Heribert Bruchhagen appointed new Hamburg chairman

Bruchhagen will officially take charge from Wednesday after the northern Germany club's directors voted unanimously to replace Beiersdorfer at a board meeting on Sunday evening.

"I certainly didn't envisage this when I left Frankfurt, but when Hamburg come calling, you don't even have to ask yourself whether you accept or not - you have to accept," said Bruchhagen, who only stepped down from his role with Frankfurt in the summer.

"I know what sporting situation Hamburg are in and we will do all we can to reach our goal of survival."

Club chairman Karl Gernandt added on the Bundesliga club's website that a change was necessary.

"The board have been discussing for a while now how the leadership structure of this club should be and the last half a year have shown to us that we have not yet reached the level that we had set ourselves," he said.

"Hamburg have unfortunately not managed to achieve sufficient success and stability in its key sporting areas and this has led, after a variety of talks, to a change at board level.

"As always, we have wanted to avoid as much disturbances as we can in order to keep the focus on the team and their performances on the team, but even the recent change in trend must not distract us from what has been a generally unsatisfactory overall situation."

On the field, Hamburg have won their last two Bundesliga fixtures to move out of the bottom two, although they are still in the relegation play-off berth they occupied at the end of the 2014/15 season.