The season’s around Europe are all coming to an end and has his finger on the pulse of the lower leagues. In a series of posts letting us know who’s going up and who’s going down from Europe’s lower leagues we start in Deutschland.

Hertha Berlin made an immediate return to the Bundesliga finishing 9 points clear of 2 ^nd placed Augsburg in their 1 ^st season out of the top flight in 13 years. A strong beginning and end to the season cemented an early return for the club affectionately known in Germany as the old lady.

Berlin’s best supported club went unbeaten in the opening 10 games and suffered only 2 defeats in the last 19 games as head coach Markus Babbel  returns to the Bundesliga following an ill fated stint at Stuttgart. Hertha built from the back conceding only 28 goals in 34 games and coupled with a strike force of Columbian Adrian Ramos who weighed in with 15 goals and Pierre-Michel Lassoga who hit 13 they breezed through 2 Bundesliga with several games to spare.

They are joined by FC Augsburg who missed out on promotion for the first time in their history last season when they lost the play off to Bundesliga outfit Nurnberg, fortunately they went one better this season pipping Bochum on goal difference to 2 ^nd spot. Hertha met Augsburg in the Olympic Stadium in the final game of the season and the leaders triumphed by 2 goals to 1 in a game watched by over 77000 spectators prove in itself that Hertha are a Bundesliga outfit in every right.  Augsburg host their games in their 30000 capacity Impuls Arena which opened at the beginning of the 2009 season and should they avoid an immediate return to the 2 ^nd tier may well take up the option to increase the capacity to 49000.

Bochum finish 4 points above Greuther Furth to claim the promotion/relegation play off place where they met Borussia Monchengladbach in a 2 legged affair, beaten 1-0 by a last minute goal in the away leg Bochum led in front of a near capacity 28650 crowd at their rewirpower STADION through an own goal but a strike 17 minutes from time through Marco Reus give ‘Gladbach the draw they needed to condemn Bochum to another season in the 2 ^nd Division.

Erzgebirge Aue finished in 5 ^th place and can be rightly proud of an excellent season. Aue, with a population of just 18000 making it one of the smallest places ever to host 2 ^nd Division football in Germany spent all season in the promotion frame before finally slipping out of the race in the final weeks, a fine achievement for the club who were promoted from the 3.Liga the season before.

The DFB Pokal provided great joy for the 2.Bundesliga clubs this season. Cottbus reached the semi final knocking out top flight clubs Freiburg, Wolfsburg & Hoffenheim en route, they met fellow 2.Bundesliga outfit MSV Duisburg in the semi final, Duisburg having also knocked out top flight clubs in the shape of Koln & Kaiserslautern triumphed but succumbed 5-0 in the final to a rampant Schalke side. It wasn’t all good news as several sides suffered embarrassing cup defeats, Bochum, Hertha, Fortuna Dusseldorf, Union Berlin & Oberhausen all suffered early round defeats.

Former Bundesliga side Armenia Bielefeld finished bottom and were relegated to the 3.Liga along with Oberhausen whilst Osnabruck finished 3 ^rd from bottom meaning a 2 legged game against 3 ^rd place in 3.Liga. Their opponents were former giant Dynamo Dresden recently besieged with financial problems. The 1 ^st leg in Dresden ended 1-1 in front of 28760 fans and it was the same score line in Osnabruck a few days later, the game went into extra time and goals from Dani Schahin on loan from Greuther Furth and Robert Koch lifted Dynamo Dresden back into the 2 ^nd tier after an absence of 5 years.

Dynamo are joined in 2.Bundesliga next season by runaway champions Eintracht Braunschweig who finished 20 points ahead of 3 ^rd and Hansa Rostock who make a quick return themselves finishing 8 points above 3 ^rd placed Dresden.

Nils Petersen ended the season as top scorer with 25 goals 5 ahead of 2 ^nd placed Alemannia Aachen striker Benjamin Auer with 1860 Munich’s 29 year old striker Benjamin Lauth in 3 ^rd place on 16 goals. Petersen’s reward for a productive season is a transfer to German giants Bayern Munich where he will compete with the likes of Mario Gomez, Thomas Muller, Miroslav Klose & Ivica Olic for a place in the starting line up and a possibility of Champions League football, a far cry from when Petersen started out in the 3.Liga where he made 16 appearances for Carl Zeiss Jena without finding the target.