It's time to go abroad for Pitch'd! We recently went to Germany to visit a couple of stadiums. If people think Belgium is groundhopper heaven - they have never been to Germany. It's crazy what can be found in just a couple of miles distance from each other. One of the places we visited was the rewirpowerSTADION of VfL Bochum 1848. VfL Bochum might just be one of the oldest teams in Germany with a very rich history.
It all started in 1849 when Bochumer TV, an athletics team, was founded. Unfortunately the team was forbidden in 1851 by the Prussian government. Nine years later the team was refounded and in 1904 the year 1848 was added to the name based on an article in that year with a request to create an athletics team in Bochum. In 1911 the team created a football team as well, but in 1919 they merged with Spiel und Sport 08 Bochum to become Turn- und Sportverein Bochum 1848. German law however was very complicated. After the prohibition of the team in 1851, it was decided in 1924 a gymnastics department and a football team couldn't be in one and the same team. So TuS Bochum 1848 split into Bochumer Turnverein 1848 and Turn- und Sportverein Bochum 1908. Little over 10 years later, in 1938, the Nazis decided otherwise again. To create one big successfull team in Bochum the Nazis forced Bochumer Turnverein 1848 to merge with Turn- und Sportverein Bochum 1908 and Sportverein Germania Vorwärts Bochum 1906 into VfL Bochum we know nowadays. Before this merger none of the teams were really successfull but after the merge successes started to come. Only Schalke 04 could keep Bochum from any titles unfortunately.
During WWII the team temporarily merged with Preußen 07 Bochum, only to separate again after WWII. After the war VfL started playing in second division and went up and down between first and second division up until the creation of the professional Bundesliga in 1963. That year they were placed in the amateur leagues (third division) but quickly started to climb to the Bundesliga (first division) again. They reached that in 1971 and already reached the finals of the German cup in 68. Up until 1993 the team stayed in German first division. As of 1993 VfL became a yo-yo team. During the 90s and 00s they still had successes, even reaching European tournaments, but now they are playing in second division since 2010.
The rewirpowerSTADION then... Its actual name is the Ruhr stadium, but due to sponsorshipdeals the name currently is rewirpower. This stadium is built on the very first grounds of SuS Bochum, alreade used in 1911. The first real grandstands were only built in 1921 (back then the name was Stadion an der Castroper Straße) and was completely redone between 1976 and 1979 to reach a capacity of over 50,000. These days the capacity has been brought back to an official 29,299.
