Willy Sachs Stadium

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Willy Sachs Stadium
Ander-Kupfer-Platz 2, Schweinfurt grandstand 20190913 007.jpg
Willy Sachs Stadium
Data
place Ander-Kupfer-Platz 2 97422 Schweinfurt
GermanyGermany
Coordinates 50 ° 3 '4.8 "  N , 10 ° 12' 10.7"  E Coordinates: 50 ° 3 '4.8 "  N , 10 ° 12' 10.7"  E
owner City of Schweinfurt
opening July 23, 1936
First game 1.FC Schweinfurt 05 - FC Schalke 04 2-2
Renovations 2001, 2014
surface Natural grass
costs RM 1 million
architect Paul Bonatz
capacity 15,060 seats
playing area 105 m × 68 m
Societies)
Events

The Willy Sachs Stadium is a football stadium with an athletics facility in Schweinfurt . It has a capacity of 15,060 spectators, of which only 860 seats are covered. The small stadium proper, including the large surrounding sports park, was opened in 1936, just a week before the Olympic Games in Berlin . Heinrich Himmler and Hermann Göring came to the opening . The Willy Sachs Stadium is one of the few spacious facilities with close links to National Socialism that are listed as historical monuments , along with the Berlin Olympic Stadium . However, in contrast to the Olympic Stadium, there were no major structural changes. In addition, the Sachs Stadium was not built by Paul Bonatz in the neoclassicism typical of the Nazi era, but in the Bauhaus style (seating grandstand) that was rejected by Paul Bonatz , in timeless modernity .

The municipal stadium has been home to 1. FC Schweinfurt 05 since its opening , which has since spent many football seasons there in the highest and second highest German league. As a patron of FC 05, the Schweinfurt industrialist, SS-Obersturmbannführer and, during the Third Reich, military economic leader Willy Sachs initiated the construction of the stadium named after him and donated it to the city of Schweinfurt. At that time it was one of the most modern and spacious facilities in southern Germany. Sachs gave FC 05 a fixed first-time right to use all facilities, including the training and secondary spaces, as long as the club exists.

The name Willy-Sachs-Stadion describes both the actual stadium, the main square, and the surrounding sports park. This is followed by other sports facilities from other clubs. The entire sports district on both sides of Niederwerrner Strasse covers around half a square kilometer and forms one of the largest sports facility agglomerations in Germany.

The Willy Sachs Stadium was the venue for the preliminary athletics decisions for the all-German Olympic team for the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome , the 1972 World Fistball Championship and the 2012 European Fistball Championship . The stadium was extensively refurbished in 2001 in order to meet the requirements of the 2nd Bundesliga .

Location and arrival

location

Information board WSS 02.jpg

The stadium is located in the northwest part of the city , 2 km northwest of the city center and 2 km north of the main train station .

arriving by car

The stadium is located on the northern edge of the B 303 , Niederwerrner Straße (see: stadium map, diagonally below left), a north-western arterial road to central and eastern Germany ( Autobahn 71 , to Erfurt ) and to northern Germany ( Autobahn 7 via Kassel ). The John F. Kennedy Ring ends at the stadium and leads to Autobahn 70 to Bamberg and via A 70 to Autobahn 7, which is also close to the city, to Würzburg and Ulm . The spacious surroundings of the stadium make it possible for guest fans to drive to the parking lots north of the stadium on Willi-Kaidel-Straße (see: stadium map, above). For guest fans arriving at the Schweinfurt / Werneck motorway junction , it is advisable to take the A 71 towards Schweinfurt-West / Erfurt at the Werntal motorway junction , to junction No. 30 Schweinfurt-West, from there continue on the B 303 Drive to the city limits (place-name sign), then turn left and then right into the second street, Adolf-Ley-Straße, which is an extension to Willi-Kaidel-Straße.

Arrival by train and long-distance bus

From the main train station, where the Bahnhofsplatz bus station for regional and long-distance buses is also located, you can take the regional train to the city center (Schweinfurt Mitte stop) or the city bus lines 11 and 12. From there, the lines 22, 24 and 25 lead to the city bus station Roßmarkt to the Volksfestplatz stop at the stadium. The guest fan block in the north curve can be reached on foot via the barracks path leading east of the stadium (see: stadium plan) to the east entrance (see: stadium plan, east exit).

history

The Willy Sachs Stadium was opened in July 1936, nine days before the start of the Olympic Games in Berlin, as part of a new sports park in the city of Schweinfurt. The entire facility was donated in 1934 by the Schweinfurt industrialist Willy Sachs, owner of the company Fichtel & Sachs founded by his father Ernst Sachs .

Willy Sachs (1933)

The immediate reason for the financing of a new football stadium for 1. FC Schweinfurt 05 was the insufficient space available at the existing venue on Ludwigsbrücke. After the team was promoted to Gauliga Bayern in 1933, other Gauliga clubs objected to the use of the field, although the condition could not be significantly improved. In the letter of foundation, Sachs, as patron of Schweinfurt 05, therefore stipulated the sole initial right of use of all stadium facilities for his club for the “duration of the existence of the club”.

The architectural design of the stadium came from Paul Bonatz , who had already built the new Fichtel & Sachs administration center in Schweinfurt and, among other things, designed the Stuttgart main station . His son-in-law Kurt Dübbers designed the functional buildings surrounding the stadium. At the time, the entire facility was classified as exemplary and almost unique in Germany for a city the size of Schweinfurt.

Pylon with imperial eagle and plaque from the stadium founder

At the inauguration of the stadium on July 23, 1936, leading National Socialist politicians were present with Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler, Reich Organizational Manager Robert Ley and Reich Governor of Bavaria Franz Ritter von Epp . Hermann Göring, who was a friend of Sachs, had already visited the system the day before. Willy Sachs appeared in SS uniform on the occasion of the stadium inauguration . ( see: Controversy about the stadium name )

The opening game of the Willy Sachs Stadium took place three days later between 1. FC Schweinfurt 05 and FC Schalke 04 , the German champions of 1935. Both teams parted with a 2-2 draw. Further friendlies against Hertha BSC and Fortuna Düsseldorf followed in August .

The entire stadium facility survived the bombing of the Second World War unscathed . The attendance record dates back to 1954, when 22,500 spectators came to a friendly against 1. FC Kaiserslautern in the Willy Sachs Stadium.

Between 1936 and 1963, the stadium was the home of the top German football league, as well as the second division stadium for many other seasons, most recently in the 2001/02 season . In addition, since 1939, numerous games by 1. FC Schweinfurt 05 in the DFB Cup ( Tschammer Cup until 1943 ) have taken place in the Willy Sachs Stadium . It is worth mentioning an international friendly match between FC Schweinfurt 05 and FC Everton on the 50th anniversary of the club in 1955, when 13,000 spectators visited the stadium.

The Süddeutsche Zeitung acknowledged the historical value of the Willy Sachs Stadium as follows:

The stages of our time are characterized by their short life. Only the Willy Sachs Stadium in Schweinfurt and the Volkspark Stadium in Bamberg [...] still convey a sense of the importance of sport in the 20s and 30s, when it was embedded in a fundamental social change. [...] The conception of the Willy Sachs Stadium corresponds to the idea of ​​the open-air sports facility, as it was often implemented in Germany in the 1920s. The facility was intended as an amusement park and place to stay for families, as was the Volkspark in Bamberg. "

investment

description

Main entrance with cash register

The stadium has an extensive access area via Ander-Kupfer-Platz (on Niederwerrner Strasse) - ticket office - stadium courtyard - main square (actual stadium). It is a classic football stadium with an integrated athletics facility and marathon goal , surrounded by two rows of tall linden trees . The capacity of over 20,000 spectators at one time has been limited to 15,060 spectators as a result of newer safety standards, including 860 seats on the covered main grandstand. It is a classic standing stadium that, apart from technical installations, has remained completely unchanged like hardly anywhere else.

All of the stadium's outbuildings were built in clinker brickwork , while the main stand was built in the Bauhaus style . The stadium designed by architect Paul Bonatz and the surrounding sports park are characterized by high-quality landscape architecture with a large tree population. The entire pre-war facility, including all the outbuildings and the tennis facility, is a listed building . Numerous outside stairs are defining elements, and in the middle of the sports park a lounge area with a fountain forms a small landmark. In contrast to the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, which also opened in 1936, the stadium was not built in the neoclassical style customary at the time and, with the exception of the pylon at the stadium entrance, is free of Nazi art and plastic.

expansion

South curve with marathon goal

In order to meet the requirements of the time when 1. FC Schweinfurt 05 was promoted to the 2nd Bundesliga in 2001, the stadium was extensively renovated in the summer of that year. The steps of the standing bars were renewed and a 1000-lux floodlight system was installed on four 38-meter-high inclined masts . In addition, a separate guest block with a separate entrance was set up. Big industry from Schweinfurt donated an LED display board above the marathon gate .

In 2014, breakwaters were installed on the standing stands, so that the stadium's 15,060 space, which has since been limited to around 6,200 due to new safety standards, could be fully utilized again. A separate VIP tent for sponsors, the press and the 1.FC Schweinfurt 05 team has been in the stadium courtyard for a long time .

With all construction measures, however, the overall appearance of the stadium remained unchanged.

The sports park has been gradually expanded since the war. Together with the neighboring sports facilities of other clubs outside of the Willy Sachs Stadium, with the ice stadium Icedome , the soccer dome of FC 05, the riding arena and (former) US sports facilities, it now has an area of ​​around half a square kilometer.

the atmosphere

Spectators in the north curve

Due to the dense planting of the standing room with tall linden trees, both from the perspective of the main stand and from the standing room, the visual impression is completely different from that of modern, completely covered football arenas . In the stands, the linden trees offer shade on hot days, embedded in the surrounding trees, so that the spectators can watch the game as if from a landscape park. On the 450 m long Linden-Allee you can stroll during a game or an event and change location.

Tennis facility

A year after the stadium was inaugurated, a tennis facility with a clubhouse was opened in 1937. It belongs to the Willy Sachs Stadium, but has its own entrance and was home to the Weiß-Blau tennis club (now the Schweinfurt tennis club).

Further use of the stadium

Other football clubs

In addition to 1. FC Schweinfurt 05, the Wehrmachts-Verein WTSV Schweinfurt also used the stadium for their home games in the Gauliga Bayern during the 1943/44 war season . For the 2008/09 regional league season , TSV Großbardorf moved from the community of Großbardorf, around 27 kilometers to the north, to the Willy Sachs stadium as its home ground, as the sports facility there did not meet the criteria for regional league venues a. a minimum capacity of 5000 places is required. The side seats in the Willy Sachs Stadium are also used by the football teams of FT Schweinfurt .

During the 2006 World Cup in Germany, the Willy Sachs Stadium was the training ground for the Tunisian national soccer team .

Fistball

The Willy Sachs Stadium was the venue for the 1972 Fistball World Cup , in which the Federal Republic of Germany won the World Cup ahead of Brazil and Austria. In the stadium, Switzerland won the 2012 European fistball championship, ahead of Austria and Germany, with Fabian Sagstetter from Schweinfurt . In 2014 TV Schweinfurt-Oberndorf hosted the German fistball championship and was able to secure the bronze medal in front of a home crowd.

athletics

The Willy Sachs Stadium is a regular venue for regional, national and international athletics competitions in the summer months . At the Olympic Games in Rome in 1960, elimination competitions were held for the first time for the all-German Olympic team . The athletics preliminary decisions between the Federal Republic and the GDR were determined in the Willy Sachs Stadium. The all-German Olympic flag was introduced for these Olympic Games ( black, red and gold with white Olympic rings in a red stripe).

other events

Willy Sachs Stadium before a 2013 pop concert

Since the 1990s, major pop concerts with up to 25,000 visitors have been held every summer in the Willy Sachs Stadium. The Backstreet Boys came in 1997 , the Scorpions in 2011 , Die Toten Hosen in 2013 , Herbert Grönemeyer in 2014 and Sunrise Avenue in 2015 . The stadium was also used by the US Army Garrison in Schweinfurt until their withdrawal in 2014 as a staging area for ceremonies and military parades .

Controversy over the stadium name

Because of Willy Sachs' involvement with National Socialism , the name of the stadium is controversial today. Willy Sachs joined the SS in 1933 and had been a member of the NSDAP since May 1, 1933 . He finally had the rank of SS-Obersturmbannführer (1943) and belonged to the "Friends of the Reichsführer SS" (Heinrich Himmler). As the head of an armaments-important company, Willy-Sachs was military economist . Heinrich Himmler awarded him medals and honorary titles and, after the divorce from his first wife Elinor von Opel, helped fight for custody of the children, in return several hundred thousand marks were made in donations. Hermann Göring was a guest at Sachs hunts at Schloss Mainberg and Gut Rechenau ; Reinhard Heydrich received a loan from Sachs. Willy Sachs tried to get close to leading National Socialists, but he was internally certified that he had no idea of ​​ideological issues and that he did not meet the requirements of a NS manager .

As part of the promotion of 1. FC Schweinfurt 05 to the second Bundesliga in 2001, the stadium name was first criticized nationwide in the media. The Schweinfurt initiative against forgetting - forced labor in Schweinfurt initiated a campaign for a renaming of the stadium due to Willy Sachs' role in the Third Reich, which was supported by the Süddeutsche Zeitung and the author Werner Skrentny ( The Big Book of German Football Stadiums ). However, this met with little approval from the broad local public.

The remaining heir and son of Willy Sachs, the well-known playboy and art collector Gunter Sachs (1932-2011) kept a low profile. In his autobiography Mein Leben (2005) he only briefly discussed his origins. He and the other descendants of the family spoke out against renaming the stadium.

Worth mentioning in this context is a friendly game on July 20, 2001 between the then second division team Schweinfurt 05 and the Israeli champions Maccabi Haifa . The game was actually supposed to take place on the main square, but had to be moved to a side square at the opponent's request due to the stadium name, which is also located in the sports park called Willy-Sachs-Stadion (see stadium map at the beginning of the article).

See also

Web links

Commons : Willy-Sachs-Stadion  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Videos

Individual evidence

  1. a b c d e history of FC 05 Schweinfurt. www.schweinfurtfuehrer.de, accessed on August 28, 2017 .
  2. a b c d The brown shadow. cicero.de, accessed on August 28, 2017 .
  3. a b Schweinfurt DFB Cup game sold out. www.bfv.de, accessed on October 10, 2017 .
  4. ^ Matthias Hunger: Franconian football home. Arete Verlag, Hildesheim 2017, ISBN 978-3-942468-91-6 , pp. 188-189.
  5. ^ 1. FC Schweinfurt 05: Stadium. www.fcschweinfurt05.de, accessed on August 28, 2017 .
  6. Headquarters of Fichtel & Sachs AG. In: arch INFORM ; accessed on September 5, 2017.
  7. a b Schweinfurt - architectural monuments. (pdf) geodaten.bayern.de, accessed on September 5, 2017 .
  8. ^ Willy Sachs Stadium. www.schweinfurtfuehrer.de, accessed on August 28, 2017 .
  9. a b The brown spot of Schweinfurt. tomkleine.jimdo.com, accessed August 28, 2017 .
  10. Schweinfurt Under the Swastika. www.thirdreichruins.com, accessed on August 28, 2017 (English).
  11. ^ Werner Skrentny: The big book of the German soccer stadiums. Verlag Die Werkstatt, Göttingen 2001, ISBN 3-89533-306-9 , pp. 314-317
  12. Schweinfurt: Willy Sachs Stadium. stadionphotos.blogspot.de, accessed on September 9, 2017 .
  13. Willy Sachs Stadium, 1. FC Schweinfurt 05, photos & information. stadioncheck.de, accessed on August 28, 2017 .
  14. Hans Kratzer: The undiscovered field . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung, July 7, 2014, p. R14.
  15. Floodlight Beling: Our references. www.flutlicht-beling.de, accessed on November 11, 2017 .
  16. The breakwaters are currently being built in the Willy Sachs Stadium in Schweinfurt. in-und-um-schweinfurt.de, accessed on August 29, 2017 .
  17. Season 1943/1944: WTSV Schweinfurt - SpVgg Fürth. www.kleeblatt-chronik.de, accessed on August 28, 2017 .
  18. Soccer-Warrios: How can it be that a regional league no longer wants to play in the regional league. www.soccer-warriors.de, accessed on August 31, 2017 .
  19. FT Schweinfurt vs. TSV Rottendorf. www.ground-hopper.com, accessed May 17, 2018 .
  20. ^ Matthias Hunger: Franconian football home. Arete Verlag, Hildesheim 2017, ISBN 978-3-942468-91-6 , p. 188.
  21. A Nazi as namesake. www.spiegel.de, accessed on August 31, 2017 .
  22. A guest in a Nazi's stadium. de.indymedia.org, accessed on August 31, 2017 .
  23. ^ Werner Skrentny: The big book of the German soccer stadiums. Verlag Die Werkstatt, Göttingen 2001, ISBN 3-89533-306-9 , pp. 314-317
  24. ^ Süddeutsche Zeitung: The Willy Sachs Stadium in Schweinfurt. www.sueddeutsche.de, accessed on August 29, 2017 .