Bökelbergstadion

• Borussia Mönchengladbach

• Football games of the 1st and 2nd Bundesliga
• NATO Music Festival

The Bökelbergstadion was a football stadium in the German Bundesliga. It was until the end of the Bundesliga season 2003/ 04, the home ground of the club Borussia Mönchengladbach.

History

1914 acquired Borussia Moenchengladbach a site on the Bökelstraße to 61 m above sea level. NN. However, the planned work on the stadium could not be started because of the First World War broke out. However, the work was resumed at the stadium in 1919. At that time the place was still " Danish Kull ," as the area had previously been a gravel pit.

On September 20, 1919, the stadium was then opened under the name "West German Stadium ". During World War II, large parts were destroyed. In 1952 began the reconstruction and expansion; However, the ambitious plans could not be implemented because Borussia Moenchengladbach as the owner in the city had so much debt that the stadium had to be left to the city in 1956.

Only in 1960 the situation changed, as the Borussia won the DFB Cup and then invested the city in the venue. The stadium was 32,000 places, most of them standing. Since that time, the stadium " Bökelbergstadion " was called. The name goes back to Wilhelm August Hurtmanns, an author of the Rheinische Post, who created a synonym for the stadium at the Bökelstraße in Mönchengladbach District Eicken with the Bökelberg.

Rebuilding

In 1962 there was a first complete reconstruction in Bökelbergstadion. Three sites were built with this solid ranks, while the East Stand was given a first tubular steel stand. In the spring of 1966, the former West Stand got a canopy and in August the Bökelberg also received a floodlight system. Committed first plans for an expansion of the East Wall, which was inaugurated in a " mound - construction " in the February 1972 In the fall of 1969. In 1978, the existing grandstand was completely torn down and rebuilt. The new grandstand was double-level and hung with a rope tension at two new octagonal steel plates masts. The previous old stadium roof made ​​it in 1982 in the Guinness Book of Records as the only commercially available stadium roof. In October 1978, the work was completed on schedule and the grandstand was inaugurated with its 8,722 seats. A complete reconstruction of the stadium failed at the beginning of the 90 residents' objections. The renovation of the grandstand in 1978, incidentally, was the last expansion in Bökelbergstadion.

The last years

You had to look for alternatives and found this finally in North Park in Mönchengladbach, where between 2002 and 2004 was built on a new stadium for Borussia. On 22 May 2004, the last Bundesliga game in Bökelbergstadion took place. Borussia defeated while TSV 1860 Munich 3-1. The last goal came in a league game in Bökelbergstadion Arie van Lent. Exactly one year later, on 22 May 2005, the last football game ever found place in Bökelbergstadion. The U23 Borussia defeated in a championship game of the Oberliga Nordrhein the Bonner SC 5-0. The last goal scored René Schnitzler in the 86th minute. After completion of construction, located at the North Park new stadium was christened Borussia - Park.

Demolition

As of December 2005, the Bökelbergstadion was demolished. At first everything was ripped away, what could be torn down quickly (like breakwater, stalls and sponsors signs). The demolition of the grandstand on 7 March 2006 failed initially. They tried to blow up the two feet of the octagonal towers so that they sag about 4 feet and pull the roof with it. After the lashings were cut manually, then the whistle at 15:22 clock fell with a few hours late. On the morning of August 2, 2006, the last flood light pole was tilted without problems and fell as planned in the middle of the stadium. Meanwhile, a housing development was built on the former site of the stadium. The terraces of the former North and South Stand and the the grandstand have been preserved.

The North Stand

The main grandstand of the Bökelbergstadions in October 2005