Ultras Stuttgart

Lore & Background

That origin – a club literally resurrected by its supporters – became a foundational myth for the ultras identity: the team belongs to the people who kept it alive, and the Kurve is where that claim is made audible every single Saturday. Through the 1970s and 1980s, as the Neckarstadion (later renamed Gottlieb-Daimler-Stadion, then Mercedes-Benz Arena, and now the MHPArena) hosted increasingly commercialised Bundesliga football, the ultras section consolidated its distinct character. The group developed the large-scale choreography and tifo tradition that is now a hallmark of German ultras culture, producing elaborate multi-panel banners, coordinated flag displays, and pyrotechnic shows for major matches and European fixtures. The red-and-white palette of the banners and flags is a deliberate extension of the club's colours into the stadium's visual language. The group's relationship with the club's board and with broader German football governance has, like that of most ultras collectives, been marked by a mix of mutual dependence and friction. The ultras provide the atmosphere that makes the stadium a destination; in return they demand a voice in matters of ticket pricing, stadium design, and the commercial direction of the club. This tension is not a bug but a feature: it is the mechanism through which the Kurve asserts that VfB Stuttgart is, first and foremost, a supporters' club.

In Their Own Story

The floodlights haven't come on yet. A thin November drizzle has laid a cold film over the Kurve steps, and the concrete smells of wet chalk and old smoke. A dozen lads are unrolling a banner the size of a bus, its red silk heavy with moisture, pinning it to the rail with carabiners that snap shut in the damp air. Somewhere below, a drum is being tuned – a single, deep thump, then another, until the rhythm finds the shape of a chant that hasn't been sung yet. A kid in a faded 1992 Bundesliga-title jacket runs up the stairs, breathless, shouting something about the away team's bus being delayed. Nobody stops. The banner goes up. The drums start. And for the next ninety minutes, the whole curved end of the MHPArena is going to be a single red-and-white lung, breathing, roaring, refusing to let the silence in.

Reader's Guide

The Kurve at the MHPArena is not a seat you buy; it is a space you occupy. Arrive early – well before kickoff – and you will find the section already alive: drums being tuned, banners being pinned, the low murmur of a crowd that has been talking football since the previous weekend. The choreography is the centrepiece. For big matches, the group produces multi-panel tifos that transform the entire curved end into a single image, often depicting the club's history, a political statement, or a message to the board. The production is a weeks-long labour carried out in workshops and garages around the city, and the reveal at the 15th minute (or at half-time) is treated as a small civic event. Singing is continuous. There is no lull, no moment where the section goes quiet. Chants shift from the club anthem to player-specific songs to political verses, and the rhythm is carried by a drum line that has been in the Kurve for decades. The red-and-white flags – some of them hand-stitched, some bearing the 1945 founding date – are waved in unison, creating a sea of colour that is visible from the opposite stand. What it means: to be in the Kurve is to be part of a claim. The club was re-founded by its people in 1945. The 1992 double was sealed in a stadium where the supporters' end never stopped singing. The Kurve is where those stories are kept alive, not in a museum, but in the body, the voice, and the hands of the people who are still there, still red, still white, still refusing to let the silence win.

Did You Know?

• VfB Stuttgart was re-established in 1945 after being dissolved during the Nazi era; the club's 1893 founding date is honoured, but the post-war rebirth is a core part of the ultras identity and frequently appears on bann
• The club's home ground has been renamed at least four times – Neckarstadion, Gottlieb-Daimler-Stadion, Mercedes-Benz Arena, MHPArena – yet the Kurve section and its culture have remained continuous through every name cha
• The red-and-white colour scheme is not merely a kit choice; it is the visual language of the entire supporters' culture, from hand-stitched flags to the large-scale tifo productions that define the group's matchday ident