Rochus Club
| Rochusclub Düsseldorfer Tennisclub e. V. | |
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| Regional association: | Tennis Association Niederrhein e. V. |
| Founding: | 1898 |
| Club colors: | Red White |
| Contact: | Rochusclub Düsseldorfer Tennisclub e. V. Rolander Weg 15 40629 Düsseldorf |
| Board: | Burchard von Arnim (chairman), Thilo Nahrungsmittelig (finance), Christoph Kürten (sports) |
| Number of places: | In total: 16 outdoor courts : 13 (clay) indoor courts: 3 (carpet) and in winter 2 more ash courts under an air dome |
| Audience capacity: | Center Court: 3,800 seats Court I: 700 seats Court II: 1,000 seats |
| Members: | 1,404 As of June 2017 |
| Game operation: | Men: 1. Bundesliga (season 2017) Women: 1. Association league (season 2017) |
| Club successes: | Men: 1. Tennis Bundesliga (1975, 1977, since 1991) 1997, 1998 final round of the German championship in 2004 , 2016 runner-up title. |
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The Rochusclub is a Düsseldorf tennis club and is located in the Ludenberg district. The club's own facility is located at the foot of the Grafenberg Forest . On the center court there , the men's team in the tennis Bundesliga as well as the other teams of the club play their home games. From 1978 to 2012, the Rochus Club hosted the World Team Cup every year in May , the tennis team championship. He is a member of the Leading Tennis Clubs of Germany .
Club history
The first years at the St. Rochus Church
A group of Düsseldorf families had two tennis courts set up on Rochusstrasse and the corner of Düsselthaler Strasse so that they could pursue their shared hobby . These were later referred to as playgrounds in the north and were first mentioned under this name in 1904 in the yearbook of the German Lawn Tennis Association . The proximity to the Rochus Church may have been one of the reasons why the vernacular gave the association the name Rochusclub. In 1904 the club named itself the Düsseldorfer Lawn-Tennis-Club , today the Rochusclub is also immortalized in the club name.
From 1907 Ernst Poensgen took over the chairmanship of the association. His name is an integral part of Düsseldorf's sports history. The later chairman of the board of the United Stahlwerke AG shaped the development of the Rochus Club with the employment of the first tennis instructor and the creation of the first fixed regulations for the game operation. During his term of office, the expansion plans of the property owner of the association's premises, who was a direct neighbor with his business, also fell. He wanted to withdraw from the existing lease and use the property himself. The Rochus Club was forced to look for a new home.
In honor of Ernst Poensgen, the games of the ladies Poensgen were named in the German Tennis Federation .
At the zoo
He found this new home on the edge of the zoological garden . The city of Düsseldorf provided a plot of land for eight places and a clubhouse here. The courts were created by the club and the game began as early as May 1909. At the end of the year there was a merger with the tennis club in the zoo, which is also located at the zoo .
In the years after the First World War , you were no longer in control of your own house. The French and Belgians occupied the Rhineland from 1921 to 1925 and confiscated part of the tennis courts at the zoo. After their withdrawal, the regular club life and the organization of the general international tournament began again . New courses were built and in October 1927, after long negotiations with the city, a venue was also available for the winter. A former machine hall on Schäferstrasse was rebuilt by the club and was given six seats for games in winter. A large number of spectators could watch the games from the gallery there.
As early as 1926, the director of the zoological garden informed the Rochus Club about its expansion plans. The future of the association therefore brought another search for a new location. Before this was found, however, the name was changed at the annual general meeting on April 4, 1928, as the Düsseldorf Tennis Club (Rochusclub) .
At the Grafenberg
After opting for a plot of land in Mörsenbroich in the immediate vicinity of the Düsseldorfer Hockey Club 1905 e. V. had decided, the Rochus Club found its new home - to this day - in the Grafenberger Wald. In May 1929 the new facility was opened. 17 ash places were built, one of them with 5,000 and a second with 1,000 seats. This could be achieved by lowering the tennis courts. The clubhouse was built a little higher and offers a good overview of the entire club complex.
The previous chairman Ernst Poensgen handed over his office to Jost Henkel in 1937 , who also became president of the German Tennis Federation after the Second World War . The last big event was the opening of a swimming pool on the club's premises. The club thus fulfilled a long-cherished dream. The time during the World War was marked by the synchronization of German sport, the standstill in club life and the destruction of the club's premises by bombing .
After the war, work was done to restore the club's premises and to revive club life. Playing in a hall on its own premises became possible in 1963 when an air dome was built. In 1983 a permanent hall was opened. In 1974 the club gave itself its current name Rochusclub Düsseldorfer Tennisclub e. V.
Sporting successes
The men's team of the Rochusclub played in the 1st Bundesliga in 1975 and 1977 . She has been a member of the league since 1991. In 1997 and 1998 you could play your way into the final round of the German championship. In 2004 and 2016 , only the runner-up title remained in a successful season. The women's team was also top notch in 2006 , in 2004 , 2005 , 2007 , 2009 and from 2012 to 2016 the women played in the 2nd Bundesliga.
International tennis in the Rochus Club
The tradition of a large tournament began in 1905. The so-called general tournament was held on the places of the Rochus Club - at that time still at the Rochuskirche. Over the years it has developed into a tournament that has been recognized throughout tennis . The names of the participants testify to this. a. Cilly Aussem , Jean Borotra and Gottfried von Cramm were found. Like many others, the tradition of this tournament was interrupted by the two world wars. In the 1970s, the tournament was on the way to insignificance, as the club missed the timely entry into the Grand Prix series and thus only received a less attractive place in the international tournament calendar.
In May 1978 a new tradition began. The World Team Cup was held for the first time, back then under the name Nations Cup . The first winner of the team world championship was Spain. The audience interest in this event was consistently high, around 75,000 tickets were sold annually. The games were all played on the Rochus Club facilities, and in bad weather they moved to the ice rink on Brehmstrasse at short notice . The contract between the Rochusclub and the ATP expired in 2012. Due to a lack of sponsorship funds, the World Team Cup was removed from the ATP tournament calendar in 2013.
In addition to these tournaments organized by the Rochus Club, there were also several international Davis Cup games that the Rochus Club was entrusted with organizing. All in all, up to the last game so far, Germany - Thailand from 22.-24. September 2006 13 encounters that took place in Düsseldorf. However, not all meetings took place in the Rochus Club. In the late summer of 1970 the construction site of the Rheinstadion became the venue. For this purpose, an asphalt field was built in front of an already completed grandstand. Germany won this encounter against Spain 4-1 and moved into the final of the Davis Cup, which was lost to the USA 0-5.
Tennis at the fair
The Düsseldorf Rochusclub ensured a wide media coverage with the plans for a tennis court with three large grandstands in the middle of the Düsseldorf fair in 2016. The Jung von Matt agency wanted to promote the sport of tennis together with the Rochusclub with various stars, show matches and a supporting program .
Former subdivisions
In the years of the Rochus Club's existence, different members always went new ways according to their inclinations to shape their time in the club without the sport of tennis. In this way, completely different larger as well as smaller subdivisions of the club emerged both in the sports directions and in the time of their existence.
Ice skating
The time without tennis in winter was bridged by the members of the Rochus Club for the first time in winter 1904/1905 by building an ice rink on the club's premises. The enthusiasm for ice sports led to the fact that on November 25, 1905, the Düsseldorf Ice Skating Club subsection became a member of the German Ice Sports Association . The annual creation of the ice rinks was made more difficult from year to year by the increasingly mild winters. So this sub-department was dissolved again after a few years. In 1935, however, the ice rink on Brehmstrasse was completed and the Düsseldorf ice skating community was founded, the first chairman of which was Rochusclub president Ernst Poensgen.
hockey
The Düsseldorfer Hockey Club 1905 e. V. is better known under its short form DHC. Its history began in 1905 as a sub-division of what was then the Düsseldorf Lawn Tennis Club. There were seven places available on its club premises. In the following years, games were also played in Oberkassel , on the meadows near the Rheinlust restaurant and later in Kaiser-Wilhelm-Park (now Rheinpark ).
However, the club's history was interrupted by the First World War. In 1924 the DHC started over as an independent association in the Mörsenbroich district.
golf
The general assembly of the association decided on March 26, 1930 to found a golf department . In the same year a small golf course was built on the club's premises. However, under this you have to imagine a kind of miniature golf course . The low popularity led to the closure of this sub-department after a short time.
Gymnastics and other things
After moving to Grafenberger Wald, the association hired a sports teacher , who from then on made the offer to work in the fields of athletics and gymnastics . His exercises were very popular with the female members of the club. Interrupted by the Second World War, this enthusiasm continued until he left the Rochus Club in the 1950s. Now the women organized themselves in what is known as harmony . The sporting activities often came to an end in a cozy get-together. Today the activity of harmony is limited to this without previous physical activity.
Soccer
In 1973 a hobby soccer team was started by some male club members . They gave themselves the name Rochus-Kicker . After quite a lot of enthusiasm at the beginning, interest ebbed again after a few years, so that this department no longer exists today.
Table tennis
Shortly after the Second World War, the table tennis department was founded in 1946 . Here, too, there was a lot of euphoria at the beginning up to several games in the district class. In the mid-1950s, however, the men's team withdrew from gaming, with the women following in 1958.
literature
- Rochusclub Düsseldorfer Tennisclub e. V .: 100 years of Rochusclub Düsseldorfer Tennisclub e. V. 1898-1998 . Düsseldorf 1998.
- Heinz-Egon Rösch: Sport in Düsseldorf yesterday and today . Agon Sportverlag, Kassel 1999, ISBN 3-89784-165-7 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Stadioncheck (stadioncheck.de, accessed on September 2, 2017)
- ^ The Rochusclub women's teams (rochusclub.de, accessed on September 2, 2017)
- ↑ Center Court in Düsseldorf: Sports stars play tennis at the Rheinkirmes (rp-online.de from July 5, 2016, accessed on September 2, 2017)
- ↑ Stars on the Center Court: Hans Sarpei plays tennis at the Rheinkirmes (rp-online.de from July 4, 2016, accessed on September 2, 2017)
- ↑ Germany's largest center court is in Düsseldorf (insideout-tennis.de from July 7, 2016, accessed on September 2, 2017)
Coordinates: 51 ° 15 ′ 0.5 ″ N , 6 ° 49 ′ 40.5 ″ E