The Hertha BSC logo is the crest of Hertha BSC, a professional football club in Berlin, Germany, founded on July 25, 1892. It is a waving flag, blue on top and white below, with “Hertha BSC” lettered in blue across the white half. Fans call it the “Fahne pur,” the pure flag. The club has used many badges across its 130-plus years, including an eagle, a ball of lettering and a ring around the flag, and members pushed through each return to the flag.
What Is the Hertha BSC Logo?
The Hertha BSC logo is a free-standing blue and white flag with “Hertha BSC” in blue on the lower white half. No designer has been publicly credited. The flag became the official logo on its own in 2012, for the club’s 120th anniversary, and the club’s statutes have defined it since 2014.
| Symbol | Blue and white waving flag (“Fahne pur”); no eagle, no ring |
| Designer/agency | Not publicly credited |
| Current version since | 2012 |
| Colors (hex) | Blue approx. #004D9E, sampled from the current logo; white #FFFFFF; black flag outline |
| Typeface | No retail typeface confirmed; the lettering looks custom-drawn to follow the flag’s wave |
| Previous major version | Flag inside a blue “Hertha BSC Berlin” ring, 1999 to 2012 |
How Has the Hertha BSC Logo Evolved Over Time?
German Wikipedia’s crest gallery lists nine periods since 1892. Most of the story is a tug of war: the club tried to replace or dress up the flag, and supporters kept pulling it back. The year ranges below come from that gallery, and a 2025 brochure by the fan group Förderkreis Ostkurve supplies much of the background. Dates for the earliest badges are less certain than the recent ones.
Old Hertha Logo: The H Crest (1892-1923)
- Years Active: 1892 to 1923
- Design Description: An “H” for Hertha, used alone or in a crest
- Designer: Unknown
- Context: The club was founded as BFC Hertha 1892. A flag with an H appears in club archives from 1921
- Cultural Significance: Often treated as the founding logo, though the fan brochure says that isn’t strictly accurate. It returned on a shirt in 2005
Eagle Crest (1923-1930)
- Years Active: 1923 to 1930
- Design Description: A black eagle on a round blue and white field
- Designer: Unknown
- Context: The eagle came from the Berliner Sport-Club, which merged with Hertha in 1923. That merger also produced the name Hertha BSC
- Cultural Significance: Worn during the club’s title era, yet unpopular with parts of the membership. Its surprise revival on the 2006/07 shirt caused fan protests
Transitional Crest (1930-1933)
- Years Active: 1930 to 1933
- Design Description: A gold ring reading “Hertha B.S.C.” around a flag placed in front of an eagle
- Context: The merger ended in 1930, but Hertha kept the BSC name. The eagle stayed on the kit for a while, since kit changes took time
Hertha Flag Logos (1933-1979)
- Years Active: 1933 to 1964, then 1964 to 1979
- Design Description: First a waving flag with an H on the blue half; from the 1960s a version close to today’s flag, with the name in the white half, set in a thin ring
- Designer: Unknown
- Cultural Significance: This is where the flag became the club’s real symbol
The “Discoball” Logo (1979-1984)
- Years Active: 1979 to 1984
- Design Description: White “HERTHA BSC” lettering bent into the shape of a football on a blue background
- Designer: Not publicly credited
- Context: The club’s matchday program promoted it in 1979 as a modern emblem. A members’ meeting in autumn 1983 voted to return to the flag
- Cultural Significance: Fans nicknamed it the “Discoball.” The fan brochure treats it as the club’s first commercially driven logo
Flag in a Thin Ring (1984-1999)
- Years Active: 1984 to 1999
- Design Description: The flag with “Hertha BSC,” surrounded by a thin ring
- Cultural Significance: The first post-Discoball version, and the basis of the flag as fans know it now
“Hertha BSC Berlin” Ring (1999-2012)
- Years Active: 1999 to 2012
- Design Description: The flag shrunk inside a wide blue ring reading “Hertha BSC Berlin”
- Context: Introduced during the climb that took the club into the Champions League in 1999, with an eye on international marketing
- Cultural Significance: Never loved by supporters. After relegation in 2010, the fan initiative “Fahne pur” began campaigning to remove it
Current Hertha BSC Logo (2012-Present)
- Years Active: 2012 to present
- Design Description: The flag alone, with no ring, and blue lettering in the white half
- Color Scheme: Blue, white and a black outline
- Designer: Not publicly credited
- Context: Adopted for the 120th anniversary. At the May 2014 members’ meeting, the flag was written into the statutes as the official logo, with a 99% majority according to the fan brochure
- Cultural Significance: The statutes say it may only be used free-standing, without additional accents
What Do the Design Elements of the Hertha BSC Logo Mean?
The flag stands for the club itself. It has no city symbol, no founding year and no ornament. Blue and white go back to the founding in 1892, and the fan brochure describes the flag as the emblem of the club’s community, shaped by the people who carry it.
What Does the Flag Represent in the Hertha BSC Logo?
The statutes describe it plainly: blue on top, white below, split horizontally in equal halves, with Hertha BSC in blue in the lower part.
That simplicity is the appeal.
Many clubs have to work out how to turn a round crest into a flag for the stands. Hertha’s crest already is one, so any fan can carry it without adaptation.
It also shows why the shape matters more than any single drawing. Fans have redrawn the flag many times, and it stays instantly recognizable.
What Are the Hertha BSC Logo Colors?
The club’s statutes state the colors simply as blue and white. They were not taken from Berlin’s city colors, which are red and white. The club’s own tradition says they came from the funnel of the steamship Hertha, the boat that also gave the club its name.
The club has not published a hex code that we could find, so the values below are approximate.
- Blue: approx. #004D9E, sampled from the current logo
- White: #FFFFFF
- Black: the flag’s outline and pole
A kit manifesto reported by Footy Headlines in October 2026 names the primary shirt blue “Blue Lolite,” but the report gives no code for it. Hertha sits among the many blue logos in German football, and the same report says monochrome or recolored crests are banned on match shirts.
No official Pantone, RGB or CMYK values have been published, so none are listed here.
What Typography Style Is Used in the Hertha BSC Logo?
The lettering in the flag is bold, tall and condensed.
No retail typeface has been confirmed, and the letters bend with the wave of the flag, so it looks custom-drawn rather than typed. No close free alternative is widely agreed on.
The condensed letterforms let the full club name fit inside the white half without crowding.
Its typography also has personality. The uneven rhythm of the letters helps the crest feel like a real flag in motion.
What Are the Hidden Meanings in the Hertha BSC Logo?
There is no eagle in the current logo, and no reference to Berlin’s coat of arms, which shows a bear.
The eagle in Hertha’s past belonged to the Berliner Sport-Club. “BSC” still stands for Berliner Sport-Club, a leftover from that 1923 merger which outlived the merger itself.
There are no documented subliminal elements. But the flag has a meaning by omission: since 2012 it has also stood for what fans removed, namely the ring and the word “Berlin.”
How Does the Hertha BSC Logo Compare to Competitor Logos?
Hertha BSC’s crest stands apart in German football because it isn’t a badge in the usual sense. Most clubs use a closed shape. Hertha uses an open, waving flag.
Compared to Borussia Dortmund, whose badge is a yellow and black roundel with “BVB 09,” Hertha’s palette reads as more restrained.
The Bayern Munich logo uses blue and white lozenges from the Bavarian flag inside a round crest. Both rely on flag imagery, though Hertha’s colors come from a steamship and not a state.
Against RB Leipzig, a club with a much younger, corporate-rooted badge, Hertha reads as heritage-focused. That builds authenticity in a football culture that values history.
The Hamburger SV logo is a diamond with a long history, and both clubs share that “old guard” German football visual language without relying on an animal.
Clubs like Eintracht Frankfurt, known for its eagle, and SC Freiburg use more conventional crest structures. Hertha’s free-standing flag gives it a more distinctive silhouette at a glance.
What Cultural Impact Has the Hertha BSC Logo Had?
Few German football crests have been fought over this openly.
Members voted out the Discoball in 1983. Fans protested the eagle’s return in 2006/07 with banners and the slogan “Herthafahne – sonst nix!” (the Hertha flag, nothing else). Then came the “Fahne pur” campaign after 2010, and the 2014 vote.
The argument is still alive. A limited members’ jacket with the Discoball on it, shown at the May 2025 assembly, led Förderkreis Ostkurve to publish its brochure on the club’s colors and crests.
That history gives the crest unusual weight among supporters at the Olympiastadion, where the flag is both the logo and the thing they physically wave. Hertha’s nickname, “die Alte Dame” (the Old Lady), reflects the same sense of age and tradition. The club currently plays in the 2. Bundesliga, and the flag has outlasted plenty of changes of division.
How Does the Hertha BSC Logo Fit Into the Overall Brand Identity?
The logo sits at the center of an identity built on three things: the flag, the blue and white vertical stripes of the home shirt, and the name.
Those stripes have been the main look of the home kit for decades, and the flag’s blue and white split echoes them.
The October 2026 kit manifesto reported by Footy Headlines goes further than most brand guidelines a fan will ever see. It sets minimums for the home stripes, limits away and third shirts to a few base colors, and requires the crest in full color.
The city itself is a separate layer. Red and white with the Berlin bear also show up in the fan scene’s flags, according to the fan brochure, without becoming part of the crest.
This makes Hertha a useful case for anyone interested in how a club identity is defended by the people who follow it, not only by those who manage it.
How Should the Hertha BSC Logo Be Used?
This is general advice, not a club rulebook. The one club rule we can point to is in the statutes: the flag is used free-standing, without additional accents.
Football crests are normally protected as trademarks, so merchandise or anything that implies an official link usually needs permission from the rights holder. Editorial use, such as illustrating an article about the club, is treated differently in many countries, though rules vary.
For clean reproduction, a vector graphic scales without quality loss, while a JPEG can pick up artifacts around the lettering.
Be careful with older versions. The ring, the Discoball and the eagle all circulate online, and in this club’s case using the wrong one is more than a design slip.
FAQ on the Hertha BSC Logo
What Does the Hertha BSC Logo Look Like?
It’s a waving flag, blue on top and white below, with “Hertha BSC” in blue on the white half and a black outline and pole.
There is no ring, eagle or city symbol in the current version.
Why Is the Hertha BSC Logo a Flag?
The flag became the club’s recognized symbol over the decades, and supporters preferred it to every replacement.
The current free-standing version, known as the “Fahne pur”, was adopted in 2012 after a fan campaign and is now defined in the club’s statutes.
What Did the Old Hertha Logo Look Like?
Old versions include an H crest (1892-1923), a black eagle (1923-1930), a gold ring with a flag and eagle (1930-1933), the “Discoball” of lettering shaped into a football (1979-1984), and the flag inside a “Hertha BSC Berlin” ring (1999-2012).
How Many Times Has the Hertha BSC Crest Changed?
German Wikipedia’s crest gallery lists nine periods since 1892. The biggest shifts came with the 1923 eagle, the 1979 Discoball and the 2012 return to the flag alone.
Who Designed the Hertha BSC Logo?
No designer or agency has been publicly credited for the flag or for the earlier crests.
Is There an Eagle in the Hertha Berlin Logo?
Not today. The eagle came from the Berliner Sport-Club after the 1923 merger, and it has nothing to do with Berlin’s city arms, which show a bear.
It briefly returned on the 2006/07 shirt, which fans protested.
What Do the Colors in the Hertha BSC Badge Mean?
Blue and white have been the club’s colors since 1892. By club tradition they came from the funnel of the steamship Hertha, which also inspired the name.
They do not come from Berlin’s city colors, which are red and white.
What Are the Color Codes for the Hertha BSC Logo?
Blue is approx. #004D9E, sampled from the current logo, and white is #FFFFFF.
The club has not published official hex or Pantone values that we could find.
What Font Is Used in the Hertha BSC Logo?
No retail typeface has been confirmed. The bold, condensed lettering follows the flag’s wave and looks custom-drawn.
What Does BSC Stand For, and When Was Hertha Founded?
BSC stands for Berliner Sport-Club, from the 1923 merger. The club was founded on July 25, 1892, as BFC Hertha 1892, and its home is the Olympiastadion in Berlin.
How Does the Hertha BSC Logo Compare to Other German Club Badges?
Most German crests are closed shapes such as circles, shields or diamonds. Hertha’s open flag stands out next to VfB Stuttgart or FC Koln, whose crests rely on more traditional badge shapes and symbols.
Where Can I Get a Hertha BSC Logo File?
We couldn’t verify a public brand portal. For press or commercial use, ask the club directly, since crests are normally protected as trademarks.
Conclusion
The Hertha BSC logo is more than a club badge. It’s a flag that supporters kept choosing, in blue and white colors that have held since 1892.
Across multiple crest iterations, the club tried eagles, rings and a ball of letters, and each time the flag came back. Few logo histories show that kind of pull.
The Berlin football badge connects the club to its founders, its members and its supporters in a way no rebrand has managed to replace.
For anyone studying German football club identity or logo design principles, Hertha BSC is a clear example of how much a simple symbol can matter when the people using it feel it belongs to them.
Sources
- Hertha BSC, Satzung des Hertha, Berliner Sport-Club e.V. (as of May 14, 2023) – https://content.herthabsc.com/site/binaries/content/assets/club/satzung-herthabsc-ev-230514.pdf
- Förderkreis Ostkurve, Farben und Wappen von Hertha BSC (2025) – https://foerderkreis-ostkurve.de/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Farben-und-Wappen-von-Hertha-BSC_2025-1.pdf
- Wikipedia (German), Hertha BSC – https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hertha_BSC
- Die Falsche 9, Bewerte Deinen Verein: Hertha BSC – https://www.diefalsche9.de/?p=4004
- Footy Headlines, Hertha Berlin Introduces Kit Manifesto – https://www.footyheadlines.com/3615854226/hertha-berlin-introduces-kit-manifesto-bans-wild-away-colors-monochrome-badges.html
Renowned for his expertise in logo design and visual branding, Bogdan has developed a multitude of logos for various clients.
His skills extend to creating posters, vector illustrations, business cards, and brochures. Additionally, Bogdan's UI kits were featured on marketplaces like Visual Hierarchy and UI8.
He also wrote in the past years on sites like Design Your Way, WebDesignerDepot, WPDean, Designmodo, Speckyboy, Slider Revolution, and more.
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Bogdan Sandu is a seasoned designer who has been designing websites since 2008. Renowned for his expertise in logo design and visual branding, Bogdan has developed a multitude of logos for various clients. His skills extend to creating posters, vector illustrations, business cards, and brochures. Additionally, Bogdan's UI kits were featured on marketplaces like Visual Hierarchy and UI8. He also wrote in the past years on sites like Design Your Way, WebDesignerDepot, WPDean, Designmodo, Speckyboy, Slider Revolution, and more.
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