BERLIN (AFP) - Former Glasgow Rangers star Peter Lovenkrands hit both goals as Schalke 04 knocked Werder Bremen off the top of the German league in a 2-0.

The Gelsenkirchen side now have 45 points, three ahead of Werder, while Stuttgart remain third, seven points behind the leaders after a 1-0 win at Borussia Dortmund.

Danish striker Lovenkrands opened the scoring in the 20th minute with an acrobatic volley after being set-up by Brazilian Lincoln.

He almost had a second in the 38th minute but his rasping 25m drive was well-saved by Werder keeper Andreas Reinke.

But an unimpressive Werder side were finished off by Lovenkrands in the 71st minute when he scored from a pass by Kevin Kuranyi.

Stuttgart´s three points were guaranteed by Mario Gomez hitting his 11th goal of the campaign, the perfect way to celebrate his first call-up to the national team.

Stuttgart are four points ahead of Bayern Munich who slumped to a 3-0 defeat against Nuremburg on Friday in Ottmar Hitzfeld´s first game back in charge at the start of his second spell with the Munich giants.

New Hamburg coach Huub Stevens failed to reinvigorate rock-bottom SV Hamburg on Saturday as the struggling side surrendered a one goal lead to lose 2-1 at his former club Hertha Berlin.

Alexander Laas gave Stevens, who replaced the sacked Thomas Doll in midweek, the perfect start with a goal after 33 minutes.

But Hertha, who had seen Serbian striker Marko Pantelic miss a ninth-minute penalty, levelled when international defender Arne Friedrich scored in the 78th minute.

Brazilian striker Mineiro, who was brought in during the transfer window, then hit the winner with a thundering strike in the second minute of injury time.

The defeat left Hamburg firmly rooted to the foot of the table with just one win and 15 points to their name and facing the prospect of losing their top flight status after 43 years.

It was their seventh defeat of the season and left them four points from safety.

Hertha stay in fifth place, a point behind Bayern Munich.

Eighth-placed Hanover, who beat Hertha 5-0 last week, were in the goals again with a 4-1 trouncing of Alemannia Aachen.

Borussia Monchengladbach gave their new coach Jos Luhukay, who has replaced Jupp Heynckes, a winning start with a 2-0 success at Arminia Bielefeld for the club´s first win since October 14.

On Friday, Hitzfeld endured a nightmare return to the Bayern hotseat.

Having led Bayern to the German title in 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2003 as well as the 2001 Champions League crown, he replaced the sacked Felix Magath in midweek.

Hitzfeld admitted he viewed a video tape of the game on Saturday and he didn´t like what he saw.

"It wasn´t pleasant viewing. It was a disgrace to the name of Bayern Munich," raged the coach.

"I knew I´d taken on a tough task, but I´m slightly surprised at how tough it´s going to be. We caved in at the end."

Even the return to the side of England midfielder Owen Hargreaves after four months out with a broken leg couldn´t save Bayern from defeat in this Munich derby.

Ivan Saenko gave Nuremburg the lead after 13 minutes before Roy Makaay wasted a golden opportunity to equalise in the 22nd minute when he fired straight at goalkeeper Raphael Schafer.

World Cup striker Lukas Podolski came on in the second half to give Bayern more bite but Nuremberg held out and were 2-0 ahead in 71st minute through Markus Schroth with Robert Vittek adding the third four minutes from time.