A fan’s guide – the club from early doors to today
Flagship club for a city of a third of a million people, with a significant and loyal fan base, Arminia Bielefeld have surprisingly little silverware to show for some 120 years of activity. True, the Blues have claimed four second-flight titles, and three divisional triumphs in the third tier, reflecting decades of yo-yoing up and down the German league pyramid, although other long-established clubs from the same football-obsessed North-Rhine Westphalia region have often been challenging for the title and European honours.
In truth, Arminia have more in common with local rivals Preußen Münster and, historically, teams from nearby Osnabrück, across the Teutoberg Forest, than Cologne or Düsseldorf. Tucked in the far north-eastern corner of Germany’s most populous region, close to Lower Saxony, before World War I Arminia hardly figured prominently in their modest division of the West German Championship and the club had to be propped up by its president, Julius Hesse.
Formed in 1905 by two students of the local Terpsichore social club – whose other members had been reluctant to acquiesce to their request until the chairman, Emil Schröder, stepped in – Arminia were named after a fearsome Germanic warrior, conqueror of three Roman legions.
First playing at what is now Kesselbrink, then Kaiserstraße and then Pottenau Sportplatz, where spectators could gain a free view of the action from the elevated railway sidings, Arminia struck up an early city rivalry with the more working-class VfB, though it wasn’t until the aftermath of World War I that the Blues got one over on opposition from the wider North-Rhine Westphalia region.
With Allied forces occupying the Rhineland and the Ruhr, and restrictions imposed on certain sporting activities, Arminia were able to nip in and win their first and only West German titles in 1922 and 1923, although the second is disputed.
Star of the team, inside-forward Walter Claus-Oehler, created a formidable attacking threat on the left with winger Walter ‘Tinneff’ Röhe, earning two German caps in 1923 and scoring against Finland in his second and final game. The first Arminia player to don the national shirt, he would be the last until Euro 96 star Stefan Kuntz more than six decades later.
Outgrowing Pottenau Sportplatz and generating increasing national interest – Arminia’s derby game with Preußen Münster in 1925 was the first to be broadcast live on German radio – the club knew that it needed a larger ground but revenue was scarce in a game that was officially still strictly amateur. Leaning on Arminia’s successful handball team for financial support, the football section agreed a 100-year leasehold will a certain farmer, Herr Lohmann, to use his field in a less built-up area of west Bielefeld for a football pitch.
Jokingly called Bielefelder Alm, a reference to Alpine pasture, the patch of land was in such poor condition, the name remains in common parlance to this day. It was certainly catchier than its actual title of Stadion an der Melanchtonstraße, which hosted its first match, against Victoria Hamburg, on May Day 1926. Its facilities remained primitive until long after the upcoming war, players having to change in the pub next door.
Local rivals VfB had already acquired a new ground and, for the first time, began to eclipse Arminia at regional level as an improving economy saw more working-class Germans pay to watch football.
Clubs began to circumvent the strict amateur guidelines to recompense players or attract talent from other teams. Somewhat left behind, traditionally run by traders and entrepreneurs, Arminia continued to rely on loyal talent such as Röhe and Claus-Oehler, whose best days were behind them. The Blues did manage to win the Westphalia Cup in 1932, among their ranks a young lawyer by the name of Karl Demberg.
Following the Nazi takeover in 1933, this later SS officer assumed control of the club a year later, introducing a rigorous policy of excluding Jews from Bielefelder Alm – the same Jews who had once dug deep into their own pockets to keep Arminia afloat. These included previous club president Julius Hesse, murdered along with his wife at a concentration camp. A square beside Arminia’s modern-day ground now takes his name.
Arminia kept a low profile after the war until the arrival of prolific striker Ernst Kuster in 1966. A youth international who had played in West Germany’s 2-1 defeat of England in 1958, Bobby Moore starring for the hosts, the Gelsenkirchen-born forward had drifted from Schalke 04 to Kassel before his club career took off at Bielefelder Alm.
Top scorer with around 25 goals for each of his four seasons with the Blues in the second-tier Regionalliga West ‘Johnny’ Kuster spearheaded the club’s surprise promotion from the play-off group to reach the Bundesliga for the first time in 1970.
It proved to be a memorable season for all the wrong reasons. While Kuster was again Arminia’s leading scorer, some of his teammates had been taking bribes on the side, part of a huge match-fixing scandal revealed by Kickers Offenbach president and banana importer Horst-Gregorio Canellas. Bielefeld were forcibly relegated but still had to play out the 1971-72 season.
Initially condemned to amateur football, Arminia were granted second-tier status on appeal but were docked ten league points and were forced to sell key players. Their club facing the wall, supporters rallied round to bail out Bielefeld when the points deduction was transmuted into a fine.
Partly as a thank you to fans, in 1975 Arminia duly played a friendly against Real Madrid, Günter Netzer, Paul Breitner and all, and slowly rose up the table of the newly streamlined 2. Bundesliga.
With young striker Christian Sackewitz notching up 35 of Arminia’s 120 (!) goals in 38 games – there were wins of 11-0, 7-1 and 6-0 – the Blues walked the Northern Division by a country mile in 1980. In goal, Uli Stein earned a transfer to Hamburg, where he would win two league titles and the European Cup, although his international career was curtailed by his negative comments to Franz Beckenbauer at the 1986 World Cup. Stein returned to Bielefeld to see out his first-class playing career a decade later.
Despite the departures of Stein and Sackewitz, Arminia recorded their best-ever Bundesliga finishes in 1983 and 1984. Former (and later) VfL Osnabrück forward Gerd-Volker Schock, and later Borussia Dortmund attacking midfielder Frank Pagelsdorf continued to hit the net as Arminia came as close as they ever would to a European place.
It couldn’t last, of course, and Arminia fans had to wait a decade until goals by German international strikers, first Stefan Kuntz, then Bruno Labbadia, pushed them briefly back into the top flight. The next terrace hero at Bielefelder Alm was Polish, ‘King’ Artur Wichiarek, whose two spells in east Westphalia in the early 2000s produced 83 league goals, half of them in the Bundesliga.
His second consecutive sale to Hertha Berlin in 2009 was no coincidence – the club was once again in dire financial circumstances, partly though the near doubling of costs to rebuild and expand Bielefelder Alm, partly financed by supporters through a bond scheme. Sponsorship with local door- and window-fitters Schüco, signed in 2004, had been agreed over a 15-year period, renewal due in 2020.
Initially docked four points in 2010 with further punishment threatened due to licence infringements, Arminia witnessed an exodus of key players from the SchücoArena but, to little ceremony, welcomed the arrival of one of its most totemic figures. Coming on as a substitute against Stuttgart reserves at the start of the 2011-12 campaign in the third tier, Fabian Klos soon got among the goals though it was his haul of 20 that pushed Arminia back into the 2. Bundesliga the following year.
Loyal to the last, the gangly striker pulled on an Arminia shirt week after week through nine seasons in the second and third flights, his chart-topping 21 goals in 2019-20 lifting the Bielefeld side to the Zweite title above Stuttgart and Hamburg.
Just surviving a first season back in the Bundesliga, the Blues went until November without a win in 2021-22, and one relegation quickly became two after a shocking play-off defeat to Wiesbaden in June 2023. Typically, despite his plans to retire, all-time Arminia top scorer Klos signed up for another season leading the line at the age of 35, his club now back in the third tier.
All to no avail. Despite Klos’ nine goals, pushing him up to an all-time tally of 146 in the league for Bielefeld in 13 seasons, Arminia battled against relegation for most of 2023-24. A first-ever plunge into the fourth flight would have been a sorry farewell for the stalwart captain, now honoured with his own mural at the SchücoArena.
Replacing him as captain, Franco-American midfielder Mael Corboz provided stability in 2024-25, young Anglo-German goalkeeper Jonas Kersken continuing to impress as Arminia continued to attract 20,000-plus crowds in a strong 3.Liga in 2024-25.
Stadium Guide
The field of dreams – and the story behind it
Still known by its quaint nickname of the Bielefelder Alm, a reference to the site’s century-old legacy as a farmer’s field – ‘Alm’ meaning Alpine pasture – the SchücoArena is compact and atmospheric, as befitting a long-established club whose substantial fan base has bailed it out on more than one occasion.
Unveiled on May Day 1926, the ground remained pretty basic right up to the 1960s, players changing in a nearby pub.
With the newly formed Bundesliga demanding more professional standards on and off the pitch, the club saw fit to add a Südtribüne but had to scramble to make the Alm suitable for top-league football after promotion in 1970. An all-seated Westtribüne was built, a temporary Osttribüne opposite raising capacity to 30,000.
Quite incredibly, it was only now that the players were granted proper changing facilities – Beckenbauer, Müller and other World Cup stars may not have taken too kindly to applying their Ralgex in a pub toilet – while floodlights arrived that same season.
Capacity hit 35,000 towards the end of the decade, setting attendance records that still stand today but safety regulations in the 1980s reduced this figure by more than half. Notching up ever more Bundesliga campaigns worth more advertising and TV money, the club ventured into an entire rebuilding programme from 1996 onwards.
Stand by stand, starting with the Nordtribüne – half of which is given over to away fans, standing in block A1, seated in A1/A2 – then moving to the equally covered Westtribüne, its modern changing rooms, press and VIP boxes, Arminia were at last treating players, supporters and journalists to a stadium suitable for the later 20th century.
A new Südtribüne was then added in 1999, solar panels fixed to the roof protecting what is now a standing home end. All that was left was the main Osttribüne, though by now, local residents were baulking at the increased capacity leading to more noise and disruption every other weekend.
By now, too, the long-term benefits of using stadium facilities to generate clean energy were becoming more widespread. The club almost bankrupted itself with the glass roof of the Haupttribüne, whose photo-voltaic cells are integrated into it to produce electricity.
With sponsorship sold to Schüco in 2004, Arminia had little option but to bear much of the €19 million cost, eventually selling the stadium to a group of local real-estate investors in 2018. The club did manage to retain naming rights, however, and duly extended the contract with Schüco until 2025.
With a current capacity of just over 27,000, the ground was the main venue used for the Women’s World Cup in 2010 soon after the completion of the Main Stand but Germany victorious XI now prefer to use Bochum and Duisburg as home grounds. For Arminia games, around a third of the ground is for standing spectators, including all of the home Südtribüne, and sector A1 for away fans in the Nordtribüne.
getting here
Going to the stadium – tips and timings
Tram lines 3 and 4 serve the SchücoArena, depending on which part of the stadium you’re heading for. Visiting supporters should use either Wittekindstraße or the next stop, Nordpark, each a 7-8min walk away. Everyone else is best alighting at Siegfriedplatz, Rudolf-Oetker-Halle or Graf-von-Stauffenberg-Straße on red line 4, each a 5min way from the ground, the latter best for those in the West- or Nordtribüne. Most head for Siegfriedplatz, with its various drinking outlets on match days.
Both tram lines are directly linked to the main station, Hauptbahnhof, one or two stops or a 15min walk away. Two stops further down, Rathaus is the most convenient one from the city centre, a 25min walk away.
Your match ticket is valid for local transport for 3hrs before the game and 3hrs after the final whistle.
getting in
Buying tickets – when, where, how and how much
While Arminia remain in the 3.Liga, there should be tickets available for each game. Standing places (€15) are most in demand, the cheapest seats (€25) being in block B2 in the Nordtribüne. Sectors D and J near the corner flags are €28 and prices rise to €30-€38 for the best seats in the West- and Haupttribüne by the long sidelines.
Tickets are sold online through the club’s German-only site, with places for the next three home games usually available. The ticket outlet at the stadium opens Mon-Fri 9am-5pm (until 6pm Thur). Match-day purchases aren’t always available, the windows open for information only.
For all enquiries, contact onlineshop@arminia.de or call +49 521 9661 1219.
what to buy
Shirts, kits, merchandise and gifts
The club oversees two outlets, one behind the Südtribüne at the stadium (Mon-Fri 9am-5pm, match days), the other in town (Mon-Sat 9am-6pm) at Oberntorwall 24 by Jahnplatz, on the north/stadium side of the city centre.
The current iteration of the Arminia shirt is a traditional blue with round white collar and cuffs. Away is black with Joy Divisionesque wavy lines in white, third-choice a reverse of the home kit, white with blue collar and cuffs.
If you’re a German speaker, the book Historischer Rundgang – Spurensuche deals with Arminia during the Nazi era, a companion to the themed tours run during the season. You’ll probably see a fair few fans wearing black Klos T-shirts, the recently retired legendary striker seen in various goal celebrations within the number 9 on the front, and his landmark appearances listed on the back.
stadium tours & museum
Explore the club inside and out
Though not timetabled, the club offers regular stadium tours (€8, €5 under-14s) in German, allowing visitors to go behind the scenes at the SchücoArena for 70 minutes. Contact stadionfuehrung@arminia.de or book through the online ticket facility.
If your German’s up to it, it’s well worth taking the themed Arminia Bielefeld und der Nationalsozialismus tour (€5/€3) guided by a local historian, dealing with the club during the Nazi era. Visitors meet at Julius-Hesse-Platz by the stadium, the square named after the club’s Jewish chairman in the early 1900s later murdered in a concentration camp.
On Thursdays (2pm-6pm) and match days, the club’s modest MAFA (Museum/Archive/Forum Arminia) exhibition opens in the Westtribüne, free of charge, with a small donation appreciated. Of particular interest is the time-lapse video, from the Alm to the SchücoArena, showing the development of the stadium. Contact gehre@arminia.de.
Where to Drink
Pre-match beers for fans and casual visitors
On the stadium side of the station, Plan B believes in the power of its house IPA and a rock soundtrack to pep up your evening from 6pm. Handy post-match of a Saturday, closed Sun-Mon. Decent food, too.
Prime spot between the station and the stadium, Hamburg-inspired down to the little brown bottles of Astra sold over the counter, Heimat + Hafen is a lively bar with a local feel which makes a point disturbing its opening hours for Arminia match days.
Set in a standalone house at the corner of Stapenhorststraße and Kriemhildstrase a short walk from the Südtribüne, ‘Home + Harbour’ otherwise attracts an alternative crowd from7pm Fridays and Saturdays only.
Siegfriedplatz (‘Siggi’) by the tram stop of the same name is another place to be on match days, an open square dotted with food and drink outlets, including a converted yellow tram and Bürgerwache, in a stately yellow building that anchors the area. Once the local police station, it’s now used to accommodate the flea market and cultural events. On match days, it has benches outside for alfresco imbibing.
Note that kiosks around the ground are card-only. Post-match, many drift to the junction of Arndstraße and Große-Kurfürsten-Straße towards the station for beers and later live music at Desperado (‘Des’) and/or a more relaxed drink with quality food and TV football at Wunderbar diagonally opposite.
