Rosenaustadion is a

multi-purpose stadium A multi-purpose stadium is a type of stadium designed to be easily used by multiple types of events. While any stadium could potentially host more than one type of sport or event, this concept usually refers to a specific design philosophy tha ...

Augsburg Augsburg (; bar , Augschburg , links=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swabian_German , label=Swabian German, , ) is a city in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany, around west of Bavarian capital Munich. It is a university town and regional seat of the ...

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

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 ...

. Built in 1951, it's a heritage listed monument and was the largest stadium in Augsburg for 58 years until 2009 when the Augsburg Arena was opened. With a spectator capacity of 32,354, it is primarily used for football matches and

track & 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 eve ...

athletics events. It is the current home ground for FC Augsburg Women and FC Augsburg II. It is the former home of the

FC Augsburg Fußball-Club Augsburg 1907 e. V., commonly known as FC Augsburg () or Augsburg, is a German football club based in Augsburg, Bavaria. FC Augsburg play in the Bundesliga, the top tier of the German football league system. The team was founded as ...

men's first team, who played at the ground between 1951 and 2009.

History

The stadium was built from 1949, using debris from the aerial bombings of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

. The original plans for the stadium however go back to 1926. A temporary

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structu ...

railway line ran from 1946 from the city centre to the construction site, carrying 185,000 tonnes of debris to be used at the new stadium. The Rosenaustadion was opened on 16 September 1951 with a Germany versus Austria football match, a B-international, drawing a crowd of 51,000. From 1951 to 1972 the Rosenaustadiom possessed an outstanding meaning for German sport, particularly in the disciplines of football and

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), competi ...

, due to its size and modernity. With the opening of

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

Olympiastadion Olympiastadion is the German, Finnish and Swedish word for Olympic Stadium and may refer to: * Stockholm Olympic Stadium, the host of the 1912 Summer Olympics (though mostly referred as simply ''Stockholms Stadion'') * Olympiastadion (Berlin), the ...

for the

1972 Summer Olympics The 1972 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XX Olympiad () and commonly known as Munich 1972 (german: München 1972), was an international multi-sport event held in Munich, West Germany, from 26 August to 11 September 1972. ...

, this position was lessened. Despite this, the stadium did host five football matches during these games. The record attendance of FC Augsburg dates from 1973 with the game against the 1. FC Nürnberg with 42,000 spectators. The highest attendance at a football game was nearly 65,000 spectators on 9 November 1952 with the international match Germany – Switzerland. The total record is from the year 1958, as 85.000 came to see the athletics team of Germany defeating the Russian team. The record crowd for the home side FC Augsburg is 45,000, which attended the game in the Regionalliga Süd versus 1. FC Nürnberg on 3 August 1974.

References

1972 Summer Olympics official report.
Volume 1. Part 1. p. 121.
1972 Summer Olympics official report.
Volume 3. p. 359.
Official website
{{Olympic venues football Football venues in Germany Athletics (track and field) venues in Germany Buildings and structures in Augsburg Sports venues in Bavaria BC Augsburg FC Augsburg Multi-purpose stadiums in Germany Venues of the 1972 Summer Olympics Olympic football venues Sports venues completed in 1951 1951 establishments in West Germany