Echte Helden Arena

The Echte Helden Arena opened on 25 November 1967 as an open-air rink before the roof went up in the 1970s. The concrete structure still carries the weight of its past — and the capacity dropped to 3,500 in 2014 after safety regulations tightened. The ice sits on a concrete floor; the surface is artificial.

EHC Freiburg play here in the DEL2, the second tier of German ice hockey. The club has changed its name several times: it was Wölfe Freiburg between 2002 and 2011, and before that ERC Freiburg, which ran the venue from 1961 until it went bankrupt in 1984. The EHC won the 2. Bundesliga title in 1981, 1983 and 2003, the last of those victories bringing promotion to the top flight.

The name changed again on 10 September 2019, when the arena took the title Echte Helden Arena from the sponsorship of AHP Merkle GmbH, a local engineering firm that supports the children's and youth hospital. Before that, it was the Franz-Siegel-Halle. The highest crowd was 5,200 on 21 May 1994, when the EHC Selects played an NHL team featuring Wayne Gretzky. The arena also hosted the German National Team in the Euro Hockey Challenge and the 2004 DEL Play-downs against Hannover Scorpions.

A €2.6 million safety upgrade followed a snow load crisis in 2009. A further €39 million renovation is planned for 2025 to 2029, which would replace the roof and stands entirely.