Overview
- The 1975 Bremen–Hannover match saw referee Wolf-Dieter Ahlenfelder blow for halftime after 32 minutes, then restart play before again stopping about 90 seconds early.
- Contemporary accounts say he had a beer and a Malteser at lunch, while Werder president Franz Böhmert told the DFB he had taken an alcohol-containing cough syrup.
- Werder defender Horst-Dieter Höttges noticed the issue, revived the referee with menthol rub, and prompted the correction on the field; the game finished 0-0.
- Later retellings about a lavish goose lunch were admitted embellishments, as anniversary pieces revisit the episode and separate invention from fact.
- Despite the incident, Ahlenfelder worked 14 Bundesliga seasons with 106 top-flight matches and was voted Germany’s best referee in 1983/84, becoming a cult figure commemorated by a Bremen bar drink.