SAMSTAG 15:30

Named after the land on which it's built and one of the most historic grounds in Germany, the Rosenaustadion rose from the ashes of World War 2 after allied bombing raids targeting the nearby Messerschmitt aircraft factory left much of Augsburg in ruins.

As the nation struggled to recover from the effects of war and Nazi rule, a temporary narrow-gauge railway was used to clear over 185,000 tonnes of Trümmer (rubble) from the shattered city centre and dump it on the Rosenau floodplain along the banks of the Wertach river. The idea was to recycle as much as possible and sell it on for building material, but a general lack of manpower and money immediately after the conflict dampened demand. With city authorities keen to remove the mountain of debris silhouetted against the skyline, thoughts turned towards building a stadium on the site using plans originally drawn up in 1926 by a local architect called Thomas Wechs.

Wech's design was similar to the recently opened Olympic Stadium in Helsinki and, because it steered away from the intimidating ostentatious architecture of the National Socialist era, the project was quickly approved with construction getting underway in 1949. The work was initially carried out in secret however because local support for the development was lukewarm at best, with many residents believing that scarce resources in post-war Augsburg should have been used to build housing and schools instead of a new sports stadium. The authorities pressed on regardless however and 51,000 people were at the Rosenau to watch a 'B' international between Germany and Austria when it opened on the 16th September 1951. With its multi-sport design and a capacity of 70,000, it was widely acknowledged as one of the best stadiums in the country with former IOC vice -president Willi Daume declaring "The post-war development of German sport is inconceivable without the Rosenaustadion ".

It was the first stadium to be built in post-war Germany, and to save on construction costs - which, even at an estimated DM 1.1 to 1.8 million, were modest for the time - three sides of the oval-shaped bowl were set against banks of war rubble, into which steps were cut and faced with black tar boards to create a continuous sweep of open terracing. A covered all-seater, single-tiered grandstand along the western side remains the Rosenau's only 'true' engineered building and a running track around the perimeter sets the ends behind each goal a fair distance from the action.

Floodlights were switched on for the first time during the 1950s before the terraces were recast with concrete after fans complained about the state of their shoes - not to mention the health hazards associated with exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons - from standing on tar boards. Further development then saw three banks of wooden benches (later replaced with plastic seat shells) added to the Gegengerade before the original cinder running track was given an all-weather surface in 1971.

Up until this point, the Rosenau had been one of the country's flagship stadiums and its sporting duality saw major football and athletics events held here. On 9th November 1952, the foundations for West Germany's 'Miracle of Bern' triumph were laid when no fewer than eight of the side that would lift the World Cup two years later were involved in a 5-1 win over Switzerland with temporary tubular steel stands built to accommodate a stadium record crowd of 64,586. FC Bayern München won the first of their 82 (and counting !) trophies here when they beat Fortuna Düsseldorf 1-0 in the 1957 DFB-Pokal final. And, in 1958, 85,000 bore witness over two days to "the second greatest miracle in German sports history..." when Ludwig Müller scored victories over 5,000 and 10,000 metres in an athletics international against the USSR.

The Rosenau's days as the region's premier sports stadium were numbered however when Munich's showpiece venue - the Olympiastadion - opened on 26th April 1972 and although it hosted four matches during the Olympic Games football tournament, it had lost its raison d'être and became locked in a sad, sedate decline.

It wasn't until FC Augsburg finally ended a 23-year exile from Bundesliga 2 in 2006 that the stadium was given an extensive revamp which saw the floodlights upgraded, a new manual scoreboard added to the northern end of the ground and a public address system installed in the Haupttribüne (main stand). To comply with DFB stadium regulations, 1,500 standing places were also replaced with 600 seats in the Gäste Block (Guest Block) which reduced the overall capacity to 31,354 although the official limit was, and still is, set at 28,000 on safety grounds. The overhaul continued over the next few months with additional ticket offices and a new stadium clock, before €400,000 was spent on undersoil heating - the first time that the playing surface had been replaced in over 50 years.

Despite the renovations however, the Rosenau's oval-terraced layout remains virtually unchanged since the day it opened and the end result is both its appeal and undoing. It was obvious that the stadium wasn't going to be able to keep pace with the demands of modern football with a groundswell of opinion highlighting the ageing infrastructure, high maintenance costs and a lack of development opportunities. After exploring relocation options since the early 2000s, planning approval for a new 30,000 capacity venue next to the B17 motorway south of the city was granted and, on 26th July 2009, FC Augsburg's senior side moved into the SGL Arena (later renamed WWK Arena) - leaving the Rosenaustadion with an uncertain future.
 
The stadium still plays host to FC Augsburg II and local school sports events but now that large crowds have come and gone, the Rosenau is catering for a lost era with large sections of the terraces closed off on safety grounds. There's been open discussion about what to do with the crumbling stadium and the original plan was to demolish it and sell the site to developers before it was 'saved', ironically, by its legacy as a former dump for war debris and the costs involved with cleaning up the contaminated land. The ground was granted listed status in 2014 which protected it from wholesale demolition and the latest in a long line of proposals is to convert the main stand into apartments whilst retaining its façade, and create a parkland in which the rest of the stadium will form what has been described as a 'walk-in sculpture'.

Whatever the future holds, one thing is certain - football may have changed over the years but the Rosenaustadion hasn't and, for the time being at least, there's enough character here to witness a fascinating past, rather than just having to imagine it.