BERLIN (AFP) - Striker Hugo Almeida hit two goals in 54 seconds on Saturday as Werder Bremen beat Bundesliga champions VfB Stuttgart 4-1, while Hertha Berlin took a temporary lead at the top of the table.

With Bayern Munich playing Karlsruhe on Sunday, Hertha leapt into top spot with a convincing win over Borussia Dortmund in Berlin, but there was some crazy football at Bremen.

Almeida, 23, scored in the third and fourth minutes of a busy opening quarter-hour which saw no less than four goals.

Brazilian midfielder Diego hit Bremen's fourth in the 89th minute, a rare second half goal following Boubacar Sanogo's 15th minute strike which came two minutes after Mario Gomez scored the champions' only goal of the game.

Coach Thomas Schaaf was delighted with the performance especially as Diego, who has signed a year-long extension to his contract, marshalled the midfield in commanding style.

"We played well from the first whistle," he said. "It was an exciting game for the fans and Diego showed what a quality player we have."

Stuttgart are now languishing in 13th place, and their coach Armin Veh admitted they were no match for Bremen.

"We lacked the aggression and the game was virtually over after the second goal went in," he said.

"We made some serious errors and did little to correct them."

As Bremen moved to seventh spot, Hertha top the table following their fourth win of the season which saw them come from behind to beat Borussia Dortmund 3-2 at Berlin's Olympic Stadium.

"Dortmund played well, but luckily the team responded well to come back from 1-0 down," said Berlin coach Lucien Favre.

"I am very, very pleased that we are at top of the table, but after just six games it is impossible to analyse where we really are. There is still a lot of football left in this season."

Dortmund's Croatian striker Mladen Petric had given the guests an early lead before Hertha's Marko Pantelic scored his fourth goal in three games to level.

Brazilian Lucio and Solomon Okoronkwo then added second-half goals, before Petric added his second goal with two minutes remaining.

Arminia Bielefeld lost their second place in the league and dropped to sixth as Schalke 04 hit them with a convincing 3-0 defeat to keep their unbeaten record and move to fourth.

Germany striker Kevin Kuranyi opened the scoring for the hosts and Gerald Asamoah and Brazilian defender Rafinha hit second-half goals.

Hansa Rostock picked up their first win of the season to move off the bottom of the table with a 2-0 win over Duisburg.

Striker Sebastian Haehnge opened the scoring on 34 minutes before striker Enrico Kern converted a 53rd minute penalty.

Hamburg got their third win of the season and moved into fifth as captain Rafael van de Vaart hit a second-half goal at home to Nuremberg which sealed the win.

Energie Cottbus took over as the Bundesliga's bottom side when they were humbled 2-1 at home to VfL Wolfsburg.

On Friday VfL Bochum and Eintracht Frankfurt ground out a 0-0 draw, while Bayer Leverkusen are at Hanover on Sunday with Bayern travelling to Karlsruhe.