Groundhopper
Start free
Groundhopping in Germany: all 36 Bundesliga and 2. Bundesliga grounds
Terraces, full-strength beer in your seat, and a match ticket that doubles as a transport ticket. The only obstacle is a queue — and this is how it works at all 36 grounds.
The obstacle is a queue, not a document
Every country in this series has one thing standing between a visitor and a seat. In Poland it is a document you do not have. In Czechia there is nothing at all. In England it is price and segregation. In Germany it is a queue, and it works the same way at all thirty-six grounds:
- Season-ticket holders take their seats first.
- Club members get the next window — and German clubs have members in the tens or hundreds of thousands.
- General sale opens some weeks before the match, to everyone.
No identity document is demanded, no fan card exists, and nobody will ask where you are from. What you need is the sale date. Find it on the club's website, put it in your calendar, and be at a computer when it opens. That single habit is the difference between collecting German grounds and reading about them.
Four things that are true at every German ground
- You can stand. Germany kept its terraces when England demolished theirs. Dortmund's Südtribüne holds about 25,000 standing — the largest terrace in European football — and even mid-sized clubs keep several thousand. Standing tickets are cheaper and louder. Take them.
- You can drink where you can see the pitch. Full-strength beer, in your hand, in your seat. Payment is by stadium card: load it on arrival, cash out afterwards. Cups carry a Pfand deposit refunded when you bring them back.
- Your match ticket is a transport ticket. At almost every German ground it covers local public transport on the day, in both directions. Do not buy a separate fare.
- 50+1. Members hold the controlling stake at German clubs, with narrow written exceptions. It is why tickets are cheap and why the crowd behaves as if the club belongs to it.
Where the tickets actually are
The useful thing about covering both divisions is that it exposes a pattern nobody expects. The easiest big grounds in Germany are in the second division, because they were built for bigger clubs than the ones now playing in them.
| Difficulty | Grounds | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Easy | Hertha BSC (74,500), 1. FC Nürnberg (50,000), Kaiserslautern (49,327), Hannover 96 (49,000), Wolfsburg, Hoffenheim | Large capacity, second-division or low local demand. Start here. |
| Moderate | Most of the rest: Augsburg, Bochum, Bielefeld, Magdeburg, Dresden, Braunschweig, Mainz, Leverkusen | Obtainable a couple of weeks out. |
| Hard | SV Elversberg (10,000), SC Freiburg, FC St. Pauli, Union Berlin, Dortmund's terrace | Small ground, huge demand, or both. Plan around the release date. |
The extreme case is worth stating plainly: Elversberg play Bundesliga football in a ground holding ten thousand, because the expansion to the licensing minimum will not finish until spring 2027. It is the hardest ticket in the country and the most distinctive ground in it.
Three grounds with a running track
Almost all German stadiums are football-specific. Three are not, and it changes where you should sit: Berlin's Olympiastadion, Nuremberg's Max-Morlock-Stadion and Braunschweig's Eintracht-Stadion — the last being one of the very few left in German professional football.
The advice is identical at all three: take a side stand, and sit higher rather than lower. Behind the goals the track puts a running lane and a throwing area between you and the match.
The Bundesliga: all 18 grounds
| Club | Ground | Capacity |
|---|---|---|
| Borussia Dortmund | Signal Iduna Park | 81,365 |
| Bayern Munich | Allianz Arena | 75,000 |
| Schalke 04 | Veltins-Arena | 62,271 |
| VfB Stuttgart | MHPArena | 60,000 |
| Eintracht Frankfurt | Deutsche Bank Park | 59,500 |
| Hamburger SV | Volksparkstadion | 57,000 |
| Borussia Mönchengladbach | Borussia-Park | 54,000 |
| 1. FC Köln | RheinEnergieStadion | 49,700 |
| RB Leipzig | Red Bull Arena | 47,800 |
| Werder Bremen | Weserstadion | 42,000 |
| SC Freiburg | Europa-Park Stadion | 34,700 |
| Mainz 05 | MEWA Arena | 34,034 |
| FC Augsburg | WWK Arena | 30,660 |
| Bayer Leverkusen | BayArena | 30,200 |
| TSG Hoffenheim | PreZero Arena | 30,150 |
| Union Berlin | An der Alten Försterei | 22,012 |
| SC Paderborn | Home Deluxe Arena | 15,000 |
| SV Elversberg | Ursapharm-Arena an der Kaiserlinde | 10,000 |
The 2. Bundesliga: all 18 grounds
Do not treat this as the consolation tier. It contains the largest ground in any European second division, several former champions, and the two clubs with the highest standing proportions in the country.
| Club | Ground | Capacity |
|---|---|---|
| Hertha BSC | Olympiastadion | 74,500 |
| 1. FC Nürnberg | Max-Morlock-Stadion | 50,000 |
| 1. FC Kaiserslautern | Fritz-Walter-Stadion | 49,327 |
| Hannover 96 | Niedersachsenstadion | 49,000 |
| Karlsruher SC | BBBank Wildpark | 34,302 |
| Dynamo Dresden | Rudolf-Harbig-Stadion | 32,249 |
| 1. FC Magdeburg | Avnet Arena | 30,098 |
| VfL Wolfsburg | Volkswagen Arena | 30,000 |
| FC St. Pauli | Millerntor-Stadion | 29,546 |
| VfL Bochum | Vonovia Ruhrstadion | 27,600 |
| Arminia Bielefeld | SchücoArena | 27,332 |
| Eintracht Braunschweig | Eintracht-Stadion | 23,325 |
| Energie Cottbus | Stadion der Freundschaft | 22,528 |
| SV Darmstadt 98 | Merck-Stadion am Böllenfalltor | 17,810 |
| Greuther Fürth | Sportpark Ronhof | 16,626 |
| VfL Osnabrück | Stadion an der Bremer Brücke | 16,100 |
| Holstein Kiel | Holstein-Stadion | 15,034 |
| 1. FC Heidenheim | Voith-Arena | 15,000 |
Five weekends that work
- The Ruhr — Dortmund, Schalke and Bochum are within half an hour of each other, with Mönchengladbach and Köln an hour further. The densest football country in Europe; three grounds in a weekend is routine.
- Berlin — Hertha's 74,500-seat Olympic bowl in the west and Union's wooden-terraced ground in the woods at Köpenick. Two clubs, two centuries, one city.
- Franconia — Nuremberg and Fürth are ten kilometres apart and connected by the U-Bahn. The most efficient pairing in Bavaria.
- Hamburg — the Volksparkstadion and the Millerntor, twenty minutes apart and about as different as two grounds in one city can be. Kiel is an hour north.
- Lower Saxony — Hannover, Braunschweig and Wolfsburg sit within half an hour of one another, with Bielefeld and Osnabrück close behind.
Common questions
Do I need a fan card or an ID?
No. Germany has nothing equivalent to the Polish PESEL problem. What you need is the sale date.
Can I really drink beer in my seat?
Yes, at full strength, at every ground in this list. It is one of the sharpest contrasts with England, where you must leave your seat to drink.
Is the ticket really valid on the trains?
At almost every German ground, yes, on local public transport on matchday. Check the club's page for the exact zone, but assume it applies.
Where should a first-timer go?
Dortmund for the terrace, Union Berlin for the atmosphere, Hertha or Nürnberg if you want a big ground without a fight. Freiburg and St. Pauli only if you have planned properly.
Which grounds are worth going out of your way for?
Elversberg, while it holds ten thousand. Union Berlin, which the members rebuilt themselves. Dortmund's Südtribüne. And Freiburg, where 6,200 solar panels cover the stadium's entire electricity demand.
Thirty-six grounds, two divisions, one country with the best terraces in Europe. Plan a German trip and keep the record as you go.