Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Sportpark

About

The Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Sportpark is a multi-purpose sports complex located in the western part of the locality of Prenzlauer Berg in the borough of Pankow in Berlin. The sports complex covers an area of approximately 22 hectares and comprises several facilities. The main building is the Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Stadion. The stadium is the third-largest stadium in Berlin, after the Olympiastadion and the Stadion An der Alten Försterei, with a capacity of approximately 20,000 seats, of which 15,000 are covered. The most recent main tenants of the stadium have been VSG Altglienicke and Berlin Thunder. Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Sportpark was the venue for the 2018 World Para Athletics European Championships. The large stadium is planned for a complete redevelopment. Demolition of the stadium began on 8 October 2024.

The site was used by Prussian Army, before it was turned into a sports facility. The site became the parade ground of the 1st (Emperor Alexander) Guards Grenadiers, after the Prussian military had acquired the area from Christian Wilhelm Griebenow in 1825. The site got the nickname "Exer" from the military use. "Exer" is derived from the German word Exerzierplatz, meaning "Parade ground" or "Drill ground".

The site was also known as the "Place by the Lonely Poplar" ( German : Platz an der Einsamen Pappel ). Its landmark was a solitary black poplar known as the "Lonely Poplar" ( German : Einsamen Pappel ), which was standing on the parade ground near the corner of Topsstraße and Cantianstraße. The first demonstrations in Berlin during the revolution of 1848 took place at the site on 26 March 1848. Up to 20,000 people gathered near the Lonely Poplar in front of Schönhauser Tor to demand voting rights, a 12-hour work day, minimum wages and public, rather than private or religious, schools from Prussian king Friedrich Wilhelm IV. The demonstration is today marked by a memorial stone on the site. The poplar was cut down in 1968. A tree descending from the old poplar, grown in a plantation in Dresden, surrounded by aspen trees now stands on its place.

The army gave up the Exer as a parade ground in the late 19th century. The area was then surrounded by residential buildings. The Exer was instead redeveloped as a training field, so that it could be used by athletes. The training field served as the first home ground of Hertha BSC (then named BFC Hertha 1892) until 1904. The city of Berlin purchased the area in 1912 and developed it for sports use in 1913.

Berlin was divided after World War II and the site was located in the Soviet sector, in what became East Berlin. The site was developed according to plans by architect Rudolf Ortner for the 3rd World Festival of Youth and Students in 1951. Several sports and training fields were created, in addition to a large football and athletics stadium with a capacity of 30,000 spectators. Rudolf Ortner had studied at the Bauhaus school until 1933. He left East Germany for West Germany in 1951. The facility was initially known as Berliner Sportpark, but the East Berlin City Council decided to name the facility Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Sportpark to honour the centenary of Friedrich Ludwig Jahn. Friedrich Ludwig Jahn is known in Germany as the father of gymnastics.

The Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Stadion has been modernized and expanded several times. A floodlight system was installed in 1964 and a tartan track was added in 1970. A thorough renovation began in 1972 in preparation for the 10th World Festival of Youth and Students which was going to be held in East Berlin in 1973. The stadium then underwent a complete redevelopment in 1986–1987 for the 750th anniversary of Berlin. Among other things, a new four storey grandstand was built, the side opposite the main stand ( German : die Gegengerade ) was roofed and new floodlight masts were erected. The capacity was reduced to 24,000 spectators, but the Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Stadion was now the most modern stadium in East Germany. The current grandstand and floodlight masts date from this time. A further renovation took place in 1998, at a cost of around 10 million Deutsche Marks. The stadium now received its colourful bucket seats, which are characteristic for the stadium as of today. After this renovation, the capacity was further reduced to about 20,000 spectators. In order to host the 2015 UEFA Women's Champions League Final, the stadium was renovated at a cost of around €2 million. The renovation included new paintwork, new fire doors and a new smoke alarm system, refurbished player and visitor facilities and a new lawn.

The Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Sportpark is a public sports complex which covers an area of around 22 hectares and comprises several facilities. The largest building is the Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Stadion, also known as the Jahnstadion or the Cantianstadion, from the adjacent street Cantianstraße. The Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Stadion is a multi-purpose stadium with around 20,000 seats, of which 15,000 are covered. The stadium is mostly used for football, but also for athletics and American football. The sports complex also contains a smaller stadium as well as additional pitches and fields, courts and facilities for football, volleyball, tennis, basketball and others sports. There are four football pitches, of which two have artificial turf, five courts and two other sports fields.

VSG Altglienicke and Berlin Thunder are currently the main tenants of the stadium as of 2024.

BFC Dynamo was the main tenant of the stadium from the 2014–15 season. The club had been the main tenant from the 1975–76 season to the 1991–92 season. VSG Altglienicke was then added as a second main tenant in the 2017–18 season, as the Stadion Altglienicke with its artificial turf did not meet the requirements for play in the Regionalliga Nordost. BFC Dynamo and VSG Altglienicke played at the stadium until the end of 2020. VSG Altglienicke temporarily returned to the Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Sportpark for the second half of the 2022–23 season.

Berlin Thunder of the European League of Football began using the stadium in 2021. The facility is also used by football clubs SV Empor Berlin and FC Bundestag.

The Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Sportpark was the home ground of army-sponsored FC Vorwärts Berlin and its predecessors from 1953. ASK Vorwärts Berlin, which then became FC Vorwärts Berlin, was one of the strongest football teams in East Germany in the 1960s. ASK Vorwärts Berlin hosted Glasgow Rangers at the stadium in the 1961–62 European Cup. The club played as stadium guests of sports club TSC Berlin ( de ) during the first years, but took over the stadium with the founding of football club FC Vorwärts Berlin in 1966.

FC Vorwärts Berlin was relocated to Frankfurt an der Oder on 31 July 1971. BFC Dynamo played some home matches at the Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Sportpark during the 1971–72 season. The large stadium was equipped with floodlights, unlike the Dynamo-Stadion im Sportforum, which permitted for matches in the evening. BFC Dynamo played its home matches in the 1971-72 European Cup Winners' Cup at the Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Sportpark. 30,000 spectators watched the match against Åtvidabergs FF in the quarter-finals on 22 April 1972 and the stadium was sold out. Also the match against FC Dynamo Moscow in the semi-finals on 5 April 1972 was attended by 30,000 spectators. BFC Dynamo also played the match against FC Karl-Marx-Stadt on the 20th matchday and the match against ASG Vorwärts Stralsund on the 24th matchday of the 1971-72 DDR-Oberliga at the stadium. However, more matches at the stadium were not possible after the summer of 1972, as the Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Sportpark was then undergoing a thorough renovation for the upcoming 10th World Festival of Youth and Students.

BFC Dynamo moved its home matches to the Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Sportpark in 1975–76 season. The team celebrated its move to the Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Sportpark with a 7–1 win over FC Vorwärts Frankfurt in front of 10,000 spectators on the first matchday of the 1975-76 DDR-Oberliga on 23 August 1975. The team then drew 22,000 spectators to its home match against BSG Energie Cottbus on the following matchday. BFC Dynamo played its home matches at the Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Sportpark until the beginning of the 1992-93 season. The team only temporarily moved back to the Dynamo-Stadion im Sportforum during the 1986–87 season, as the large stadium in the Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Sportpark was under renovation.

BFC Dynamo celebrated nine of its ten DDR-Oberliga titles at the Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Sportpark and played most of its home matches in the European competitions in the 1970s and 1980s at the stadium. BFC Dynamo hosted teams such as Cardiff City FC, Red Star Belgrade, Nottingham Forest, Aston Villa, Hamburger SV, AS Roma, FC Aberdeen, Werder Bremen and AS Monaco at the stadium. The main stand of the large stadium was frequently visited by the president of SV Dynamo and head of the Stasi Erich Mielke during the East German era. Erich Mielke was a football enthusiast who barely missed a home match of BFC Dynamo.

BFC Dynamo, then named FC Berlin, played its first two seasons of the 1990s at the Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Sportpark. The team then moved permanently to the football stadium in the Sportforum Hohenschönhausen at the beginning of the 1992–93 season. The Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Sportpark would then rarely be used by the club. BFC Dynamo played only three home matches at the Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Sportpark in the remaining seasons of the 1990s. The team played its match against DSC Arminia Bielefeld in the first round of the 1999-2000 DFB-Pokal in front of 2,399 spectators at the stadium on 7 August 1999.

BFC Dynamo would continue to play at the Stadion im Sportforum for many seasons, but the team would more often play occasional matches at the Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Sportpark in the 2000s. The team played its match against 1. FC Union Berlin in the Round of 16 of the 2000–01 Berlin Cup in front of 4,427 spectators at the stadium on 24 March 2001. Riots broke out in Prenzlauer Berg after the match. The Stadium im Sportforum was closed for matches in the NOFV-Oberliga Nord at the end of the 2005–06 seasons for security reasons. The stadium had to be refurbished to increase security and to meet requirements of the Northeastern German Football Association (NOFV). BFC Dynamo thus temporarily moved its home matches to the Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Sportpark at the beginning of the 2006–07 season.

BFC Dynamo achieved promotion to the Regionalliga Nordost at the end of the 2013-14 NOFV-Oberliga Nord. The team eventually moved its home matches to the Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Sportpark for the 2014–15 Regionalliga Nordost, after 22 seasons at the Stadion im Sportforum. The match between BFC Dynamo and FC Schalke 04 in the first round of the 2017-18 DFB-Pokal at the Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Sportpark on 17 August 2017 was watched by 14,117 spectators. The attendance was the highest attendance for BFC Dynamo since the match between BFC Dynamo and AS Monaco in the 1989–90 European Cup Winners' Cup on 1 November 1989. The average league attendance of BFC Dynamo in the 2017–18 Regionalliga Nordost would also be the highest average league attendance of BFC Dynamo since the 1990–91 season.

The East Germany national football team played ten international matches at the stadium from 1971 to 1990. The friendly match between East Germany and Belgium on 13 Match 1974 was attended by 30,000 spectators. East Germany won the match 1–0 with a goal by Joachim Streich. In addition, three finals of the FDGB-Pokal were played at the Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Sportpark, in 1965, 1990 and 1991.

The final of the Berlin Cup was held at the Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Sportpark every season between 1995 and 2006, and between 2008 and 2020. The stadium has been used by various clubs in Berlin since German reunification. Hertha BSC II has occasionally used the stadium, when its own stadium could not be used due to a high number of spectators expected or for security reasons. Hertha BSC played its opening matches in the 1992–93 2. Bundesliga season at the stadium. Hertha BSC also played its match against FK Moscow in the semi-finals of the 2006 UEFA Intertoto Cup and has played several matches in the qualifying rounds of the UEFA Cup and the UEFA Europa League at the stadium, most recently against Brøndby IF in the third qualifying round of the 2016-17 UEFA Europa League. Hertha BSC won the match 1–0 and the stadium was sold out with 18,454 spectators. 1. FC Union Berlin used the stadium for its home matches against FC Haka and PFC Litex Lovech in the 2001-02 UEFA Cup, as the Stadion an der Alten Försterei did not meet UEFA safety requirements.

The following teams have used the stadium as home ground since the 1990s: