The Thunder came into existence as an expansion team, after the
London/England Monarchs franchise shut down operations, prior to the 1999 season. Home games from 1999 to 2002 were played at
Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Sportpark and one game in 2006.
Olympiastadion was the home stadium from 2003 to 2007. They were the second team in league history to use the Thunder name, following the
Orlando Thunder from 1991 to 1992. The Thunder won the
World Bowl three times:
2001,
2002 and
2004 (a year that they went 9–1). They also made it to the World Bowl in
2005 but were defeated by the
Amsterdam Admirals 21–27. Two Berlin
quarterbacks,
Rohan Davey (2004) and
Dave Ragone (2005), were named NFL Europe Offensive
Most Valuable Players.
Linebacker Rich Scanlon (2005) was named NFL Europe Defensive MVP. In 2006, the Thunder had three players earn All-NFL Europe honors:
guard Chad Beasley and
safety Anthony Floyd earned all-league honors at their respective positions and German
defensive end Christian Mohr was honored as the national player on the defensive all-league team. On 1 April 2006, the Thunder recorded their first tie in franchise history. Trailing the
Hamburg Sea Devils 17–0 at halftime, the Thunder erased their deficit to tie it up, going into overtime in which neither team could come up with a point. This was only the second tie in the history of NFL Europe. The previous tie came in the 1992 season between the
Birmingham Fire and the
London Monarchs, also 17-17. An unrelated
team of the same name is to play in the inaugural 2021 season of the new
European League of Football. ==Season-by-season==