Ice hockey in Frankfurt
Ice hockey has been played in Frankfurt since the 1930s. The most famous club in the city were the Frankfurt Lions , which won the German championship in the German ice hockey league in2004. In 2010, the Lions filed for bankruptcy. The successor and currently the highest-class team are the Löwen Frankfurt in the DEL2 .
history
prehistory
Ice skating (back then: step skating) and games on the icy Main have been a popular sport for centuries. The most famous runner was Goethe, who even had the Main illuminated so that he could run at night. Ice skating on groomed surfaces developed into a sport for the upper class; modern steel runners were also used here instead of the previous bone runners.
In 1861 the "Frankfurter Schlittschuhclub" was founded, which is followed by today's SC SAFO Frankfurt . Because of its geographical location, the winters in Frankfurt have always been shorter. In order to provide a substitute for ice skating, the “Skating Rink” was opened in Palmengarten in 1877, a roller-skating hall. In 1882 the first artificial ice rink in the world was opened in Frankfurt as part of the German Patent and Utility Model Exhibition . It had an area of 520 m² and was in operation for 2 months. Linde AG played a key role in the installation. From the 1890s there was the first permanent ice rink in Frankfurt, this was in the northern area of the Palmengarten . Ice hockey games are not yet booked.
The Mitteldeutsche Gummiwarenfabrik Louis Peter AG in Frankfurt-Sachsenhausen was already producing ice hockey pucks and ice hockey balls in the early 1920s (balls were also used), and in the early 1950s Lanninger-Regner AG from Frankfurt planned and built ice machines and Artificial ice rinks.
Beginnings of Frankfurt ice hockey
As early as the late 1920s there were numerous ice hockey teams in Frankfurt, some of them successful.
The Sportclub 1880 competed in Munich in 1929 against the second team of the Academic Sport Club Zurich and won 3-0. In 1931, with the teams Sportclub Sachsenhausen Forsthausstraße , SC 1880 Frankfurt and Frankfurter Eissportclub three clubs were in the semifinals for the championship of the Southwest German Ice Skating Association .
Eintracht Frankfurt
The ice hockey department of Eintracht Frankfurt was founded in 1959 by Rudi Gramlich and played its first game on January 14, 1960 in Kronberg under adverse conditions (on an icy tennis court in the light of car headlights). A fitting venue could already be occupied at the end of the same year: on December 10, 1960 , the open artificial ice rink built next to the Waldstadion was inaugurated, and over 10,000 spectators came to the opening game against SG Nürnberg .
The ice hockey Eintracht played in the following years (mostly in front of a much smaller crowd) in the major league , until it was promoted to the Bundesliga in the 1968/69 season . The successful coach was Georg Kowarik , the most successful goalscorer (12 goals) was Horst Philipp . Although Philipp was able to achieve 26 hits in the following season , Eintracht only reached 12th place in the table and rose again to the top division. In the years that followed, the Frankfurt executive board changed coaches several times. The successful trainer Georg Kowarik was followed by Larry Palmer for two years, until Carlo Jang took over the position of trainer in 1973.
In the league season 1976/77 only 36 paying spectators came to the game against Preussen Berlin . Thereupon the department head decided to sell the home games of the qualifying round for the 2nd Bundesliga to the opponents in order to keep the ice hockey department alive. After the club only played in the league for many years, the management strived for higher goals, also to attract new spectators. That is why it was decided in the summer of 1980 to sign the experienced trainer Willi Winkes.
In the 1980/81 season, Eintracht played in the new ice rink in Rödermark . Nevertheless, only 300-400 spectators came per game. That is why department head Günther Herold decided after 15 months to return to the draughty artificial ice rink at the Waldstadion.
A few years later, the team received a new and very attractive arena , the new ice rink on Ratsweg , which was opened on December 27, 1981 with an international match against the Olympic team of the Soviet Union . The sporting success also returned, the team rose to the 2nd Bundesliga in 1982 and experienced a crowd boom in the new hall. In the 1985/86 season, he was even promoted to the 1st Bundesliga.
In the 1986/87 season , relegation was secured after ninth place in the double round and 2nd place in the promotion / relegation round behind the BSC Preussen Berlin . In the second Bundesliga season 1987/88 they reached the play-off quarter-finals, in which they were defeated in three games against the Cologne EC . The department experienced its first crisis due to constantly growing debts. It took a lot of effort for the club to get the license for the new season. In the third Bundesliga season ( 1988/89 ) they failed only in the play-off quarter-finals after four games at SB Rosenheim . With the death of Günther Herold, the Frankfurt ice hockey got into an existential crisis again.
In the 1989/90 Bundesliga season , Eintracht only failed in the quarterfinals, again at Rosenheim, after three games. The following season 1990/91 was the most successful sporting season in the club's history. Jiří Lála was Eintracht's most successful player with 47 goals and 59 assists; other top performers were Mark Jooris , Roger Nicholas , Milan Mokroš and Čestmír Fous . However, unprofessional management, an expensive team and the Eintracht Frankfurt ice hockey department's lack of freedom of action led to a mountain of debt of over 7 million DM. On March 1, 1991, the board of the entire club decided to separate the ice hockey department from the main club Eintracht Frankfurt in order to avoid bankruptcy of the ice hockey department not to endanger the main club.
In July 2002 a new ice hockey department was established, which was joined by the members of the dissolving EHC Frankfurt . This plays in the season 2018/19 in the Hessenliga .
Frankfurt ESC "The Lions"
On March 5, 1991, those responsible for the disbanded ice hockey department founded the Frankfurt ESC “Die Löwen”. The new season began in the regional league. The first friendly match on October 1 of the same year attracted over 5,000 spectators. The association gained 3,500 new members within three months. Only seven months after it was founded, the ESC “Die Löwen” was already the largest ice hockey club in Germany. An average of 5,700 spectators followed the home games in the 1991/92 regional league season. Extract from the game results: November 3, 1991: EHC Zweibrücken vs. ESC The Lions - 1:19; December 22, 1991: ESC The Lions vs. EHC Trier - 21: 2.
At the end of the season, in front of almost 9,000 spectators per home game, they made it to the top division - double-digit results were the rule. Here is an extract from the game results: January 12, 1992: ESC Die Löwen vs. VERC Lauterbach - 33: 1; January 19, 1992: ESC The Lions vs. EC Bad Nauheim 1b - 32: 0. In the major league season 1992/93, all home games with 7,000 spectators were sold out. Double-digit results were not uncommon here either. After one season, he was promoted to the 2nd Bundesliga. In 1994 the Lions reached the semi-finals in the first second division season, in which they were defeated by Augsburg. In spite of the fact that the number of viewers continued to be high, the result was a loss of almost DM 1 million this season.
Frankfurt Lions
On March 25, 1994, the “Frankfurt Lions Eishockey GmbH” was founded to introduce the professional league DEL (“German Ice Hockey League”). The Lions played in the top German division in the 1994/95 season. World stars such as Robert Reichel, who was brought to Frankfurt due to an NHL strike, and Jiří Lála, who was again the most successful player this season, played in the Frankfurt team. In the first DEL season, the Lions reached the play-offs in 1995 and failed after five games against the Kassel Huskies (1: 4 wins). In 1996 the club reached the play-offs again, but then failed because of the huskies (0: 3).
In 1997, however, the now Finnish team was only just able to prevent relegation. In the 1997/98 DEL season , the Lions reached the semi-finals and failed at the eventual champions Adler Mannheim . With the second place after the preliminary round you qualified for the European Hockey League . From 1998/99 to 1999/2000 the play-offs were reached. After a catastrophic 2002/03 season , the Lions only reached the penultimate place in the table (13th place) and had to play in the play-downs against the Schwenninger Wild Wings . Here they lost in six games and relegated athletically. Because the opponent was insolvent and therefore the DEL game operations were not allowed to resume in the coming season according to the league regulations, the Lions nevertheless remained in the DEL.
In the following 2003/04 season, the Frankfurt Lions won the German Championship after only finishing fifth in the main round. The 2004/05 season was also very successful at first, as they moved into the play-offs after the preliminary round as leaders , but failed in the semifinals to Adler Mannheim . In the 2005/06 season you could not build on the strong performances from previous years, and missed the play-offs in ninth place. Co-founder and main owner Gerd Schröder died in August 2008 at the age of 49 after suffering a stroke in the spring of 2008 and lying in a coma for months. On June 30, 2010, the Frankfurt Lions' license for the 2010/11 DEL season was withdrawn and the Lions stopped playing.
Löwen Frankfurt
The parent club Young Lions Frankfurt continued the game operations in the Regionalliga West under the name Löwen Frankfurt and rose in the first season in the third-class ice hockey league . In August 2012, the parent club was renamed from Young Lions Frankfurt Ice Hockey eV to Löwen Frankfurt Ice Hockey eV.
Current clubs
Today, youth teams are organized in the Löwen Frankfurt Ice Hockey Club. The Lions' youth department includes running, small and small school children, as well as boys, school, youth and junior teams. The Frankfurt Löwen outsourced team plays in the DEL2.
Eintracht Frankfurt and the Frankfurt ice hockey club Die Eisteufel also play in the fifth-class Hessenliga.
Overview of Frankfurt ice hockey clubs and teams
| Surname | time | successes | fate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ice Devil Frankfurt | from 1984 | ||
| Eintracht Frankfurt | 1960–1991 from 2002 |
1969 promotion to the ice hockey Bundesliga 1986 promotion to the ice hockey Bundesliga |
1991 Dissolution of the ice hockey department. 2002 Re-establishment of the ice hockey department |
| Frankfurt ESC "The Lions" | from 1991 | 1993 promotion to the 2nd Bundesliga | Young talent and amateur game operations (Young Lions Frankfurt / Löwen Frankfurt Nachwuchs) |
| Frankfurt Lions | 1994-2010 | 2004 German champion | insolvency |
| EHC Frankfurt | ?? until 2002 | Regionalliga Hessen | Association was dissolved in 2002 |
| Löwen Frankfurt | from 2010 | 2011 promotion to the ice hockey league 2014 promotion to the DEL2 2017 champions of the DEL2 |
Ice hockey departments still exist
Women ice hockey
A women's team took in the early years of DEL as Lady Lions in the game operation of the female hockey Bundesliga part and was not reported to the game operation since 2006/07.
Venues
Artificial ice rink at the Waldstadion
After it was founded in 1959, the Eintracht Frankfurt ice hockey department moved into the cycle racing track and artificial ice rink in Frankfurt on December 10, 1960 , which could hold 10,000 spectators.
Ice rink Rödermark
→ Main article: Rödermark ice rink
In the 1980/81 season, Eintracht played in the newly built ice rink in the neighboring town of Rödermark , as Frankfurt did not have its own hall up to this point. Due to the low number of spectators, however, department head Günther Herold decided after only 15 months to return to the artificial ice rink at the Waldstadion.
Ice rink Frankfurt
→ Main article: Frankfurt ice rink
The new ice rink on Ratsweg, which was Eintracht's home stadium from the 1981/82 season, was built on December 19, 1981 and has long been considered one of the most modern halls of its kind in Germany. In addition to the main ice rink the size of an ice hockey rink, which is surrounded by 7,000 spectator seats, including around 3,500 seats and 3,500 standing places, the facility has a smaller, closed ice rink and a large 400 m long outer ring. Another ice hockey rink covered by a tent roof will be converted into tennis courts in summer. The successor teams Frankfurter ESC, Frankfurt Lions and Löwen Frankfurt also played or played their home games in the ice rink.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Linde AG: "75 Years Linde", 1954, p. 52
- ↑ Gummi-Zeitung and Kautschuk, No. 36/1922, p. 229
- ^ Rudolf Ortner: Sportbauten, p. 39, 1953
- ^ The echo: With supplement German Export Revue. Weekly newspaper for politics, literature, export and import, No. 48. 1929, p. 403
- ↑ Lions give up the license fight ( Memento of the original from March 22, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Florian Bässler: Ice Hockey History of the Lions Frankfurt. In: eishockey-online.com. December 27, 1981. Retrieved August 7, 2017 .
- ↑ loewen-nachwuchs.de, team overview on the home club's homepage
- ↑ homepage Eisteufel
