REDISCOVERY OF THE FIRST FOOTBALL FIELD OF FC BAYERN
The history of the FC Bayern venues is long, most fans are familiar with the stadium on Grünwalder Strasse, the Olympic Stadium and, of course, the arena. But in the early days of football there weren't any venues of this size for a long time - around 1900, FC Bayern, like other Munich clubs, played on the Schyrenwiese, the forest playground near Graefelfing or the Theresienwiese.
FC Bayern was very lucky - thanks to their first great sponsor Friedrich Wamsler sen. - to have your own soccer field by the end of the first year of existence. In the meantime, the exact location of the square and the special merits of the founding members and the Wamsler family have been forgotten.
After long and extensive research in various books, archives, offices, on old maps, on earlier aerial photographs that were still photographed from hot air balloons, we have verifiably rediscovered the first soccer field of FC Bayern.
FC Bayern played at today's Clemensstrasse 50 in Schwabing from 1900 to 1907. The first game on the "Playground on Clemensstrasse" between FC Bayern and MTV 1879 Munich took place on December 2nd, 1900 and ended with 2: 2, Kuno Friederich was the first goalscorer for Bayern on the then new football field. Even the first derby - from today's perspective - (back then there were a number of matches with other Munich clubs) against the gymnastics club 1860 was decided 3-0 for Bavaria on September 21, 1902.
Cooker and oven manufacturer Friedrich Wamsler senior, whose sons Fritz and Carl were among the 17 founding members of FC Bayern, donated the first goals shortly after the club was founded. Towards the end of 1900, Friedrich Wamsler sen. FC Bayern has its fenced-in property on Clemensstrasse at its disposal. The area was just enough for a playing field.
"For the spectators there was only modest accommodation on the long sides and a small side approach in the rear part of the square then later allowed the erection of a changing room of modest dimensions," said Siegfried Herrmann looking back in the FC Bayern club news (April issue 1952).
What sounds simple from today's perspective was a huge achievement for a football club around 1900. Only a few clubs had their own space. As a thank you, FC Bayern appointed Friedrich Wamsler sen. first honorary member on January 9, 1901. The special importance of the family for FC Bayern was also underlined in the obituary for Fritz Wamsler, which ends as follows:
"The name Wamsler is immortal in the history of FC Bayern."
In August 2018, the new memorial plaque at Clemensstrasse 50 was ceremoniously unveiled by the Wamlser and Uli Hoeneß family in front of around 100 invited guests
We are very happy to have handed over an important first memorial in the club's history to FC Bayern and its supporters.
