Spacious: the large sports hall in Rüsselsheim was one of the Hessian centers for top-class sport for many years.
Image: Wonge Bergman
Bands like The Police and Motörhead used to be heard in the Walter-Köbel-Halle in Rüsselsheim. International athletes competed in judo, volleyball and gymnastics. Things have long since calmed down around the aging pearl.
Rüsselsheim is not a beauty. The 67,000-inhabitant city in the heart of the Rhine-Main area does not impress with its charm, nor with its charm. It was no different 50 years ago. However, the city had money. Opel employed 40,000 people at its main plant; Due to the taxes paid by the car manufacturer, Rüsselsheim was the second richest municipality in Germany – measured by the number of inhabitants. And the money was spent. In the mid-sixties there was construction on every corner. In the south-east, large new residential areas were built, and the municipal theater grew up adjoining the city centre. And when it opened in 1969, the building authority was already looking after the next major construction site about one and a half kilometers away: the Walter-Köbel-Halle. As a new center for mass and competitive sports, it should promote precisely this and at the same time ensure that Rüsselsheim’s working-class image is polished up.
Eva sleeper
Editor in the “Life” department of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sunday newspaper.
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This hall is still classy today – even if you can see its age to a certain extent. However, today it no longer has a name: the eponymous mayor Walter Köbel, who headed Rüsselsheim between 1954 and 1965, fell out of favor for supporting the Nazi regime.