The Olympiastadion (Olympic Stadium) is a sports stadium in Berlin. There have been two stadia on the site: the present facility, and one that was built for the aborted 1916 Summer Olympics. Both were designed by members of the same family, the first by Otto March and the second by his son Werner March.
For the 1936 Summer Olympics, and to satisfy his own political plans, Hitler's National-Socialist (Nazi) Party built the Olympiastadion surrounded by the massive Olympischer Platz. During World War II these buildings suffered little damage. After the war, the United Kingdom military occupation used it as its headquarters until 1994.
Aside from its use as an Olympic stadium, the Olympiastadion has a strong footballing tradition. Historically, it's the ground of club Hertha BSC of Berlin. It was also used for 3 matches in the 1974 Football World Cup. It will host six matches in the 2006 Football World Cup and was renovated for that reason.
The stadium is sometimes seen as controversial, as it was constructed under the Third Reich, and is a concrete, historical manifestation of Adolf Hitler's personal political dreams in 1936.
1916 to 1934. Deutsches Stadion, old Olympiastadion.
In 1912 during the 1912 Summer Olympics the city of Berlin was designated by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to host the 1916 Summer Olympics. Germany's proposed stadium for this event was to be located in lands located in Charlottenburg, in Grunewald Forest, to the west of Berlin -- thus the stadium was also known as Grunewaldstadion. A horse racing-course already existed there which belonged to the Berliner Rennverein, and even today the old ticket booths survive, on Jesse-Owens-Allee street .) The government of Germany decided to keep the nearby Grunewald forest as it was, as well as the exisiting built environment. With all this in mind they hired the same architect who originally had built the "Rennverein", Otto March.
March decided to bury the stadium in the ground ("Erdstadion", in German). The project became the biggest sports stadium in the world to date with a capacity of 40,000 spectators.
Eventually, however, the Olympic Games of 1916 were cancelled due to the First World War. After this conflict, a school was founded in the vicinity of the Stadium, dedicated to the instruction of physical education professors and to do sports research. From 1926 to 1929, Otto March's sons (Werner and Walter) were assigned to build an annex for these institutions: the "Deutsches Sportforum" (German Sportforum), though the construction was intermittent because the project had little financial support.
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1936. Olympischer Platz, sportfield of the Reich.
In 1931 the International Olympic Committee made Berlin the host city of the 11th Summer Olympics.
Originally, the German government decided merely to restore the earlier Olympiastadion (German Stadium) of 1916, with Werner March being again ordered to do this.
However, when the Nazis came to power in Germany (1933), they decided to use the Olympic Games as one of their global propaganda projects (headed by Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels), to promote theories of Aryan racial superiority. While Berlin would become the monumental capital of Greater Germany (Welthauptstadt Germania), according to Albert Speer it was Hitler's plan that the complex would be used to host the Olympics for all time. With these plans in mind, Hitler ordered the construction of a great sports complex in Grunewald named the "Olympischer Platz," with a totally new Olympiastadion. Architect Werner March remained in charge of the project, assisted by his brother Walter March.
Construction took place from 1934 to 1936. When the Olympischer Platz was finished, it was 132 hectares (326 acres) and had a symmetrical layout. It consisted of (east to west): Olympiastadion, Maifeld (Mayfield) (capacity of 500,000) and Waldbühne amphitheater (capacity of 25,000), in addition to 150 buildings for different sports such as swimming, equestrian events, and field hockey).
Olympiastadion
Over the original Deutsches Stadion, Werner March built the new Olympiastadion, once again buried 12 meters underground. The lower half of the structure is buried.
The capacity of the Olympiastadion reached 110,000 spectators. It also possessed a VIP stand for Adolf Hitler and his political associates. At its end, aligned with the symmetrically-designed layout of the buildings of the Olympischer Platz and toward the Maifeld, was the "Marathontor" (Marathon Arch) with a big receptacle for the Olympic Flame.
Maifeld
Maifeld (Mayfield) was created as a huge lawn (112,000 square meters, 28 acres) for gymnastic demonstrations, specifically annual May Day celebrations by Hitler's government.
Maifeld was surrounded by land elevations of 19 meters (62 feet). Although the Olympiastadion (at the east) was only 17 meters (55 feet) high.
The total capacity was 250,000 people, with 60,000 in the large stands that extended at the west end. Also located there were the Langemarck-Halle (below) and the Glockenturm (rising high).
The walls were built with sturdy stone from the area of the Lower Alps, and also feature equine sculptures (work of Josef Wackerle).
During the 1936 Olympics the Maifeld was used for polo events and several allegorical Nazi gymnastic demonstrations.
Glockenturm, the Bell Tower
This tower crowned the western end of the Reichs Sportfield planted amid the tiers of the Maifeld stands. It was very high: 77 meters (247 feet). From its peak could be observed the whole city of Berlin. During the games it was used as observation post by administrators and police officials, doctors and the media.
In the tower as well was the Olympic Bell. On its surface, the Nazi regime engraved the five Olympic Rings, a motto ("I summon the youth of the world Olympic Games 1936"), the Brandenburg Gate and an Eagle. [1]
The Langemarck-Halle
Consisted of huge halls built under the stands of the Maifeld. Pillars were raised on which hung flags and shields commemorating all the forces that participated in a battle fought in Langemarck (West Flanders, Belgium) on November 10, 1914, during the First World War.
Waldbühne, the Forest Theatre
The Waldbühne was built by using the glacial river banks of the Berlín Urstromtal. Reproduction of the old theater of Epidaurus (3rd century BC). The theater was then named "Dietrich-Eckart-Bühne" in homage to Dietrich Eckart.
Seating for 22,000 spectators goes down to a depth of 30 meters (97 feet); in the middle section was once Adolf Hitler's box. The surroundings were decorated with statues by Adolf Wamper.
During the Olympics gymnastics competitions and a myriad of cultural programs were staged in the Waldbühne.
Berlin, 1936 Summer Olympics.
In August 1 of 1936 the Olympics were officially inaugurated by Chancellor Adolf Hitler, and the Olympic Flame was lit by the athlete Fritz Schilgen.
While the Olympic Flame had been used for the first time in Amsterdam 1928, in Berlin 1936 a marathon-like tour of the Olympic Torch was introduced, from Olympia in Greece, crossing six frontiers with a journey of 3000 km to Berlin, through Greece, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Austria and Germany. The original idea of this Olympic torch relay belonged to Carl Diem, who was a notorious political advisor in Germany specializing in Olympic affairs.
Four million tickets were sold for all the events of the 1936 Summer Olympics. This was also the first Olympics with television transmission (25 giant screens were scattered all over Berlin) and radio transmissions in 28 languages (with 20 radio vans and 300 microphones).
Among the sport competitions the most remembered event was the great performance of the African-American track and field athlete Jesse Owens, representating the United States of America. Owens was awarded the gold medal in 4 categories: 100-meter dash, 200-meter dash, long jump and 4X100 meter relays. Comically, an angered Adolf Hitler hurriedly left the stadium after at least one of Owens' victories [2]. Complicating things even more, after the long jump events Luz Long himself (one of the athletes most publicized by the Nazi regime) celebrated Owens's victory [3]. Historically, however, the most important thing was the humiliation of Nazi dreams of racial superiority.
1939 to 1945. Second World War.
The Olympiastadion was one of the few buildings that survived not just recognizable, but almost untouched after the Second World War. It only suffered impacts of machine gun shots.
The most notorious battle around the Olympiastadion was in April 1945 when the Russian army fought to capture it. This was when the great final battle of the Second World War, with the total invasion of Berlin as the Allies' target.
In one of his last moves Adolf Hitler called for a "Volkssturm" (Popular Storm): the recruitment of all German males from 16 to 60 years old in order to add six million more combatants. This resulted in a ill-prepared army of what could almost be called "irregulars" (though they were not this by definition because they wore a military armlet).
One of the components of the Volkssturm was the Hitler Youth, led politically by Carl Diem (one of Hitler's sports advisors) and Arthur Axmann. When the Soviet army had already taken the Olympitzer Platz and knowing the terrain because his political activities, Diem called for the reconquest of the facilities offering them to Hitler's honor [4]. Eventually, the Hitler Youth suffered 2000 deaths in this futile attempt.
The only part of the Olympischer Platz that was destroyed was the Glockenturm Tower. The Third Reich used this structure to store archives (such as films). When the Soviet troops entered Berlin, all the contents were set on fire turning the tower into a makeshift chimney. The structure emerged from the fire severely damaged and weakened. In 1947 British engineers demolished the tower once and for all. The Olympic Bell (which had survived the fire and remained in its place in the tower), fell 77 meters and cracked. In 1956 the bell was rescued in order to be used as a practice target for shooting with anti-tank ammunition and was unable to sound since then. The cracked bell survives to this day.[5]
1945 to 1994. Occupied Berlin
After the war the Olympischer Platz was used as headquarters by the military ocupation forces of the UK.
The British forces settled in the places built by the March siblings (back in the 1920s). That the Third Reich had used for official sport organisms (like the Reichs Academy of Physical Training and the House of German Sports).
Soon the Occupation started a careful reconstruction of the general facilities to quickly use these again.
Since then, up to 1994, the British forces celebrated annually in the Maifeld the British Sovereign day with thousands of spectators from Berlin.
During these years in the Olympiastadion were played Bundesliga (football) matches with the Hertha Berlin as local team. In the Maifeld, also several competitions of football, rugby and polowere staged.
In the summers the Waldbühne resumed its concerts of classical music, as well the projection of movies. The theatre was also famous since was used as an improvised ring for boxing matches.
The restoration of the "Glockenturm" was carried out among 1960 to 1962, once again by the architect Werner March. The new tower became an important tourist destination with a magnificent panorama in the height of Berlin, Spandau, the Havel Valley, Potsdam, Nauen, and Henningsdorf.
Hertha Berlin
In 1963 started the Bundesliga and Hertha participated by direct invitation. Leaving it's old stadium (called the "Plumpe") to use the Olympiastadion. In August 24 played the first local match against the FC Nuremberg, ending tied 1:1.
But in 1965 the German Football Association DFB declared Hertha guilty of bribery and because of that was relegated to the lower divisions (Regional Leagues). Hertha had illegally bribed several fooball players in the attempt that they were added to the team, due their lack of interest of playing in Berlin because the construction of the Berlin Wall (1963).
In 1968 Hertha returned to the first division, and to the Olympiastadion. And in 1971 sold it's old "Plumpe".
The second half of 1970s was quite successful for the Hertha Berlin. In 1979 were disputed the semifinals of the UEFA Cup, defeated by the Red Star of Belgrade. And reached two times the finals of the German FA Cup (1977 & 1979).
In 1980s the Hertha had a declining role in the Bundesliga. Falling down to the Regional Leagues in 1986, although it later recovered reaching the Second Division (1988-1989).
In the days of the definitive demolition of the Berlin Wall (November 9 1989), arose a spontaneous feeling of sympathy between Hertha and the club FC Union from Eastern Berlin. Culminating with a friendly match at the Olympiastadion with 50.000 spectators (January 27, 1990).
In 1990 Hertha returned to the first division. Although it fell again to the Second League in 1991, until 1997.
Since 1997 Hertha averages advanced from the last places of the Bundesliga table to the firsts ones. Also participating in the UEFA Champions League since 1999. Increasing the international prestige of the club with matches against teams like Chelsea FC and A.C. Milan.
