Karl-Marx-Stadt, 28 May 1988: if you ask old Union fans for their happiest Oberliga memory, you often get the surprising answer “Karl-Marx-Stadt”. On that day the Eisernen needed an away win to avoid relegation. Twice they went behind, twice they came back, and right at the end a final free kick led to a scramble and the winning goal for 3–2. “A madhouse,” as reporter Wolfgang Hempel put it.
It was not Union who went down, but Vorwärts Frankfurt.