Sachs-Stadion (formerly known as Willy-Sachs-Stadion) is a multi-functional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

stadium A stadium ( : stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage either partly or completely surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand o ...

Schweinfurt Schweinfurt ( , ; ) is a city in the district of Lower Franconia in Bavaria, Germany. It is the administrative centre of the surrounding district (''Landkreis'') of Schweinfurt and a major industrial, cultural and educational hub. The urban agg ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. Since 1936, it has been home stadium to the German football club

1. FC Schweinfurt 05 1. Fussball-Club Schweinfurt 1905, Verein für Leibesübungen e.V., called 1. FC Schweinfurt 05, Schweinfurt 05, or simply FC 05, is a German association football club established in Schweinfurt (Bavaria) in 1905. It has sections for netball, f ...

History

The stadium, built by German architect

Paul Bonatz Paul Bonatz (6 December 1877 – 20 December 1956) was a German architect, member of the Stuttgart School and professor at the technical university in that city during part of World War II, and from 1954 until his death. He worked in many styl ...

, was a donation from local industrialist

Willy Sachs Wilhelm Josef Sachs known as Willy Sachs (23 July 1896 – 19 November 1958) was a German industrialist and Nazi party member. He served in the SS as an ''Obersturmbannführer'' and was appointed as a '' Wehrwirtschaftsführer'', recognizing h ...

to the City of Schweinfurt. As the club's patron, Willy Sachs designated a privileged right of use of all facilities for 1. FC Schweinfurt 05. Leading politicians of

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

attended the opening ceremony on 23 July 1936. Three days later, the new ''Willy-Sachs-Stadion'' saw its first game, a 2–2 draw between 1. FC Schweinfurt 05 and

1935 Events January * January 7 – Italian premier Benito Mussolini and French Foreign Minister Pierre Laval conclude Franco-Italian Agreement of 1935, an agreement, in which each power agrees not to oppose the other's colonial claims. * ...

German champion

FC Schalke 04 Fußballclub Gelsenkirchen-Schalke 04 e. V., commonly known as FC Schalke 04 (), Schalke 04 (), or abbreviated as S04 (), is a professional German football and multi-sports club originally from the Schalke district of Gelsenkirchen, North Rhi ...

. The stadium has been top-tier venue all the time between

1936 Events January–February * January 20 – George V of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India, dies at his Sandringham Estate. The Prince of Wales succeeds to the throne of the United Kingdom as King E ...

and

1963 Events January * January 1 – Bogle–Chandler case: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation scientist Dr. Gilbert Bogle and Mrs. Margaret Chandler are found dead (presumed poisoned), in bushland near the Lane Cov ...

, and was home stadium to second tier football for many of the following years, most recently during the 2001–02 season. In addition, from

1939 This year also marks the start of the Second World War, the largest and deadliest conflict in human history. Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January 1 ** Third Reich *** Jews are forbidden to ...

on Schweinfurt 05 played a larger number of German Cup matches at the stadium. Attandance record of the stadium was 22,500 at a friendly between Schweinfurt 05 and 1. FC Kaiserslautern in 1954. The sports venue hosted the 2nd

Fistball World Championships Fistball World Championships are an international association fistball competition contested by the senior national teams of the members of the International Fistball Association The International Fistball Association (IFA) is the umbrella org ...

in 1972 as well as the

Fistball European Championships Fistball European Championships are a competition which has been organized by the International Fistball Association (IFA) since 1965 for men and since 1993 for women. European Championships - Men European Championships - Women {, class="tocco ...

in 2012. During the

2006 FIFA World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host the ...

in Germany, the stadium served as training ground for the

Tunisia national football team The Tunisia national football team ( ar, منتخب تونس لكرة القدم; ) represents Tunisia in men's international association football. The team is a member of both FIFA and CAF, the Confederation of African Football. It is governe ...

. In the 2008–09 season, nearby football club

TSV Großbardorf TSV Großbardorf is a German association football club from the city of Großbardorf, Bavaria. The footballers are part of a 602 member sports club that also has departments for bowling and table tennis. History The club made its first appear ...

had to move to Schweinfurt due to

Regionalliga The Regionalliga () is the fourth tier in the German football league system. Until 1974, it was the second tier in Germany. In 1994, it was introduced as the third tier. Upon the creation of the new nationwide 3. Liga in 2008, it became the four ...

legislations on stadium capacity. The sports complex regularly is venue for

athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competiti ...

competitions and championships on national level. Occasionally, the neighbouring U.S. Army Garrison, located in Schweinfurt until 2014, had used the stadium for

military parade A military parade is a formation of soldiers whose movement is restricted by close-order manoeuvering known as drilling or marching. The military parade is now almost entirely ceremonial, though soldiers from time immemorial up until the lat ...

s. Today the stadium is listed as historic

monument A monument is a type of structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become relevant to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, due to its artistic, his ...

and is thus subject to preservation orders. As part of the Schweinfurt ''Lest we forget'' initiative, in 2001 the local press including

Süddeutsche Zeitung The ''Süddeutsche Zeitung'' (; ), published in Munich, Bavaria, is one of the largest daily newspapers in Germany. The tone of SZ is mainly described as centre-left, liberal, social-liberal, progressive-liberal, and social-democrat. History ...

and author Werner Skrentny initiated a campaign to rename the ''Willy-Sachs-Stadion'' due to Sachs'

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

affiliation. The campaign met with low approval among the general public. In June 2021, however, the Schweinfurt city council finally decided to change the name of the stadium into ''Sachs-Stadion'', in recognition of the value of the former

Fichtel & Sachs ZF Sachs AG, also known as Fichtel & Sachs, was founded in Schweinfurt in 1895 and was a well-known German family business. At its last point as an independent company, the company name was Fichtel & Sachs AG. In 1997, the automotive supplier wa ...

company (now part of

ZF Friedrichshafen ZF Friedrichshafen AG, also known as ZF Group, originally ''Zahnradfabrik Friedrichshafen'', and commonly abbreviated to ZF (ZF = "Zahnradfabrik" = "Cogwheel Factory"), is a German car parts maker headquartered in Friedrichshafen, in the south- ...

) for the development of Schweinfurt.

Facilities

The stadium complex consists of the main field with a capacity of 15,060 (the actual ''Sachs-Stadion'') and several additional courts for training and youth matches, including an

artificial turf Artificial turf is a surface of synthetic fibers made to look like natural grass. It is most often used in arenas for sports that were originally or are normally played on grass. However, it is now being used on residential lawns and commer ...

pitch. The main stadium offers a covered

grandstand A grandstand is a normally permanent structure for seating spectators. This includes both auto racing and horse racing. The grandstand is in essence like a single section of a stadium, but differs from a stadium in that it does not wrap a ...

, hosting 860 seats, and standing rooms around the residual circumference, which is planted with two rows of linden trees. The football field is flanked by various

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...

facilities and a classical

Marathon The marathon is a long-distance foot race with a distance of , usually run as a road race, but the distance can be covered on trail routes. The marathon can be completed by running or with a run/walk strategy. There are also wheelchair div ...

gate. Premises at the stadium include changing rooms for players, coaches, and referees. Speaker cabins and a press area are available in the grandstand. To meet 2nd Bundesliga regulations, in 2001 terracing has been renovated, and the stadium was equipped with

floodlight A floodlight is a broad-beamed, high-intensity artificial light. They are often used to illuminate outdoor playing fields while an outdoor sports event is being held during low-light conditions. More focused kinds are often used as a stage ...

masts. In addition, Schweinfurt's

large Large means of great size. Large may also refer to: Mathematics * Arbitrarily large, a phrase in mathematics * Large cardinal, a property of certain transfinite numbers * Large category, a category with a proper class of objects and morphisms (or ...

industry contributed an electronic

scoreboard A scoreboard is a large board for publicly displaying the score in a game. Most levels of sport from high school and above use at least one scoreboard for keeping score, measuring time, and displaying statistics. Scoreboards in the past used ...

, that was replaced in 2022 by a 30 sqm

LED A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor Electronics, device that Light#Light sources, emits light when Electric current, current flows through it. Electrons in the semiconductor recombine with electron holes, releasing energy i ...

screen. Due to increased security standards, wavebreakers had to be installed on the standing rooms in 2014 to safeguard the full capacity. In 2019, the grandstand was outfitted with new green and white seats that represent the colours of 1. FC Schweinfurt 05.

References

External links

Visitor guide with pictures
at stadionwelt.de
Sachs-Stadion
at europlan-online.de {{Authority control Football venues in Germany 1. FC Schweinfurt 05 Sports venues in Bavaria Sports venues completed in 1936