Elfmeter Online - Issue 13 - April 1997
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If you leave Hamburg's city centre by strolling along the Jungfernstieg, follow the shoreline of the Alster lake, and keep heading northwards, you'll soon be in the suburb of Rothenbaum.
And if you wander along Rothenbaumchaussee, you'll pass a big tennis stadium before ending up, with very tired feet, at the famous old Rothenbaum football stadium, next to the Hamburg SV offices and Fan-Shop.
Or at least you used to. For in November 1996 the demolition men moved in, and started dismantling one of the most famous landmarks in north German football history. Soon, the old stadium was no more.
It's not known exactly when football was first played at the Rothenbaum, but records certainly show that as long ago as 1 November 1910 it was a sports field rented from the city council by FC Hamburg 1888. The first official game known to have taken place there was when this club suffered a 2-0 defeat at the hands of Holstein Kiel in the North German championship on 10 September 1911.
The First World War saw the German Army commandeer the sports field and put it to use as a parade ground, but in 1919 the grand fusion of FC Hamburg, Germania 1887, and FC Falke 1906 resulted in the formation of a new club, named Hamburger Sport Verein. HSV's first game at the Rothenbaum was in the autumn of 1919, a 1-1 draw in a local derby with SC Union 03 Altona.
Continued improvement and construction turned the ground into a 23,000-capacity arena with grandstand seats for about 1,000. Despite this maximum capacity, it was not unusual for crowds of around 33,000 to be packed into the stadium as HSV powered their way to the North German championship no fewer than eight times in the 1920s. The turf of the Rothenbaum was graced by such footballing legends as Otto "Tull" Harder, Jupp Posipal, Heinz Spundflasche, and the Doerfel brothers and Seeler clan (Erwin, then later his two sons Dieter and Uwe).
The problem of the Rothenbaum was its limited capacity, and when football resumed after the Second World War plans were submitted to expand the stadium to a capacity of 60,000. The city council, however, had plans of its own, and turned down the Rothenbaum blueprints in order to proceed with the reconstruction of a stadium in Bahrenfeld, on the edge of the enormous Volkspark on the western outskirts of the city (technically, in Altona). This new arena, partly constructed from the rubble of bomb-flattened buildings, was inventively named the Volksparkstadion and was completed in 1953.
HSV, though, continued to play their home matches at the Rothenbaum, and indeed lost only twenty home matches between 1947 and 1963 as they won the Oberliga Nord championship fifteen times in these sixteen years. With its small capacity faithfully filled with success-spoiled supporters, Rothen- baum became as intimidating a place to play as any in Germany. But with the formation of the Bundesliga in 1963, the DFB ordered the club to play its home matches at the far larger Volksparkstadion.
Just occasionally, HSV would arranged to play friendlies or an odd Cup match back at Rothenbaum, but normally the famous old stadium would merely host the games of HSV's amateur or youth sides. The only exception to this was during 1971, when the Volksparkstadion was undergoing renovation as part of the preparations for the 1974 World Cup.
Unhappily, the 19th August 1989 turned out to be the last time HSV's professional side appeared at the Rothenbaum, a German Cup tie against MSV Duisburg. Hooligans ran riot during the 4-2 defeat, and the club resolved never to use the stadium again.
Time moves on, and it's now the turn of the outmoded Volksparkstadion to feel the winds of change. Plans are afoot to raze it to the ground and construct a super-stadium with sliding roof, like Ajax's new arena in Amsterdam. Or maybe build a 45,000 all-seater like the one in Milan, but with an adjoining 15,000-seat domed arena.
And of course the plans include a cinema complex, public sports facilities, and even an Uwe Seeler football museum. And what of Rothenbaum? The HSV amateur side has moved to new quarters in Stellingen, the club is on the lookout for alternative office space, and a site for a new fan shop, and the final game of football on the hallowed ground was a charity match on the first weekend of November between the club's all-star veteran team of the 1960s and a team of Hamburg journalists.
Before the bulldozers arrived to bury 85 years of memories, a local stonemason carefully and reverently dismantled and removed the HSV war memorial, engraved with the names of all HSV members lost in the two World Wars. The stone column is to be stored until a new location is found.
people have read this!!!