On the 25th of July 1892, two sets of brothers Fritz and Max Linder and Otto and Willi Lorenz, who were all either sixteen or seventeen years of age, founded the club BFC Hertha 92. Somewhere in the districts of Wedding or Prenzlauer Berg, between where the Berlin Wall would run, they played their matches. The name Hertha comes from the fact that Fritz Linder decided to name the club after a steam boat, which he and his father had made a day trip on. On the funnel of the “Hertha” was the shipping company’s colours, white with blue stripes, which are to this day also the colours of Hertha BSC. A blue cap was worn by the players in order for them to be distinguished from the other team. The team did not wear club jerseys until the turn of the century. In 1901 Hertha became a member of the German Association of Ball Playing Clubs (VDB). In the first season Hertha took their place in the two second league and fi-nished in second place.

In 1904 Hertha moved to Gesundbrunnen, in the district of Wedding, with the sup-port of restaurant owner Joseph Schebera, who paid the rent on the new ground. The stadium, which was little more than a fenced pitch, became known by the fans as the “Plumpe”. In the season 1905/1906 BFC Hertha 92 won the inaugural Berlin Championship. On the 4th of May 1910 Hertha beat the English club Southend United 3:1 at home. The victory against a team from the birthplace of football brought a lot of attention on the club. At the end of the 1909/1910 season the club, in the hands of social democrat Wilhelm Wernicke as club president, had a turnover of 20,020.14 Goldmarks and total attendance figures of 17,172 for the 16 home games. There were 177 registered members, including players and fans.

Although from 1915 through to 1919 there was no German Championship, the club continued to play in friendlies. Thirty-six members of Hertha were killed in the war.

Financial difficulties and relegation fears started to plague the club. But Hertha was capable of some very inventive means of keeping it's head above water. An example from the year 1919: Spectator Artur Friedemann, himself a member of Hertha’s Berlin Championship winning side of 1914/15, was anxiously watching a decisive match against "Berliner FB von 1910", sprang over the barrier and kicked away the ball as it was rolling into the Hertha net for a certain goal. Both the spectators and Berliner FB players pro-tested, but to no avail. The goal was not given and Hertha hung on for a nil-all draw. In 1920 the sportingly successful Hertha merged with the rich Berliner Sport-Club. From then on the new club was known as Hertha BSC. In the same year the attack-ing midfielder Karl Tewes was signed. He was credited with inventing the “Stopper tactic”. With Hanne Sobeck, probably Berlin’s most popular footballer of all time, Hertha BSC reached from 1926 20 1931 the final of the German Championship six times. After four defeats in a row in the final, Hertha won the next two titles (1930,1931).

During the Third Reich, the Nazi’s overhauled the club’s structure. Hans Pfeifer, a Nazi party member, was installed as the new president of the club to insure that the ideology of Hitler’s regime was followed. By that time, Wilhelm Wernicke was work-ing in Hamburg. The club had suffered as a result of the great devastation of World War II. In May 1945 the old stadium, at the “Plumpe”, was in shambles. The pitch has been hit by over 200 bombs, with many unexploded strewn everywhere. Parts of the stands had also burnt down. The Allied Forces temporary disbanded the club and used their facilities as their headquarters. Later Wilhelm Wernicke was to help rebuild Hertha BSC.

In the 1949/50 season, a group of players and their coach Helmut Schoen fled the East German  city of Dresden and signed for Hertha BSC. Ignatz Bubis, a future Chairman of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, supported the daring escape by organising the getawawy car. As a result of this episode, the club was banned from playing against any DDR teams for one year. In the 50’s there were many clashes with arch-rivals Tennis Borussia, which Hertha managed to win the lion’s share of. During the 1958/59 season, a merger with TeBe was proposed, but the idea was flatly rejected by members with a 263:3 vote result.