Bökelbergstadion, Germany (1919–2006)
Borussia Mönchengladbach
The Bökelbergstadion was the stadium of Borussia Mönchengladbach for a period of more than 80 years.
Borussia Mönchengladbach was founded by a group of amateur football players in 1899. During the early years of the club’s activity, there was still a lot of resistance from German society with the practice of football, which was seen as a subversive activity. This made it difficult to institutionalize the sport, making it difficult to acquire equipment for practice and to access football fields suitable for hosting games.
During the early years, Borussia Mönchengladbach had difficulty finding a fixed football field to host their games, which brought complications to be accepted in higher level competitions. In 1905, the club managed to raise funds and acquired land in the region of Reyerhütterstraße and built a football field that allowed it to better organize its matches. This allowed the club to ascend both sports and popularly, bringing together a financial improvement.
In 1914, already more stable and with a growing number of supporters interested in watching the matches, Borussia Mönchengladbach buys the land in De Kull, a disabled quarry where the Bökelbergstadion would finally be built. However, work on the stadium construction had to be stopped due to the start of the First World War.
Immediately after the end of the war, in 1919, the works were resumed and, on September 20 of the same year, Borussia Mönchengladbach played the first match in its new stadium.
The stadium also underwent several adaptations during the 80 years in which it hosted the games of Borussia Mönchengladbach, making it have an audience capacity of 34,500 people. It was playing at the Bökelbergstadion that in the 1970s the club went through its greatest glory, winning 5 Bundesliga, 1 German cup and 2 UEFA cups, establishing itself as one of the most relevant teams in the country.
From the 90’s, after going through a period of less success in the previous decade, Borussia Mönchengladbach felt the need to have a more modern stadium with a larger audience capacity, which would help with the club’s reconstruction project. After financially organizing itself in 2002, Borussia Mönchengladbach started the construction of its new and current stadium, Borussia-Park.
The last official match of the Bökelbergstadion took place on May 22, 2004, with Borussia Mönchengladbach winning 1860 München 3–1. Exactly a year later there was still a farewell match at the stadium with a 5–0 win by Borussia Mönchengladbach over Bonner SC. In December 2005, the stadium was demolished, which was completed on August 2, 2006.
