Close to people | Stories from Bethel
A Bethel resident is Arminia's team doctor
"I've seen you on television!" Prof Dr Stefan Budde often hears this sentence from patients at the Evangelical hospital Bethel (EvKB). There, the specialist in orthopaedics and trauma surgery heads the Department of Endoprosthetics and Special Orthopaedic Surgery. He is known to a wide (television) audience as the team doctor for DSC Arminia Bielefeld.
Stefan Budde can be seen on screen treating injured Arminia players on the stadium pitch. The 42-year-old has been doing the job since 2015 and loves it as much as the first day. As he says, the Bielefeld native was "crazy about Arminia as a boy" and is still a passionate supporter of the Blue and White. "That's why," he says, "it's something special for me to be part of the team." Being close to the players also creates the trust that is important for good medical treatment.
"As a doctor, I'm so focussed on medical aspects that I've already asked after the final whistle: How did the game end?"
But is it even possible to be a fan and be responsible for the medical care of your favourite team? He always tries to be either a doctor or a supporter, answers Stefan Budde. "As a doctor, I'm so focussed on medical aspects that I've sometimes asked after the final whistle: How did the game end?" he says. When Stefan Budde follows a match in his private life, he cheers goals for Arminia much more exuberantly than when he is playing professionally.
Stefan Budde says that working with young competitive athletes is "a great addition and a great balance" to his work at Bethel. He came to Bethel in 2021 from Hanover, where he studied at Hanover Medical School (MHH), completed his doctorate, habilitated and worked at the Annastift Orthopaedic Clinic. Stefan Budde is still a lecturer at the MHH today. At the EvKB, he is expanding endoprosthetics, specialising in hip and knee operations. Helping older patients to be able to walk without pain "gives me great pleasure, especially as a lot of gratitude comes back". It is also the mix of two different patient groups and medical issues that makes his work so appealing to him.
If Arminia professionals need an operation, some of them decide in favour of the EvKB, not least because of Stefan Budde's support. If no operation is necessary, he treats the players at the joint orthopaedic practice at Bültmannshof in Bielefeld, where he also works. EvKB, the practice and Arminia: for Stefan Budde, this is "a harmonious system" professionally, emotionally and thanks to the very good cooperation with clinic director University Professor Dr Thomas Vordemvenne and the other team doctors Dr Andreas Elsner and Dr Tim Niedergassel. He and his wife Hanna can no longer imagine leaving Bielefeld with their young son, who, like Stefan Budde himself, was born "on Gilead". Not even for a head physician position, which Stefan Budde has already turned down for his work at Arminia elsewhere. "I'm very happy," he emphasises, "I'm happy for things to stay the way they are."
Although, that's not quite true: Stefan Budde would rather leave the 3rd division with the DSC today than tomorrow. Upwards. He even dreams of a return to the Bundesliga. If that were to happen, not only Arminia fans but also team doctor Stefan Budde would be jubilant like never before.
Text: Philipp Kreutzer | Picture: Thomas F. Starke, Matthias Cremer
This story simply told
Stefan Budde is a doctor at the Bethel Protestant Hospital. He operates on patients' hips and knees. And he is a doctor at Arminia Bielefeld and looks after the players. He enjoys this task just as much. Stefan Budde has been an Arminia fan since he was a little boy. His big wish is Arminia to get promoted to the Bundesliga once again.
