Leipzig sports field

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The sports field around 1895, postcard

The Leipzig sports field was the largest sports facility in Leipzig between 1892 and 1936 . The small fair and partly the training center of RB Leipzig are located on the former area of ​​the sports field .

history

Soccer match VfB Leipzig - Richmond Association Football Club, Leipzig 1902.
Balloon flights on the Leipzig sports field, around 1912
Layout of the Leipzig sports field from the memorandum, 1926
Plan of the Leipzig stadium. Leipzig 1926. Club Sports Ground Leipzig

The Sportplatz Leipzig association was founded in 1891 with the aim of creating a publicly accessible sports and gymnastics field in the city, initially with a focus on cycling. It saw itself less as a sports club and more as a non-profit association. In 1892, Leipzig leased the so-called Gabel-Wiese in Lindenau , an area on the western edge of the Frankfurt meadows , to the association. To the north of today's Jahnallee , the area was bounded by the Kleine Luppe and a road , which was expanded to become Cottaweg in 1905 . In between ran the Kuhburger Wasser , a tributary of the Kleiner Luppe, which was later shut down during the creation of the Elster basin .

The sports field was opened in September 1892, at which time there was already a large cycling track with a grandstand and several smaller sports and playgrounds. A year later, the wooden grandstand of the cycling track was destroyed by fire, and thanks to a loan from the city of Leipzig, it was able to be rebuilt and rebuilt. In 1899 and 1904 the cycling track was rebuilt, for example the curves were made steeper. The 500 meter long track, called Lindenauer Zement , was one of the fastest routes in Germany, and several German, European and world championships in track cycling were held on it. In 1901, Thaddäus Robl set a world record here . In the years that followed, the cycling track was also used for popular motorcycle races.

The large interior of the Velodrome, first the betting game called, has been used since the opening of the sports field for various sports and feasts before it partially developed their own facilities on the site. Cross-disciplinary gymnastics and athletics could be practiced here, for example qualifying competitions for German athletes for the 1908 Summer Olympics in London and numerous gymnastics festivals for Sedan Day took place here. The first hockey games of the Leipzig sports club were also played here, as were boxing competitions from the 1920s . In the winter months, the competition field was prepared as a public ice rink and also served as a training facility for Leipzig ice hockey clubs. During this time, the boxers had their own building on the site.

The first tennis court was also located in the interior of the cycle track, due to the increasing popularity of the sport, additional facilities were built, in 1913 you could play on more than 40 courts on the site. The number fell sharply in the following years due to the numerous tennis courts in Leipzig in favor of other special courts; in 1926 only 16 courts and a clubhouse were available to the players . From 1893 onwards, demonstrations and competitions were held in balloon and motorized aviation with a high number of spectators , carried out by the Leipzig Aviation Association . He was able to use a shed on the site to work on the aircraft.

The largest soccer field on the site was gradually expanded into a stadium which could hold up to 20,000 spectators and which met the international standards of the time . This system took the name of betting game from the inner surface of the velodrome. Several Leipzig soccer clubs, including SV Lipsia 1893 , the Leipziger Ballspiel-Club , SC Wacker Leipzig and VfB Leipzig - the first German soccer champion - found their first homes on the sports field before they could move into their own facilities. Between 1897 and 1905, the Leipzig Ball Game Association played several regional championships on the sports field . The first international match of a German national team in Leipzig took place on November 17, 1912 against the Netherlands on the sports field (final score 2: 3). Field handball and rugby were also played in the stadium and on several small training grounds .

Between 1905 and 1915, the association's light, air, sun and sports pool was located between the former Kuhburger Wasser r and today's Cottaweg . The almost 12,000 square meter area with loungers and seats, smaller water basins and various small sports and playgrounds was a popular leisure destination for the people of Leipzig. Regardless of the actual sports field, you could relax here all year round for a small fee (in winter for toughening up ). At times, up to 3,000 visitors visited the facility every day.

In 1925, the Leipzig sports field had a total area of ​​around 180,000 square meters. 37 football, 14 field handball, 31 hockey, 3 rugby teams as well as 800 athletes and 300 tennis players were verifiable on the field. 718 official events took place that year. At that time, the club itself had almost 600 paying members who, in addition to an annual fee, also had to purchase at least one share to support the sports field.

Between 1898 and 1924, the association did not have to pay any lease fees to Leipzig, but the association was still in debt throughout its life. In 1926, the Sportplatz association published a memorandum in order to get involved in the planned redevelopment of the Frankfurt Meadows . According to this, the square should be completely rebuilt and expanded in terms of area up to the Elster basin. In addition to two stadiums, a large sports hall, swimming pool, tennis stadium and smaller sports facilities for hockey, football, tennis, gymnastics, horse riding and shooting were to be built, financed by lotteries and loan certificates . The overall concept was well received, the Leipzig city planning officer Hubert Ritter incorporated parts of the sports field plans in his font Neue Stadtbaukunst. Leipzig . In the general development plan of the city of Leipzig from 1929, also initiated by Ritter , the plans were no longer taken into account. In April 1935, the current actually by the year 1950 lease was resolved with the club sports court, because the Leipziger Kleinmesse should move to the area of the sports field because their bisherigem center, the so-called measuring station on the Frankfurt street, a parade field of the NSDAP arise should . With the exception of the cycling track, which was still in use, the sports field was leveled at the beginning of 1936, and the small fair opened there in April of that year.

The Gutenberg Reich Exhibition was planned for 1940 in Leipzig , which ultimately was not to take place due to the war. The small exhibition center was chosen as the exhibition site. In 1938 the last remnant of the sports field, the cycling track, was blown up. Shortly before, on September 21, 1938, the last competition took place on the racetrack, the Great Farewell Prize of the Stayer with international participation.

Sports practiced on the pitch

  • Track cycling
  • Soccer
  • tennis
  • Field hockey
  • Field handball
  • athletics
  • do gymnastics
  • Motorsport
  • Motor racing and ballooning
  • ice Hockey
  • Boxing
  • rugby

literature

  • Memorandum for the construction of the Leipzig stadium , publisher: Verein Sportplatz JP Leipzig 1926.
  • The light, air and sports pool of the Sportplatz Leipzig association . In: Leipzig goes swimming. From the Pleißestrand to the New Lakeland . PRO Leipzig, Leipzig 2004, ISBN 978-3-936508-06-2 , pp. 50-51.
  • Thomas Nabert, Nannette Jackowski, Wolf-Dietrich Rost: Sportforum Leipzig. History and future , PRO Leipzig, Leipzig 2004, ISBN 978-3-936508-02-4 , pp. 12–81.
  • Ulrich Krüger: A place for football. The early years of the Leipziger Sportplatz club . In: Leipziger Blätter (2006), No. 48, pp. 66–68.
  • Gabriele Klunkert: The Leipzig Small Fair and its locations. The fate of the Leipziger Volksfest in the first third of the 20th century . In: 100 years of the small fair on the Frankfurt meadows. 1907-2007 , ed. from the Leipziger Schaustellerverein eV Passage-Verlag, Leipzig 2007, pp. 18-25.
  • Hans-Jürgen Berg: From the Moritzburg Railway to "Lindenauer Zement". Verein Sportplatz built the first Leipzig sports center with a cycling track . In: Sports Museum currently. Journal of the Förderverein Sächsisches Sportmuseum Leipzig eV 17 (2009), No. 1, pp. 6-7.
  • Marko Kuhn: Cottaweg sports complex. All-rounder and crowd puller . In: Volker Rodekamp (Ed.): On the move. Milestones in the history of sports in Leipzig (topic M. 20). Leipzig 2018, ISBN 978-3-910034-80-8 , pp. 116–127.

Individual evidence

  1. Memorandum 1926, p. 11.
  2. Memorandum 1926, p. 12.
  3. ^ The light, air and sports pool of the Sportplatz Leipzig association 2004, p. 50.
  4. ^ Nabert, Jackowski, Rost 2004, p. 48.
  5. Memorandum 1926, p. 8.
  6. Memorandum 1926, p. 12.
  7. Ulrich Krüger 2006, p. 67.
  8. Memorandum 1926, p. 30 f.
  9. ^ Hubert Ritter: Neue Stadtbaukunst. Leipzig . Hübsch, Leipzig 1927, pp. XIII-XIV, 3 (Fig. 3).
  10. The general development plan of the city of Leipzig , ed. from the City Council of Leipzig, City Extension Office. Leipzig [1929]. Pp. 55-56.
  11. Marko Kuhn 2018, p. 123.

Coordinates: 51 ° 20 ′ 41.3 "  N , 12 ° 20 ′ 20.8"  E