Friedhelm Funkel was shown precisely how big a task he has on his hands as he witnessed his Hertha Berlin side collapse to Hamburg 3-1.

Funkel was appointed as Hertha coach just 24 hours ago and was unable to eliminate the kind of errors which had ultimately cost predecessor Lucien Favre his job.

Hertha actually led when Arne Friedrich headed them in front in the ninth minute, but that proved to be a false dawn as a Kaka own goal and two carbon-copy strikes from David Jarolim and Ze Roberto sent Hamburg back to the top of the table and left Hertha rooted to the bottom.

Werder Bremen continued their march up the standings with a comfortable 2-0 victory at struggling Stuttgart.

Claudio Pizarro gave Bremen the lead after just three minutes and Aaron Hunt made it 2-0 six minutes after half-time as Werder stretched their undefeated run to seven games.

Thomas Schaaf's team have collected four wins in that stretch and jumped to fourth place in the table with 15 points.

A convincing 4-0 home win over Nurnberg extended Bayer Leverkusen's unbeaten start to the campaign to eight games and lifted them briefly to the top of the table.

The hosts were in front after just a minute through a free-kick from Toni Kroos, who was then brought down in the box on 27 minutes for Simon Rolfes to score from the penalty spot.

The lead was further extended before half-time when Eren Derdiyok pounced on the loose ball after Stefan Kiessling's shot had been blocked.

Kiessling added his name to the scoresheet after 68 minutes when he swept home after Manuel Friedrich had nodded down a free-kick.

Bayern Munich have slipped eight points behind the leaders after being held to a 0-0 draw at the Allianz Arena by lowly Cologne.

Bastian Schweinsteiger was twice denied by the crossbar in the first half, with headers from crosses by Jose Ernesto Sosa and Edson Braafheid coming back off the woodwork.

Wolfsburg drew for the first time this season as Edin Dzeko's goal secured a 1-1 stalemate away to Bochum.

Vahid Hashemian headed home Christian Fuchs' free-kick to give Bochum a 53rd minute lead before the hosts had Shinji Ono sent off 10 minutes later for a second yellow card.

The title holders took advantage to equalise inside the final 20 minutes when Dzeko, who scored against Manchester United in midweek, nodded home Karim Ziani's cross.

Hannover claimed just a second Bundesliga victory of the campaign with an entertaining 5-2 success at home to Freiburg.

The visitors' Mohamadou Idrissou had already hit the crossbar by the time Hannover took the lead on seven minutes through Sofian Chahed.

Arnold Bruggink doubled the advantage on 10 minutes before Freiburg pulled a goal back on 35 minutes when Ivica Banovic headed home Felix Bastians' cross.

Karim Haggui made it 3-1 in first-half stoppage time when he rose well to head home a cross from Hanno Balitsch.

Freiburg's Tommy Bechmann was denied by the post on 72 minutes before the visitors gave themselves hope when Julian Schuster headed home Heiko Butscher's cross with eight minutes to go.

However, Hannover scored a fourth on 85 minutes through Didier Ya Konan, who then set up Sergio Pinto to net the fifth in injury-time.

Mainz are enjoying a positive season and scored twice inside the opening 11 minutes to secure a 2-1 triumph at home to Hoffenheim.

Andreas Ivanschitz knocked home Zsolt Low's cross after just six minutes and Aristide Bance's header made it 2-0 in the 11th minute.

Hoffenheim grabbed a consolation with three minutes to go when Andreas Ibertsberger turned home Marco Terrazzino's corner.

In the day's late game, Lucas Barrios scored his first goal of the season as Borussia Dortmund won their first Bundesliga match since early August at Borussia Monchengladbach.

The Argentinian struck the only goal of the game in the first half in a match which saw few chances for either side.

On Friday night, Schalke maintained the pressure on the Bundesliga pacesetters as two second half goals secured a 2-0 win over Frankfurt at the Arena AufSchalke.

Substitute Gerald Asamoah opened the scoring in the 66th minute and Jefferson Farfan wrapped up the points with an injury-time penalty against a side who had Pirmin Schwegler dismissed five minutes from time.