Bökelberg Stadium

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bökelberg Stadium
Bökelberg
Game scene from a game against Borussia Dortmund in front of the south curve in 1999
Game scene from a game against Borussia Dortmund in front of the south curve in 1999
Earlier names

West German stadium

Data
place Bökelstraße 165 41063 Mönchengladbach , Germany
GermanyGermany
Coordinates 51 ° 12 '32.3 "  N , 6 ° 26' 21.9"  E Coordinates: 51 ° 12 '32.3 "  N , 6 ° 26' 21.9"  E
owner City of Mönchengladbach
opening September 20, 1919
Renovations 1962, 1966, 1972, 1978
demolition December 2005 to August 2006
surface Natural grass
capacity 34,500 seats
25,778 standing
08,722 seats
Societies)
Events
  • Soccer games of the 1st and 2nd Bundesliga
  • NATO music festival

The Bökelbergstadion was a football stadium in the North Rhine-Westphalian city ​​of Mönchengladbach . It was the home ground of the Borussia Mönchengladbach football club until the end of the 2003/04 Bundesliga season .

history

In 1914 Borussia Mönchengladbach acquired a site on Bökelstrasse at 61  m above sea level. NN . However, the planned work on the stadium could no longer be started because the First World War broke out. However, work on the stadium was resumed as early as 1919. At that time the place was still called "dä Kull" because the area had previously been a gravel pit.

On September 20, 1919, the facility was inaugurated under the name "West German Stadium". Large parts were destroyed during the Second World War . 1952 began with the reconstruction and expansion; However, the ambitious plans could not be implemented, as Borussia Mönchengladbach, as the owner, owed the city so much that the stadium had to be left to the city in 1956.

The situation only changed in 1960 when Borussia won the DFB Cup and the city then invested in the venue. The sports facility had 32,000 seats, most of which were standing. Since then, the stadium has been called "Bökelberg Stadium". The name goes back to Wilhelm August Hurtmanns, an author of the Rheinische Post , who with the Bökelberg created a synonym for the stadium on Bökelstrasse in Mönchengladbach's Eicken district .

modification

In 1962 there was a first complete renovation in the Bökelberg Stadium. Three sides were built with fixed stands, while the east stand was initially given a tubular steel stand. In the spring of 1966 the previous west stand was given a roof and in August the Bökelberg was also given a floodlight system. In the autumn of 1969, the first planning began for an expansion of the east wall, which was inaugurated in February 1972 from an "earth wall construction". In 1978 the previous main grandstand was completely demolished and rebuilt. The new grandstand was two-story and hung on two new octagonal steel-plate masts with tensioned cables. The previous old stadium roof made it into the Guinness Book of Records in 1982 as the only stadium roof that could be bought. In October 1978 the work was completed on schedule and the grandstand with its 8,722 seats was inaugurated. A complete renovation of the stadium failed at the beginning of the 90s due to resistance from local residents. Incidentally, the renovation of the main stand in 1978 was the last expansion in the Bökelberg Stadium.

The last few years

You had to look for alternatives and finally found them in the Nordpark in Mönchengladbach , where a new stadium for Borussia was built between 2002 and 2004. On May 22, 2004, the last Bundesliga match took place in the Bökelberg Stadium. Borussia defeated TSV 1860 Munich 3-1. The last goal in a Bundesliga match at the Bökelberg Stadium was scored by Arie van Lent . Exactly one year later, on May 22, 2005, the last football game ever took place in the Bökelberg Stadium. The U23 Borussias defeated the Bonner SC 5-0 in a championship game of the Oberliga Nordrhein . René Schnitzler scored the last goal in the 86th minute. After the construction work was completed, the new stadium in the Nordpark was christened Borussia-Park .

demolition

From December 2005 the Bökelberg Stadium was demolished. First, breakwaters, stalls and sponsorship signs were removed. The demolition of the main stand on March 7, 2006 initially failed. An attempt was made to blow the two feet of the octagonal floodlight masts so that they would sag about four meters and pull the roof with them, but that did not happen. Only after the holding ropes had been cut manually did the grandstand fall at 3:22 p.m. with a few hours' delay. On the morning of August 2, 2006, the last floodlight pole was tilted without any problems and fell into the middle of the stadium as planned.

Today's use of the site

In the meantime, a housing estate has been created on the former site of the stadium. The terraces of the former north and south curve as well as those of the main grandstand have been preserved and are now integrated into the surrounding residential area as a public green corridor. The former stadium structure can still be seen clearly. Since December 2, 2019, a memorial here commemorates the Bökelberg.

  • West German stadium around 1921

  • The north curve

  • October 2005, the main stand of the Bökelberg Stadium

  • The empty north curve on Bökelberg in October 2005

See also

literature

  • Markus Aretz: Myth Bökelberg. History of a stadium . Verlag Die Werkstatt, Göttingen 2003. ISBN 3-89533-429-4 .
  • Christoph Buckstegen: Last matchday Bökelberg . 1st edition 2013, ISBN 978-3-95680-007-8 , 144 pages, 65 photos.

Web links

Commons : Bökelbergstadion  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Laura Lotz: How RP editor Hurtmanns came up with the "foal elf". In: rp-online.de. Rheinische Post , August 15, 2012, accessed on August 6, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Entry on Bökelbergstadion (Stadion am Bökelberg, former West German stadium) in the database " KuLaDig " of the Rhineland Regional Association , accessed on July 15, 2017.
  3. ↑ Hannah Gobrecht, Achim Müller, Jannik Sorgatz: That went quickly Gladbach's Bökelberg memorial is a real eye-catcher. In: express.de. December 6, 2019, accessed December 7, 2019 .
  4. ↑ boekelberg-spieltag.de (accessed June 10, 2015)