It's getting even sportier around the stadium: today, Deutsche Bank and Eintracht Frankfurt jointly inaugurated a modern, digital Trimm-Dich trail on the Deutsche Bank Park stadium grounds. The 2.5-kilometre Trimm-Dich trail with its nine stations and an integrated running track is intended to open up Deutsche Bank Park to popular sport, thus establishing the stadium even more strongly as a place of (sporting) encounter for people in the region.
City Councillor Mike Josef, Department III, Planning, Housing and Sport, said at the small opening ceremony: "The publicly accessible Trimm-Dich trail is a real asset for the sports city of Frankfurt. I think it's great that Eintracht Frankfurt and Deutsche Bank are getting involved here with an offer like this, and that the new trail is a continuation of the long tradition of very different sports on the stadium grounds. People will be able to take advantage of the public space in a low-threshold way. This will make the area more of a real park, available to citizens for popular sports and as a meeting place. I'm already looking forward to swapping my office shoes for running shoes in the coming weeks and starting out on the circuit myself."
Christian Rummel, Head of Brand Communications and Social Responsibility at Deutsche Bank, adds: "With the Trimm-Dich trail, we're opening up the park for mass sports. This is in keeping with the tradition of the sports park as it was built in 1925 and has been in line with our aspirations since we extended our partnership with Eintracht Frankfurt. This is an important step towards making Deutsche Bank Park a meeting place for people in the region."
Varied course for large and small sports enthusiasts
The Trimm-Dich-Pfad is designed as a circular course and attracts with an attractive and varied range of exercise and its convenient location in Frankfurt's city forest. A total of nine stations have been designated and newly installed depending on the exercise. The stations include an angled bench, a stepped bar, an obstacle for box jumps and a facility for rope swinging. The highlight is certainly the "run for eternity" on the summer path, which is reminiscent of the famous sprint of Mijat Gacinovic in the DFB Cup final 2018 against FC Bayern Munich.
Start and finish are located at the Rondell East not far from the entrance to the museum in the main stand. Between the eastern grass pitches and the stadium pool, the course first follows the workshop path and then the summer path to the main entrance, before continuing on the summer path to the front of the main stand. Now the stadium is circled in an anti-clockwise direction, with a detour to the underpass at Gleisdreieck. The nine stations are clearly marked. On the signs, the exercise options are explained visually and in words. With the help of a QR code at each station, athletes have the opportunity to watch short explanatory videos about each station.
Stadium grounds with a long athletic tradition<./p>
The stadium grounds in Frankfurt's city forest have been a place of sport for around 100 years. The original Waldstadion was opened in May 1925, with the swimming pool and cycling track following in the same year. Just a few weeks after the opening, the final of the German Football Championship and later the first Workers' Olympics were held on the grounds. In the following years, the winter sports hall and a tennis court with 14 courts were added. In 1960, an artificial ice rink was even integrated into the cycling track. Minigolf and beach volleyball were also added. There were competitions up to world championships not only in the mentioned sports, but also in athletics and boxing. In recent years, extreme obstacle courses have been added to the popular races already held in and around the stadium grounds. Accordingly, today's Deutsche Bank Park has a great sports history.
Many sports can no longer be held on the stadium grounds today because the facilities for them no longer exist. Deutsche Bank and Eintracht Frankfurt have therefore set themselves the goal, as part of their partnership, of jointly designing and modernizing Deutsche Bank Park and reviving it as a public sports park. The newly created Trimm-Dich path is an important milestone in making the area attractive for athletes. Everyone should have the opportunity to improve their fitness and do sports on the stadium grounds free of charge during opening hours.
