German Sports Forum

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The German Sports Forum in the northeast of the Berlin Olympic site

The German Sports Forum is located in the Berlin district of Westend the district of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf and forms the northern end of the Olympic Park (Olympic Park).

Location and architecture

The sports forum of the German University for Physical Exercise, gymnasium and large gym in the background, 1931

Around a swimming pool (forum pool) and a large inner courtyard (Jahnplatz) there are symmetrically massive buildings with clear lines, the swimming pool hall and the swimming pool house in the north, the large gymnasium and the gymnasium in the south. Both building ensembles adjoin the "House of German Sports", which was completed in 1936 and is known for its architecturally striking domed hall. The Friesenhof, named after Friedrich Friesen (course student wing, Friesenhaus and student wing), adjoins this central building complex in the northeast .

The Cupid Fountain in front of the Annaheim

Numerous sports fields are located on the grounds of the Sportforum: north of Friedrich-Friesen-Allee, Hindenburgplatz, August-Bier-Platz, Hueppeplatz and Georgiiplatz, south of Friedrich-Friesen-Allee, Körnerplatz, Gebhardtplatz, named after Willibald Gebhardt, Hanns-Braun -Platz and the Wurfplatz and south of Hanns-Braun-Straße the Schenckendorffplatz.

The western end of the sports forum opposite the lower Waldbühne was originally the so-called “women's district”, which was reserved for women athletes. The central building there was the Annaheim , also called "Frauenheim". It was named after Anna Boess, the wife of Berlin's Lord Mayor Gustav Boess . It had 27 rooms for 50 female students and two teachers. Today it houses the administration of the Olympic Park. In front of the Annaheim there was a fountain with a Cupid sculpture by Hugo Lederer . The sculpture has not been preserved. The Tanzring , a small amphitheater, was located near the Annaheim . In 1937–1938, the Tanzring had to give way to the construction of the service villa of the Reich Sports Leader Hans von Tschammer und Osten , which is now rented out for smaller events (“club house”).

The Sportforumstraße, named after the German Sports Forum and now separated into two parts, originally connected the Olympic Square in the south with the Adlerplatz at the House of German Sports in the north.

history

Information board, Am Glockenturm, in Berlin-Westend

On May 15, 1920, the German University for Physical Education was founded in what was then Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität (today: Humboldt-Universität ) , the establishment of which was suggested in a memorandum submitted by Carl Diem in 1919. The university was initially temporarily housed in the German Stadium , which was enclosed by the Grunewald racecourse , the predecessor of the Berlin Olympic Stadium built in 1913 . Already in the summer of 1921 it was possible to move into a separate university building on the site adjoining the German Stadium to the north, which - like the stadium - was partially sunk so as not to disturb the view over the racecourse.

The possibility of building a larger facility arose in 1925 when a forest area further north between Graditzer Strasse (today: Friedrich-Friesen-Allee) and the Murellenschlucht gorge was made available for this purpose. The competition was won by a design by the brothers Werner and Walter March , two sons of Otto March , the architect of the German Stadium. Werner March would later also manage the construction of the Olympic Stadium.

For financial reasons, construction activity was reduced soon after construction began in 1927 and stopped entirely in the Great Depression in 1929. By then, however, some of the houses and facilities had been completed and could be used. In addition to sports fields, the Tanzring, the Annaheim and the tennis hall were built in the west . Two pavilions (Ostlaube and Westlaube) were built on the south side of August-Bier-Platz, in the east a tunnel to the German Stadium ended, which saved the long detour around the Grunewald racecourse to the stadium. The forum basin (then named after its founder Heinrich Hirtsiefer Hirtsiefer basin ), the large gym and the west wing of the gym , as well as two wooden barracks on the slope to Ruhleben were built on Jahnplatz . As the last major building was the freestanding on October 6, 1928 German Gymnastics School inaugurated by the German Gymnastics Association was operated. The gymnastics school , as the house of the German gymnastics association, was later extended to the east by the course wing of the Friesenhaus , in which the female athletes lived during the 1936 Summer Olympics (the male participants were housed in the Olympic village ).

In a second expansion phase from 1933 to 1936 in connection with the construction of the Olympic Stadium for the 1936 Olympic Games, additional buildings and sports fields were built. Closely based on the original plan, the gymnasium was expanded to the east and the swimming pool house opposite to the north was built with the swimming pool. The eastern end of Jahnplatz was formed by the House of German Sports as the central building with the domed hall inside.

Glance into the domed hall

During the Olympic Games in 1936, the fencing competitions were held in the domed hall and in front of the House of German Sports . In the last years of the war, programs were produced in the dome hall by the television station Paul Nipkow until 1944 after the studio in the Deutschlandhaus on today's Theodor-Heuss-Platz was no longer usable after bomb damage .

In World War II, parts were destroyed the Sports Forum. After the German defeat in 1945, the Olympic site was confiscated by the British military administration and used for sporting and recreational purposes by British military personnel. In 1952, the headquarters of the British military administration was relocated from Fehrbelliner Platz to the grounds of the Sportforum and, after the occupation troops had withdrawn, it was given to the State of Berlin for use on September 30, 1994.

Todays use

Aerial photo of the sports forum, 2019

The swimming pools (indoor and outdoor pools) are managed by the Berlin swimming pool companies and used by the German water polo record winner Wasserfreunde Spandau 04 , and the Berlin Sports Museum is now located in the House of German Sports . Since the summer of 2015 to the uses elite sports schools scoring school in the Olympic Park - Poelchau High School swimming house and the northern parts of the Haus des Deutschen Sports. The Berlin Bundesliga club Hertha BSC is represented with its office in the former student wing of the Friesenhaus. The Hertha BSC training grounds are located on the adjacent sports fields with several training grounds, including a. the Schenckendorffplatz, which is reserved for professionals, and the younger Olympic Park amateur stadium for the amateur team on the throwing area. The German Cricket Association (DCB) occasionally held the German cricket finals on the Körnerplatz . Even at the time of the British military administration, cricket games were regularly held on the Maifeld . In addition, other users with different, sporting focus activities are located on the site.

The entire site (Olympiapark Berlin) is centrally managed as a listed sports facility by the Senate Administration responsible for sports and has the character of a private site, but visitors can go on foot on the "historical history path", with individual sections and buildings commented on information boards. The access roads are secured on the western side between the Waldbühne and the bell tower and on the eastern side at the level of the Hertha BSC office by fences and barriers and by a permanently present security service.

literature

  • Stephan Brandt: From the Grunewald racecourse to the Olympic Stadium. Sutton Verlag, Erfurt 2015, ISBN 978-3-95400-494-2 .
  • Franz Breithaupt (ed.): The German gymnastics school. OJ (ca.1928).
  • Volker Kluge : Olympiastadion Berlin - stones begin to talk . Parthas-Verlag, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-932529-28-6 .
  • Gerhard Krause: The German Sports Forum. Weidmannsche Verlagbuchhandlung, Berlin undated (approx. 1928).
  • Werner March: Reichssportfeld building. Deutscher Kunstverlag, 1936. Online at digilib.tu-graz.at .
  • Wolfgang Schächen , Norbert Szymanski: The realm sports field. be.bra Verlag, Berlin 2001.

Web links

Commons : Deutsches Sportforum  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files
Commons : Haus des Deutschen Sports  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Stephan Brandt: From the Grunewald racecourse to the Olympic Stadium. Sutton Verlag, Erfurt 2015, ISBN 978-3-95400-494-2 , pp. 52–53.
  2. ↑ Name dispute: yes, no, yes! School is still called Poelchau . In: Der Tagesspiegel , January 21, 2015.

Coordinates: 52 ° 31 ′ 13 ″  N , 13 ° 14 ′ 27 ″  E