did you first visit Loftus Road and what was your impression of the Stadium and the fans ?
A: 1994/95 against Tottenham with Klinsi (Jurgen Klinsmann). Les Ferdinand scored twice and we won 2-1. It was a fantastic game and great support.
Q: How many times have you now seen Rangers play ?
A: 34 times
Q: What’s the most memorable Rangers game that you have seen ?
A: The 4-2 win against Palace at Loftus Road. At half-time Palace were leading 2-1, but with only 11 minutes left QPR scored three goals, all on the side where our seats were and the scorers running over to us to celebrate !
Q: Please tell us something more about yourself.
A: I am now 50 and stupid ! Every Saturday my heart belongs to QPR, live at Loftus Road or on the couch at home with Sky or on a livestream ! We are QPR, till I die !
Name: Udo Hu
Q: When and how did you first become aware of QPR ?
A: Mid-1980’s, in the German football magazine, ‘Kicker’
Q: What made you decide to start following Rangers as your English team ?
A: The beautiful name. Not so successful, like Liverpool at that time, but a great name.
Q: What German team do you support ?
A: FC Nurnberg
Q: When did you first visit Loftus Road ? What was your impression of the Stadium and the Rangers fans ?
A: 3rd March 2009 versus Norwich City (0-1 defeat), outstanding support and the pitch was very close to the fans.
Q: How many times have you seen QPR play ?
A: 15 times
Q: What’s the most memorable Rangers game that you have seen ?
A: The historical win against Chelsea (1-0) on October 2011. Helguson scored and Loftus Road was like an earthquake ! And on my birthday last year against Arsenal away when I met up with Martin Percival again (first time for the friendly in Augsburg with Steve Russell and Chris Hewitt) and we went in the Arsenal Supporters bar at Highbury after the game.
Q: Please tell us something more about yourself.
A: I’m a mechanic and divorced. I fly twice a year to London for a visit to my beloved Loftus Road. This five days will be every time like a great party and I have met some beautiful people. QPR is a very familiar club and I like that. WE ARE QPR !!!
Name: Werner
Q: When and how did you first become aware of QPR ?
A: In the summer of 1976, friendly game against Rot-Weiss Essen, QPR 0-2. I was 19-years-young
Q: What made you decide on QPR as your English team ?
A: The very good players like Bowles and Francis.
Q: Who is your German team ?
A: Rot-Weiss Essen
Q: When was your first visit to Loftus Road and what was your impression of the Stadium and the fans ?
A: 11th May 1991, QPR against Everton, 1-1, goal Roy Wegerle. Rangers had a good team with McDonald, Wegerle, Ferdinand and Ray Wilkins. It was a really friendly atmosphere around Loftus Road and Shepherd’s Bush, a lot of nice people. I was falling in love with this club now !
Q: How many times have you seen the R’s play ?
A: More than 100 games (thanks Ryanair)
Q: What is the most memorable QPR game that you have seen ?
A: I think the 2-1 away win at Selhurst Park in extra time, October 2010.
Q: Please tell us something more about yourself
A: I’m a salesman for Docking Systems and Overhead Doors. I fly 7/8 times to London. It is really amazing what has happened in the last years. Our German QPR supporters group will be bigger and bigger !!! I hope that I will see many more games at Loftus Road.
Once again my thanks to them for taking part and the second instalment will follow in the near future,
Martin Percival
The bloke wearing glasses in the top picture doesn’t look German to me. Although he now resides in Berlin !!!
Agreed Chris! The guy top right in the second photo actually looks slightly psycho! Too much 12xU. So on Thursday night in Berlin I met Jimmy Lacy who Werner introduced me to as “the other Rs fan in Berlin”. Jimmy’s first game was the 1982 FA Cup Final as a 6 year old kid. He’s been in Berlin for 5 years now. So we spent the first 2.5 hours on the subject of the Rs teams of the late 1980s/1990s before the subject of music eventually coming up. Jimmy’s all time fave band are the Ramones…..eventually we finished drinking and chatting at 1am! My wife’s reaction was “He’s your long lost baby brother” and apparently Jimmy’s wife said “He’s an older version of you!”. You need to head out for a weekend soon.