Colonel Knight Stadium
| Colonel Knight Stadium | |
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| Colonel Knight Stadium | |
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100-day stadium (1946–1969) |
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| place | Nördlicher Park 25 61231 Bad Nauheim , Germany
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| Coordinates | 50 ° 22 '20.8 " N , 8 ° 44' 18.4" E |
| opening | 1946 |
| Renovations | Renewal of the roof structure and external facade (2010-2011) |
| surface | Ice surface |
| capacity | 4,500 seats (including 1,626 seats) |
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The Colonel Knight Stadium is an ice rink in Bad Nauheim in Central Hesse . In addition to public ice skating, the stadium is used by local and regional sports clubs, especially by the EC Bad Nauheim ice hockey team for the home games in the DEL2 .
history
The new Building
The stadium, which now holds 4,500 spectators, was built in the winter of 1945/46 on the instructions of the American Colonel Paul Rutherford Knight in his function as local commander of the allied armed forces on the edge of the spa gardens to give the GI's stationed in the region the opportunity to exercise leisure time. He carried out his plan against all opposition that existed both in the US Army and the German authorities, after he had obtained the verbal approval of General Patton . The start of construction was scheduled for October 8, 1945. The Colonel had the ambitious plan to complete the construction in 100 days so that it could be used for ice sports in the winter of 1945/46. When this time frame was in danger, more than 50 prisoners were seconded to the Butzbach penal institution and a regular night shift was introduced.
Due to the immense effort, the given goal could finally be achieved. The grand opening of the stadium, which had 1,500 seats and 2,500 standing places and which was the largest ice surface in Europe at the time (60 meters long and 35 meters wide), took place in the evening hours of January 22nd and 23rd, 1946. The star guest at the opening celebrations was figure skater Maxi Herber . Her husband Ernst Baier , with whom she in pair skating the multiple World Figure Skating Championships , however, had won, could not occur because the Americans his previous contacts with Joseph Goebbels had resented.
Due to the shortage of time and the large frost that occurred towards the end of the construction work, the stadium could only be completed temporarily - and it was to remain so for years. Just a few days after the opening ceremony, Knight's enemies had prevailed in the Army, removed him from his post and ordered the suspension of further construction work. The ice hockey games announced for the beginning of February 1946 were also canceled. Colonel Knight, who had resided in house number 26 on Kurstrasse during his service as town commandant of Bad Nauheim, lived in the Hotel Kaiserhof for about four weeks after his dismissal and said the meaningful words at that time: “One day the Americans will be go. But the city of Bad Nauheim will keep the ice rink. "
The development of ice sports in Bad Nauheim
In 1947 the stadium expansion was finally approved and the foundation stone for the organization of championship games was laid. Various players came from Rastenburg in the former East Prussia , the former stronghold of German winter sports, who started the rise of the ice hockey team at VfL Bad Nauheim . VfL was then one of the founding members of the highest German ice hockey league, which was newly founded in the 1948/49 season . Since then, the stadium has served VfL Bad Nauheim, later EC Bad Nauheim, as the home ground for its ice hockey games.
As a result of the ice revues, a number of important figure skaters came to Bad Nauheim. In addition to the aforementioned Olympic champions in pair skating , Maxi Herber and Ernst Baier, the Olympic champions Ria Baran and Paul Falk as well as the German champions Horst Faber , Ina Bauer , Erich Zeller and others performed in the spa town . Also Marika Kilius and Franz Ningel started their pairs figure skating career at the local ice rink for VfL Bad Nauheim, because in her hometown Frankfurt at that time was no ice rink. A special attraction was the game of a German national team against Dynamo Moscow in February 1955. After all, it was the first ever game by a Russian team on West German soil.
Name of the stadium
The arena initially operated as a 100-day stadium , when it was roofed in 1969, the venue was renamed the Bad Nauheim artificial ice stadium . The stadium has been named after its builder since 1999.
Latest development
In January 2010, the Colonel Knight Stadium threatened to close soon due to safety concerns, especially due to the aging roof, which led to violent protests by ice sports enthusiasts in the Wetterau. In a city council meeting of the city of Bad Nauheim, a large majority decided to provide money for the renovation of the stadium during the summer break in 2010 and 2011. In the first phase, the roof and lighting were renewed, followed by further necessary work on the outside facade of the stadium in 2011. The city of Bad Nauheim provided a total of € 500,000 for this renovation work. In the end, around 700 m² of plastered facade, 640 m² of roof areas, 1,200 m² of scaffolding, 250 m² of glass facades were renovated and 650 m² of wooden cladding was installed. The renovated Colonel Knight Stadium was officially inaugurated on November 19, 2011 by the Mayor of Bad Nauheim Armin Häuser as part of the show "Bad Nauheim on Ice".
In the winter months the ice rink is also opened for free ice skating. In addition to the ice hockey players of EC Bad Nauheim and the Ice Devils Bad Nauheim , the figure skaters of LSC Bad Nauheim also use the ice rink. In the summer, the Colonel Knight Stadium has been serving the inline hockey regional league team Black Devils Bad Nauheim as a training location and home ground for two years . Bad Nauheim used to have the IHD Bundesliga team Bad Nauheim Grizzlys , which also use the stadium as their home ground. The Grizzlys stopped playing in 2009/10.
literature
- Heinrich Burk: The Hundred Days Stadium . City of Bad Nauheim (1999), ISBN 3-00-005000-0
Web links
- official homepage
- Wilhelm Findling: The "100 Days Stadium" (article from September 1999)
Individual evidence
- ^ Heinrich Burk: Das Hunderttage-Stadion , Stadt Bad Nauheim (1999), p. 18
- ^ Heinrich Burk: Das Hunderttage-Stadion , Stadt Bad Nauheim (1999), p. 32
- ^ Heinrich Burk: Das Hunderttage-Stadion , Stadt Bad Nauheim (1999), p. 39
- ^ Heinrich Burk: Das Hunderttage-Stadion , Stadt Bad Nauheim (1999), p. 45
- ^ Heinrich Burk: Das Hunderttage-Stadion , Stadt Bad Nauheim (1999), p. 50ff
- ^ Heinrich Burk: Das Hunderttage-Stadion , Stadt Bad Nauheim (1999), p. 48
- ^ Heinrich Burk: Das Hunderttage-Stadion , Stadt Bad Nauheim (1999), p. 47
- ^ Heinrich Burk: The Hundred Days Stadium , City of Bad Nauheim (1999), p. 9
- ^ Heinrich Burk: Das Hunderttage-Stadion , Stadt Bad Nauheim (1999), p. 21
- ^ Heinrich Burk: Das Hunderttage-Stadion , Stadt Bad Nauheim (1999), p. 59f
- ↑ The "100 Days Stadium" ( Memento from April 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ hockeyarenas.net Stadium History Colonel Knight Stadium
- ^ Heinrich Burk: Das Hunderttage-Stadion , Stadt Bad Nauheim (1999), p. 63
- ↑ Refurbishment measures in the ice stadium completed. Bad Nauheim Town Hall, September 23, 2011, archived from the original on October 16, 2011 ; Retrieved July 14, 2012 .
Colonel Knight Stadium (EC Bad Nauheim) | weeArena (EC Bad Tölz) | Municipal ice rink Bayreuth (EHC Bayreuth) | EgeTrans Arena (Bietigheim Steelers) | Artificial ice stadium in the Sahnpark (Eispiraten Crimmitschau) | EnergieVerbund Arena (Dresdner Eislöwen) | Ice rink Frankfurt (Löwen Frankfurt) | Real Heroes Arena (EHC Freiburg) | Kolbenschmidt Arena (Heilbronner Falken) | Ice rink Kassel (Kassel Huskies) | Erdgas Schwaben Arena (ESV Kaufbeuren) | Municipal ice rink Landshut (EV Landshut) | Ice rink Ravensburg - CHG Arena (Ravensburg Tower Stars) | weeEisArena Weißwasser (Lausitzer Füchse)