Iron Blue 1983 – original round club logo featuring number 17IRON BLUE 1983Heidelberg / Edinburgh · Schalke 04 / Heart of Midlothian Supporters’ Club
Royal-blue Iron Blue 1983 scarves in the stands

The Grand Old Club from the South

Heidelberg.
Schalke.
Forever royal blue.

Since 1983. From the south.
HHGH!

49° N · 08° E AT HOME IN HEIDELBERGEST. 1983 ORIGINAL NO. 17
Top
ROOTED IN HEIDELBERG.✦SCHALKE IN OUR HEARTS.✦IRON BLUE SINCE 1983.

01 / OUR STORY

Friendship becomes
a lasting tradition.

Five friends. One passion. A supporters’ club built to last.

In the spring of 1983, five young Schalke supporters from the Heidelberg area founded Iron Blue 1983 Heidelberg. With the club facing difficult times, they wanted to show their loyalty to the Royal Blues.

Today, our members live across southwest Germany. What brings us together has stayed the same: friendship, shared experiences and a royal-blue heart.

Iron Blue – original number 17, established 1983

MORE THAN A NUMBER.

In 1984, we became the 17th club to join the SFCV.
Our original membership number.
Our identity to this day.
1983Founded in Heidelberg
17Our SFCV membership number · since 1984
202340 years · together in Edinburgh
Top

02 / HEIDELBERG & EDINBURGH

One match.
One meeting.
A lasting friendship.

Our connection with Hearts has gone beyond football since 2004.

Iron Blue with the club flag outside the Heart of Midlothian stadium
Together in Edinburgh · from our club gallery

Where it began: a European night in Edinburgh

In November 2004, the UEFA Cup takes Schalke 04 to Edinburgh. The match against Heart of Midlothian was played at Murrayfield Stadium. For the travelling Iron Blue supporters, the connection with Hearts also began away from the pitch: meetings with Scottish fans in the city’s pubs and around the stadium created the first contacts. Over the years, an encounter on a football night grew into a friendship.

Standing together through difficult times

The friendship takes on particular significance when Heart of Midlothian faced a financial crisis that threatened the club’s survival and entered administration. The supporters stay in touch. Through the Foundation of Hearts, fans come together to help preserve their club. Support also comes from within the Iron Blue community through regular financial pledges to the Foundation. The connection now reaches beyond attending matches together.

Keeping in touch and visiting each other

Facebook helps keep those contacts alive and brings the supporters closer. Hearts fans join Iron Blue’s traditional end-of-season trip to Schalke’s final home match and discover the Schalker Meile, the streets at the heart of Schalke fan culture. Further trips take Iron Blue back to Scotland, including a Boxing Day visit to support Hearts in their battle against relegation.

A connection that continues

Since 2015, it has become a tradition for our Scottish friends to join our end-of-season gathering, held on the final or penultimate matchday of each season.

We celebrated our 40th anniversary together with a stay of several days in Edinburgh. The day after the match, we were invited to a Foundation of Hearts recognition ceremony at Tynecastle Stadium. Afterwards, we also had the chance to visit the pitch and the players’ dressing rooms.

In 2026, following a successful season for Hearts, we were also able to support them away from home in European competition – a fantastic experience.

Top

03 / A Bit of Culture

Iron Blue for your ears.

Our songs. Our passion in music. Listen here, then find the full tracks on Spotify.

Top

04 / AN ANNIVERSARY AMONG FRIENDS

40 years.
And still hungry
for more.

Five days with our friends at Hearts of Midlothian in wonderful Edinburgh. The perfect setting to celebrate four decades of Iron Blue.

Our feature in the Hearts matchday programme, 2023 PDF · 2.28 MB ↗
Top
Blue Iron Blue 1983 anniversary shirt

06 / WEAR YOUR COLOURS

17 looks good
on everyone.

Wear a piece of Iron Blue. Find our supporters’ club merchandise in our external Spreadshirt shop.

Visit the club shop ↗See the shop for the current range and prices.
Top

07 / KEEP IN TOUCH

A royal-blue Glück auf!

Want to get to know us or see what we’re up to? You can reach us on Facebook and Instagram. We’d love to hear from you.

Top

IRON BLUE 1983 HEIDELBERG

Support from the heart.

In the spring of 1983, FC Schalke 04 were fighting to stay in the Bundesliga. A few young people from the Heidelberg area, fans of the Royal Blues since childhood in the days of Fischer and Abramczik, shared the anxiety of the Ruhr club. The situation kept getting worse, and that was precisely why the five friends decided to form a supporters’ club and show their loyalty to the world. Iron Blue 1983 Heidelberg was born. Schalke made it to the relegation play-offs, but their second relegation could not be avoided. At the time, a Schalke supporters’ club in northern Baden was so unusual that we were later invited into the studio for an hour-long radio programme. Back then, we would wave to other drivers with a Schalke pennant, or even stop for a chat to find out what another Royal Blue was doing in the south. Being a Schalke fan here was something special. It certainly wasn’t about great success or a spectacular stadium. It came from the heart. Times have changed considerably, bringing new ambitions as well as new challenges.

In 2009, the club was honoured for 25 years of membership in the official Schalke supporters’ association, the SFCV. We had joined in 1984 as its 17th club. At the time of the original account, the association brought together more than 850 supporters’ clubs with over 56,000 members. Along with the modern arena and Champions League football, this was perhaps the clearest sign of how times had changed.

We no longer have one regular meeting place, as our members are now spread across roughly a 100 km radius in southwest Germany, between the Palatinate and Böblingen.

At Iron Blue, we are proud of our tradition, and our logo reflects it. The number 17, our original SFCV membership number, is its central element.

In 2023, we celebrated our 40th anniversary with an unforgettable trip to Edinburgh. And the motto from our 10th anniversary still rings true: “We’re still hungry for more!”

Translated from the existing club history. Figures and references to the time reflect the original published text.

40 years of Iron Blue

Opening the film loads it via Cloudflare (approx. 46.45 MB).

Open the film directly ↗

WEBSITE PROVIDER

Iron Blue 1983

Robert Gebhardt
Ebersteinstr. 10
67304 Eisenberg
Germany

Contact

Email:

Privacy policy

Last updated: 16 October 2026

1. Controller

Robert Gebhardt
Iron Blue 1983
Ebersteinstr. 10
67304 Eisenberg, Germany
Email: webmaster(at)ironblue1983.de

Replace “(at)” with “@” to send an email. This address also handles privacy requests.

2. Cloudflare hosting and media

The website, images and audio previews are delivered through Cloudflare Pages; the anniversary film uses Cloudflare R2 and a Worker. The provider is Cloudflare, Inc., 101 Townsend Street, San Francisco, CA 94107, USA.

Requests involve processing connection data, particularly your IP address, time, requested URL, browser and operating system information and, where applicable, referring pages, error and security information. The purposes are reliable delivery, troubleshooting and security. The legal basis is Article 6(1)(f) GDPR and our legitimate interest in operating a secure website. The necessary data are transmitted automatically; without them content cannot be delivered.

Cloudflare and its technical subprocessors receive the data needed for their services. Processing on our behalf is subject to Article 28 GDPR. Data may be processed outside the European Economic Area. Cloudflare describes its safeguards, including EU Standard Contractual Clauses and the EU–US Data Privacy Framework, in its Data Processing Addendum and Privacy Policy. These documents also provide information and contact details for obtaining the relevant transfer safeguards.

3. Cloudflare Web Analytics

We use Cloudflare Web Analytics to understand page views and visits and improve loading times and technical quality. A script sends page and referral information, timing, browser and device information and performance measurements to Cloudflare. Results are displayed in statistical reports.

The provider states that Web Analytics operates without cookies or fingerprinting to recognise individual visitors. We do not use it to create personal advertising profiles. Sending measurements nevertheless requires a connection to Cloudflare. Where personal data are processed, the basis is Article 6(1)(f) GDPR and our interest in a useful, technically reliable website. Collection also depends on browser and privacy settings. See Cloudflare Web Analytics.

4. Audio, video and browser storage

Audio previews start only when you operate the player. The film is requested when you open the video viewer. Both are delivered through our Cloudflare services; section 2 applies. There is no embedded Spotify player or social-media feed. Our own page functions do not store language or advertising preferences in cookies or local browser storage. Your browser may cache files for faster display.

5. Links, redirects and email

Spotify, Facebook, Instagram and Spreadshirt are provided only as links. These links do not load platform content unless opened. The relevant provider’s privacy information then applies. Processing on our own social-media profiles is outside the scope of this website privacy policy.

Domain registration and DNS management are with STRATO. Requests to ironblue1983.de without “www” currently pass through STRATO’s redirect to www.ironblue1983.de. STRATO receives the connection data needed for that request. The purposes and legal basis correspond to section 2. See STRATO’s privacy information.

There is no contact form. If you voluntarily email the address in our legal notice, we process your sender address, message and other supplied information to handle your enquiry. The basis is Article 6(1)(f) GDPR and our interest in responding, or Article 6(1)(b) GDPR where an enquiry relates to a contract. Without a reply address, we may be unable to respond. The relevant email providers handle transmission.

6. Photographs and retention

Club photographs may identify individuals. Publication serves to present our shared activities. Depending on the image, the basis may be consent under Article 6(1)(a) GDPR or an overriding legitimate interest under Article 6(1)(f) GDPR, taking applicable image-rights rules into account. If you are affected, please contact the address above.

We retain personal data only as long as needed for their purpose. For technical data, relevant criteria include delivery, troubleshooting, security incidents and legal obligations; Cloudflare and STRATO also apply service-specific retention rules. Enquiries are deleted once resolved unless legal retention duties or the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims require storage. Photographs are reviewed when their publication purpose ends, consent is withdrawn or a justified objection is raised.

7. Your rights

Subject to the applicable conditions, you have rights of access, rectification, erasure, restriction and data portability. You can withdraw consent at any time for the future without affecting the lawfulness of previous processing.

You may object to processing based on Article 6(1)(f) GDPR on grounds relating to your particular situation. Send requests to webmaster(at)ironblue1983.de.

You may complain to a supervisory authority, particularly in the place of your habitual residence, work or the alleged infringement. For Rhineland-Palatinate: State Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information Rhineland-Palatinate, Postfach 30 40, 55020 Mainz, Germany.

We do not use this website for automated decisions producing legal or similarly significant effects, or for related profiling.