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BERLIN (AP) — An imposing stadium with a dark history will host the European Championship final between Spain and England on Sunday.
Built for the 1936 Olympic Games, Berlin’s Olympic Stadium still bears the scars of World War II and relics of its Nazi past.
But the Olympiastadion, as it is called in German, is also linked to the rebirth of a democratic Germany after the war. It hosted matches in the 1974 World Cup in what was then West Germany, as well as the 2006 World Cup, 16 years after German reunification.
Hitler’s involvement
Adolf Hitler was personally involved in the design and structure of the 100,000-seat athletics stadium after the Nazis came into force in 1933, two years after Germany won the 1936 Games.
Initially unenthusiastic about the idea of organizing the Games, the Nazi dictator replaced his brain after becoming convinced of their propaganda potential.
Plans to renovate the existing national stadium were temporarily abandoned in favour of the construction of an entirely new sports complex, the Reich Sports Field, on the same site. Werner March is identified as the architect of the Olympiastadion.
Inspired by the Colosseum in Rome, the stadium was designed to impress. The Olympic Plaza in front of the main front is tapered, with flagpoles and rows of trees on both sides broadening the sense of perspective. The concept to create the dramatic effect, raising the expectations of the visitors and making them feel part of the event.
Up to 2,600 employees worked on the Reich sports box to prepare it in time for the Games, which began on August 1, 1936. The racist ideology of the Nazi regime deeply influenced the project, as structural corporations were asked to rent it only “compliant” people, non-unionized personnel of German nationality and of Aryan race.
A propaganda victory
Hitler watched from the balcony of his stadium as Jesse Owens, the black American athlete, won 4 gold medals as the star of the Games, dealing a blow to Hitler’s notions of racial superiority.
However, the Games also marked a propaganda victory for Nazi Germany. It won more medals than any other country and presented the world with an elaborate symbol of peace and tolerance, desired by Hitler and his associates. This is arguably the first major case of sports washing in the world.
The Olympiastadion was decked out with lots of Nazi flags for the Games and a stika adorned one of the two towers holding the Olympic rings above the entrance. The stika disappeared in 1945.
Members of the Nazi paramilitary SA, known as the Brownshirts, were ordered to stop their attacks on Jews in July and August 1936.
The Nazis were already Jewish athletes of German sport, and only two of them, considered half-Jewish, were allowed to compete on the German team: fencer Hélène Mayer and hockey player Rudi Ball.
“It was done to try to silence the critics a little bit,” said Ryan Balmer, a tourism consultant with a degree in history and modern literature who has lived in Berlin since 2008.
The Nazis also used the Reich Sports Ground complex after the Olympics. Italian dictator Benito Mussolini visited there in 1937, when he was greeted by thousands of Nazis with torches at the stadium’s May Field. Up to 800,000 more people are said to have participated.
Olympiastadion survives World War II
The Olympiastadion and the Reich Sports Field were destroyed during the war, although the stadium was relatively unscathed compared to the devastation caused by Allied bombers in the most central areas of Berlin. Many of the surviving buildings were reused without removing their Nazi iconography.
The Olympiastadion fell into the hands of the British sector after the city was divided between the 4 victorious powers: the Soviet Union, the United States, France and Great Britain. The British reopened the stadium in 1946 and maintained their army headquarters in the former Reich sports hall until 1994.
Not much was done at the Olympiastadion after the war. This and the former Reich sports ground gained prestige in 1966, when Hitler’s balcony was shortened by one meter. The biggest renovations took place before the 2006 World Cup in Germany, when the stadium was topped with a roof.
The stadium today
There is no attempt to hide the stadium’s Nazi past: today’s Germany is convinced that the atrocities of the Nazi era should not be forgotten. Around the stadium there are information forums in English and German to tell visitors the history of the place.
Although the swastikas have been removed, some Nazi relics still remain. An eagle adorns a pillar next to the existing educational facility of Hertha Berlin, which plays its matches in the stadium. The old bell of the belfry still sports a Nazi eagle. and Olympic rings, but the swastika has been partially covered.
As a sign of the rehabilitation of post-war Germany, a convention hall in the stadium and a road along the southern perimeter of the sports box are named after Owens.
Visitors have mixed feelings about the stadium, which can seat 71,000 more people during the Euro. Many fans attending games at the Olympiastadion worry about the fate of their respective groups and pay little attention to the data panels.
Balmer said the stadium could use “a more visual reminder of how and why places like this were built. “
Marian Wajselfisz, a Holocaust survivor who co-founded the Jewish football club Makkabi Berlin in 1970, also lamented that enthusiasts who visited the stadium (adding Sunday’s last one) were more informed about Nazi atrocities against Jews.
“It’s a constant reminder of 1936 and the Olympic Games,” he said.
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AP Euro 2024: https://apnews. com/hub/euro-2024