Stadion Rote Erde 4.12

Stadion Rote Erde is a 25,000 capacity football and athletics stadium in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It serves as the home stadium to Borussia Dortmund II and several athletic clubs. The stadium was built in between 1924 and 1926 at a cost of 1.8 million German Mark. The stadium was inaugurated in 1926, with a match between the City of Dortmund and FC Wacker München .HistoryEarly History (1921 to 1937)The first plans for the stadium date back to 1921, when the Municipality of Dortmund decided to build a Volkspark in the southern area of Dortmund. Architect Hans Strobel designed the park, in which a swimming pool, a multi-functional stadium and the Westfalenhallen would be built. The stadium was built between 1924 and 1926 and was inaugurated in 1926.On September 4, 1927, the Katholikentag was held in the stadium and in the adjacent Westfalenhallen. This event was organized by the Papal Nuncio to Germany, Eugenio Pacelli, who would later become Pope Pius XII.In the first decade of the stadium's history, it was mostly used for athletic events. The first official football match in the stadium was in 1929, the quarter-final match of the 1929 German football championship between Borussia Dortmund's rivals Schalke 04 and Hertha BSC, with Hertha BSC winning 4-1.