From November 1958, the Werkself played their home games at the Stadtpark ground as the pitch at the Ulrich Haberland Stadium, completed in 1958, was so damaged in a friendly against MSV Duisburg due to faulty drainage with the result games were moved to an alternative venue. Bayer 04 played the rest of their home games at their old Stadtpark ground.
In spring weather, Bayer 04 took the lead in the first minute with a goal from Horst Stollenwerk. He played alongside two other players from the youth set-up in the shape of Werner Röhrig and Heinz Höher. Heinz Müller was in goal in place of the injured keeper Fredy Mutz. An exciting game developed up to half-time where WSV equalised 20 minutes later and shortly after that took the lead. Heinz Höher levelled at 2-2 before half-time in front of a crowd of 3,500.
Heinz Höher was not the only future Bundesliga coach as the Wuppertal team included a young and ambitious defender called Erich Ribbeck who led the Werkself to the UEFA Cup final win in 1988. Horst Szymaniak was pulling the strings in midfield and he later went on to play in Italy at the start of the 1960s for Catania, Inter Milan and FC Varese in the Italian top-flight.
In the second half, the Wuppertal centre forward Ulrich Kohn put his team ahead again on 69 minutes but the Bayer 04 fans were able to celebrate an equaliser at 3-3 with another goal scored by Horst Stollenwerk.
Michal ‘Katsche’ Kadlec was born in the Czech town of Vyskov on 13 December 1984. At the age of six, he moved to the Pfalz region in Germany with his parents because his father Miroslav accepted an offer from FC Kaiserslautern where he played as a sweeper for the Red Devils for eight years. Katsche learned German in the kindergarten at Kaiserslautern. And he played football at an early age: first as a teenager at SV Alsenborn and then for FC Kaiserslautern.
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Helmut Röhrig was born in Leverkusen on 14.12.19 44. He learned to play football at Bayer 04 and became a Middle Rhine champion with the U19s in 1963 finishing ahead of FC Köln. He played in the second team at the Werkself in his first year in senior football.
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Bernd Schuster was born in Augsburg on 22.12.19 59. His first club as a teenager was local side SV Hammerschmiede. From that time there was an anecdote that a former groundsman told us when we had a Pokal game in Augsburg in 1993. Bernd was always the first person on the training ground after school. With a running track around the pitch and goals without nets, the young Bernd practised free kicks and corners in the knowledge that he had to collect the ball himself. In that way he not only practised his technique but also worked on his stamina as a teenager.
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Wolfgang ‘Wolle’ Rolff was born on 26.12.1959 in Lamstedt, a community in the Lower Saxony administrative district of Cuxhaven. He started his football career at TSV Lamstedt. He moved on to OSC Bremerhaven with the U17s as he trained to be a retail salesman. He started in senior football at the Nordsee Stadium in Bremerhaven.
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The 1969/70 season begins with four defeats for Bayer 04. That puts the team coached by Theo Kirchberg bottom of the table. The Werkself only lift themselves out of the relegation zone on Matchday 10 with a 4-2 away win in Marl-Hüls. The position in the table improves over the course of the season.
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