Inauguration of the town hall in 1966
There was some political tug-of-war in the run-up to the planning of Stadthalle Offenbach, but after the foundation stone was laid on April 17, 1964, general harmony prevailed at the official inauguration ceremony on May 21, 1966.
At Dag-Hammarskjöld-Platz, Lord Mayor Georg Dietrich welcomed the Minister of the Interior, Heinrich Schneider, who gave the official speech and drew particular attention to the future importance of the hall in the sporting and cultural sector: "This sports hall is widely used for sport in schools and clubs. But it also serves to a large extent to foster community life in the town through social and cultural events."
Architect Eberhard Rieck then handed over the keys to the magistrate as the owner of the building. The official ceremony was rounded off musically by the Gauspielmannszug of the Offenbach gymnastics district under Valentin Klasser and the children's choir of the Offenbach folk choir under the direction of Werner Blum with the song "Tritt ein zu dieser Schwelle".
The numerous visitors gladly responded to this invitation and marveled at the sporting performances on the program of the inauguration ceremony. There were demonstrations of the rhönrad, basketball and fencing, table tennis and artistic cycling, indoor handball and dancing, tennis and indoor field hockey, gymnastics, indoor soccer and gymnastics.
The dance couples from the Offenbach dance clubs "Maingold-Casino" and "Silvester" then took to the dance floor. The highlight of the inauguration ceremony was a special kind of competition. The Hessian champion "ASV Siegfried" and a team from the municipal civil engineering department faced off in the discipline of tug-of-war, whereby the test of strength here was more of a sporting than a political nature.
(This text by Peter Kropp appeared in 2006 in the anniversary newspaper "40 Jahre Stadthalle")
