Barmer Stadium
| Barmer Stadium | |
|---|---|
| Bergisches Stadion Stadion Lichtenplatz |
|
| Earlier names | |
|
Radrennbahn Toelleturm |
|
| Data | |
| place |
 Wuppertal , Germany
|
| Coordinates | 51 ° 14 '53.7 " N , 7 ° 11' 22.7" E |
| owner | City of Wuppertal |
| start of building | March 1909 |
| opening | September 1909 |
| Renovations | 1922 (damage repairs) |
| Extensions | 1924-1930 |
| demolition | 1952 |
| architect | Edmund Hellner, Dresden |
| capacity | 12,000 standing places 2,000 seats |
| playing area | 105 × 58 m |
| Events | |
|
|
The Barmer Stadium was a sports facility that existed from 1909 to 1952 in Barmen (now a district of Wuppertal ) on what is now Müngstener Strasse .
history
In 1908 the then still independent town of Barmen acquired a plot of land on the south heights in the district of Lichtenplatz , at 350 meters the highest point in Wuppertal, not far from the Toelleturm . In the following year, the Lichtenplatz Radrennbahn (also called Toelleturm ) was built there according to plans by the Dresden engineer Edmund Hellner and opened in September 1909.
Two years later, the German standing championship was held on the 400-meter-long cement track, the winner was Peter Günther from Cologne . In 1912, the cycling track hosted the European Standing Championships; Frenchman Paul Guignard became European champion . The Barmer cycling club had been the operator of the track since 1911 . It held 12,000 spectators who could reach the stadium by Ronsdorf-Müngstener railway .
In 1916 the grandstands and part of the track were destroyed in a heavy storm. In 1924 and 1930 the sports facility, now called Barmer Stadion or Bergisches Stadion, called Barmen , was restored and expanded for use for other sports. In addition, an accommodation for the police force was built east of the stadium in the 1920s . In the following years the stadium was used for numerous smaller sporting events, such as cycling races, football games, equestrian tournaments, gymnastics competitions and field handball games as well as the Barmer Forest Festival . In winter, the interior of the stadium was converted into an ice rink by the fire department . After the stadium at the zoo in Elberfeld was opened in a central location in October 1924 , the Barmer stadium lost its importance for spectator events.
In the 1930s, district sports festivals, imperial youth competitions and political rallies took place in the Barmer stadium. The highlight was a soccer game between Schalke 04 and 1. FC Wuppertal in October 1930 in front of around 20,000 spectators. In 1936 the stadium was handed over to the Wehrmacht , which used the sports facility for exercises and rallies, but showed no interest in the cycling track and demanded that the mayor demolish it immediately. The cycling track began to fall into disrepair, and other parts of the stadium were affected by the effects of the war.
Even after the Second World War , the stadium was used for political events. On July 22, 1946, the SED held a rally there with Wilhelm Pieck and Otto Grotewohl in front of 50,000 visitors. In August 1946 the British occupiers confiscated the site, and in June 1947 parts of it were used for the Wuppertal Police Training School. In 1948, individual riding and fistball tournaments were still held. On November 20, 1949, the seizure was lifted by the British occupiers.
In October 1950 the city considered reactivating the stadium again, but the area was claimed by the Ministry of the Interior of North Rhine-Westphalia in April 1951 in order to re-house police forces in the old police barracks. In 1952, after long negotiations, it was sold to the country for around 427,000 marks (225,500 marks for the stadium, 202,000 marks for the site).
In March 1952, the stadium, which was damaged in the war, was demolished and a sports hall was built on the site three years later. In the 1970s the area was rebuilt. Today, various police departments are housed there, such as the service dog squadron, hundreds of riot police and the Düsseldorf motorway police.
Since November 2001 a small plaque on the house at Müngstener Str. 35, the last building still remaining from the original development, has been commemorating the Barmer Stadium , donated by the “Bürgererverein Hochbarmen”.
According to plans by the state government, a forensic clinic for mentally ill offenders with around 150 places in the penal system should be built on the site by 2020 . However, these plans were rejected at the beginning of 2014 after violent protests by the local population, an establishment is now focused in Wülfrath near the Bergische Diakonie Aprath .
References and comments
- ↑ Lichtscheid - anecdotes about the highest point in Wuppertal on wz-newsline.de v. May 13, 2009
- ^ Hellner also planned cycle tracks in Cologne, Berlin, Chemnitz, Dresden, Tilburg, Antwerp and New York. See: [1] ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. and [2] ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ barmen2008.de
- ↑ geschichtswerkstatt-ronsdorf.de ( Memento of the original from July 10, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Klaus-Günther Conrads, Günter Konrad: Ronsdorfer Heimat- und Bürgererverein | from 2000 to 2005. (No longer available online.) In: ronsdorfer-buergerverein.de. www.ronsdorfer-buergerverein.de, archived from the original on February 1, 2016 ; accessed on February 1, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Sick offenders: Wuppertal is to become a forensics location on wz-newsline.de v. October 23, 2012
- ↑ Forensic Clinic does not come to Wuppertal on rp-online.de from March 7, 2014
literature
- Peter Keller : Wuppertal stadiums. Sutton, Erfurt 2003, ISBN 3-89702-539-6 , pp. 8 and 107 f.
- Peter Keller: Searching for traces: Barmer Stadium, Toelleturm Radrennbahn, Bergisches Stadion, Lichtenplatz Stadium. Information brochure from Stadtbetrieb Sport & Bäder. City of Wuppertal, Wuppertal 1999.
