Unlike countries like England that favour one particular national stadium, the Nationalmannschaft has played home matches in 40 cities since 1908. This section focusses on the grounds that have hosted DFB home matches in the post-war period from the first competitive fixture against Switzerland which was played at Stuttgart’s Neckarstadion in November 1950.

Stadium Names

The table below lists all of the grounds that have been used as home venues by the German national side since 1950: a number of grounds have either been rebuilt or renovated, and in these cases both the name of the ground when the first international fixture was played as well as the current one have been included. On account of the new-fangled fetish for giving stadiums silly-sounding sponsor names, many grounds have seen a number of name changes: for example, Hamburger SV’s ground was called the Volksparkstadion when it hosted its first international in 1953, but after renovation was called first the AOL-Arena and then the HSH Nordbank-Arena and Imtech Arena before reverting back to its original name.

I have included the modern names in the data so that the grounds can be easily identified; like many ground name traditionalists however, I am not the biggest fan of stadiums named after travel companies, banks or toilet bowl manufacturers. I have always believed that traditional names should be preserved, and if a ground is to be rebranded it should take the name of a footballing legend: for example while many fans of 1. FC Kaiserlautern may have been initially disappointed at the old name Betzenbergstadion being consigned to history, they would have been happy at the ground being renamed as the Fritz-Walter-Stadion after one of the city’s – and German football’s – most famous sons.

I hope one day that the stadium in München can one day be called the Franz-Beckenbauer-Stadion, Karl-Heinz-Rummenigge-Stadion or even the Philipp-Lahm-Stadion. As things currently stand, Allianz Arena is not that bad – especially when there are some horrors such as Dortmund’s Signal Iduna Park and – my personal favourites – VfL Bochum’s rewirpowerSTADION and 1. FC Nürnberg’s EasyCredit-Stadion.

Stadium Capacities

Recent regulations concerning ground seating have meant that the ground capacity figures are not always consistent; in many cases, German grounds have specially-created terraced areas used during domestic fixtures that cannot be utilised during internationals or UEFA-sanctioned club competitions. München’s Allianz Arena for example has a capacity of 75,024 for domestic fixtures that includes a small standing area, but for fixtures that require all spectators to be seated this is reduced to 70,000.

To keep things simple, I have cited the higher figure for each ground.

The DFB has a rule, or a regulation or maybe it’s just a guideline, that says the national team’s home games can only be played in grounds that hold at least 40,000 people – but in some cases this has been worked around by classifying the match as a charity game. This is how some of the smaller grounds such as the New Tivoli in Aachen, Rhein-Neckar-Arena in Sinsheim and more recently the Coface-Arena in Mainz have been able to make their way onto this list. (Thanks to Uli Hesse for this information).

Renovations, Refurbishments, Rebuilds and Relocations

The vast majority of the stadiums in this list have been renovated, refurbished and in some instances completely rebuilt – meaning that the original plot has remained the home ground of a particular club side in some shape or form. However some older grounds have seen the club relocate to a completely new development, while they themselves were either reused for other purposes or demolished altogether. In these cases, the name of the club side is in italics.

In May 2016, the WWK-Arena in Augsburg became the 35th ground to join this “club”. Having hosted four games at the old Rosenaustadion, the city of Augsburg joined Dortmund, Gelsenkirchen and München as the only cities to have hosted international matches at two different grounds.

PicCityStadiumOpenDebutOpponentMat.Cap.Home Club
Stuttgart, Mercedes-Benz-ArenaStuttgartNeckarstadion/Mercedes-Benz Arena19331950.11.22Switzerland2860,449VfB Stuttgart
Berlin, OlympiastadionBerlinOlympiastadion19361951.06.17Turkey2674,649Hertha BSC Berlin
Essen, Georg-Melches-StadionEssenGeorg-Melches-Stadion19391951.12.23Luxembourg215,000Rot-Weiss Essen
Köln, RheinEnergieStadionKölnMüngersdorferstadion/Rhein-Energie-Stadion19231952.04.20Luxembourg2449,9681. FC Köln
Augsburg, RosenaustadionAugsburgRosenaustadion19511952.11.09Switzerland428,000FC Augsburg
Ludwigshafen, SüdweststadionLudwigshafenSüdweststadion19401952.12.21Yugoslavia441,383FSV Oggersheim
Hamburg, Imtech ArenaHamburgVolksparkstadion19531953.11.22Norway3157,000Hamburger SV
Hannover, AWD-ArenaHannoverNiedersachsenstadion/HDI-Arena19541954.10.16France2549,000Hannover 96
Karlsruhe, WildparkstadionKarlsruheWildparkstadion19551955.11.16Norway629,699Karlsruher SC
Düsseldorf, Esprit ArenaDüsseldorfRheinstadion/Esprit Arena19261956.03.14Netherlands2654,600Fortuna Düsseldorf
Frankfurt/Main, Commerzbank-ArenaFrankfurt/MainWaldstadion/Commerzbank-Arena19251956.11.21Switzerland2051,500Eintracht Frankfurt
Nürnberg, easyCredit-StadionNürnbergStädtisches Stadion/Frankenstadion19281965.05.12England1650,0001. FC Nürnberg
Dortmund, Stadion Rote ErdeDortmundStadion Rote Erde19261967.04.08Albania125,000BV 09 Borussia Dortmund
München, OlympiastadionMünchenOlympiastadion19721972.05.26Soviet Union1669,267FC Bayern München
Gelsenkirchen, ParkstadionGelsenkirchenParkstadion19731973.10.13France962,008FC Schalke 04
Dortmund, Signal Iduna ParkDortmundWestfalenstadion/Signal Iduna Park19741974.04.17Hungary1881,359BV 09 Borussia Dortmund
Bremen, WeserstadionBremenWeserstadion19291980.02.27Malta1142,358SV Werder Bremen
Bochum, rewirpowerSTADIONBochumRuhrstadion19191981.09.23Finland329,448VfL Bochum
Saarbrücken, LudwigsparkstadionSaarbrückenLudwigsparkstadion19531983.11.20Albania235,303FC Saarbrücken
Kaiserslautern, Fritz-Walter-StadionKaiserslauternBetzenbergstadion/Fritz-Walter-Stadion19201988.04.27Switzerland949,7801. FC Kaiserslautern
Leverkusen, BayArenaLeverkusenUlrich-Haberland-Stadion/BayArena19581991.12.18Luxembourg830,210Bayer 04 Leverkusen
Dresden, Glücksgas-StadionDresdenRudolf-Harbig-Stadion19231992.10.14Mexico132,066SG Dynamo Dresden
Mannheim, Carl-Benz-StadionMannheimCarl-Benz-Stadion19941996.06.04Liechtenstein226,022Waldhof Mannheim
Freiburg, badenova-StadionFreiburgDreisamstadion/Schwarzwald-Stadion19532000.06.07Liechtenstein424,000SC Freiburg
Gelsenkirchen, Veltins-ArenaGelsenkirchenArena AufSchalke/Veltins-Arena20012001.10.06Finland1162,271FC Schalke 04
Rostock, DKB-ArenaRostockOstseestadion/DKB-Arena19542002.03.27United States229,000FC Hansa Rostock
Wolfsburg, Volkswagen ArenaWolfsburgVolkswagen Arena20022003.06.01Canada330,000VfL Wolfsburg
Leipzig, Red Bull ArenaLeipzigZentralstadion/Red Bull Arena19542004.11.17Cameroon944,345RB Leipzig
Mönchengladbach, Borussia-ParkMönchengladbachBorussia-Park20042005.06.08Russia854,067Bor. Mönchengladbach
München, Allianz ArenaMünchenAllianz Arena20052006.06.09Costa Rica1175,024FC Bayern München
Duisburg, Schauinsland-Reisen-ArenaDuisburgMSV-Arena/Schauinsland-Reisen-Arena20042007.03.28Denmark331,500MSV Duisburg
Aachen, New TivoliAachenNew Tivoli20092010.05.13Malta132,960Alemannia Aachen
Sinsheim, Rhein-Neckar ArenaSinsheimRhein-Neckar Arena20092011.05.29Uruguay330,1641899 Hoffenheim
Mainz, Coface ArenaMainzMewa Arena20112014.06.06Armenia334,034FSV Mainz 05
Augsburg, WWK-ArenaAugsburgWWK-Arena20092016.05.29Slovakia130,660FC Augsburg

2 thoughts on “National Stadia

  • August 7, 2016 at 04:54
    Permalink

    need to update some seating capacity on here other then that great site

    Reply
    • August 8, 2016 at 09:58
      Permalink

      Cheers! I wrote it quite a few years ago and keeping everything up to date becomes more of a task by the day!

      Reply

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