Rosenaustadion is a

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

Augsburg Augsburg ( , ; ; ) is a city in the Bavaria, Bavarian part of Swabia, Germany, around west of the Bavarian capital Munich. It is a College town, university town and the regional seat of the Swabia (administrative region), Swabia with a well ...

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. Built in 1951, it is a heritage listed monument and was the largest stadium in Augsburg for 58 years until 2009 when the

Augsburg Arena Augsburg Arena, currently known commercially as the WWK Arena (; officially stylised as WWK ARENA, also "Schwabenstadion"), is a football stadium in Augsburg, Bavaria, Germany. It is used mostly for football matches and hosts the home matches of ...

was opened. With a spectator capacity of 32,354, it is primarily used for

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

matches and

track & field Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and ...

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

FC Augsburg II FC Augsburg II is the reserve team of the German association football club FC Augsburg from the city of Augsburg, Bavaria, whose first team play in the Bundesliga. The team, which has never played above the fourth tier, had its greatest success ...

. It is the former home of the

FC Augsburg Fußball-Club Augsburg 1907 e. V., commonly known as FC Augsburg (), is a Football in Germany, German professional football club based in Augsburg, Bavaria. FC Augsburg play in the Bundesliga, the top tier of the German football league system. T ...

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 (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. 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 (distance between the rails) narrower than . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with Minimum railw ...

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 Rosenaustadion 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), competitio ...

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

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

's Olympiastadion for the

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

, this position was lessened. Despite this, the stadium did host five

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
{{Authority control 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 Sports venues completed in 1951 1951 establishments in West Germany Sport in Swabia (Bavaria)