Olympic site Berlin
The Olympic site (formerly: Reichssportfeld , today officially: Olympiapark Berlin ) is located on the western edge of Berlin 's Westend district in the Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf district .
Overview
In addition to the Olympic Stadium, the Reichssportfeld, the site of the 1936 Summer Olympics , included the German Sports Forum , the Olympic Swimming Stadium , the Waldbühne , the Maifeld , the bell tower with Langemarckhalle , the Olympic Hockey Stadium , the Olympic Equestrian Stadium and the stadium terraces. The Olympic Park amateur stadium is located on the former throwing ground of the Sportforum .
Natural location and integration
The Olympic site is located on a 132 hectare high plateau - referred to as the broad mountain on earlier maps - which is surrounded by natural or already existing artificial incisions. In the north through the Murellenschlucht , as well as the slope of the sports forum to the Fließwiese Ruhleben and the settlement Ruhleben , in the east through an ice age meltwater ditch that crosses Heerstraße in the south from Grunewald at Georg-Kolbe-Park and then crosses the Heerstraße cemetery with the Sausuhlensee continues and runs out over the underground cut and the Murellenteich in Baumannschen Wiese in front of the Ruhleben underground station in the north. The southwestern border of the plateau is formed by the cut of the S-Bahn route . The exposed location ensures that at least some air movement can be expected on hot summer days. The location in the western part of Berlin also ensured that the industrial exhaust gases emitted in Berlin until the 1980s were kept away from the site in prevailing westerly winds.
The site itself belonged to the Grunewald until around 1900. When the facilities were built for the 1936 Olympic Games , a continuous surrounding green belt made of old trees from the Grunewald was preserved. It is essentially still there today, only the southern part south of the S-Bahn route from the Corbusierhaus to Glockenturmstrasse was built on in the years after the Second World War .
history
Until 1933
Sunk inside the Grunewald racetrack , which opened in 1909, the German Stadium was built in 1913 for the 1916 Olympic Games planned in Berlin , which were canceled due to the First World War . On the north adjacent to the racetrack grounds was 1926-1928, the German Sports Forum with many sports facilities which the German College of Physical Education and the German Gymnastics School of German Turnerschaft with recorded.
Buildings for the Olympic Games
For the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, the area now known as the 'Reichssportfeld' was essentially recreated in its current form. The German Stadium was largely demolished and replaced by the Olympic Stadium , while the Sports Forum was supplemented by other buildings. Architecturally, the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, with its clear basic geometric shapes, was based on buildings from antiquity . The architect Werner March had Greek equivalents of the ancient Olympic Games in mind for the main areas of the Reichssportfeld . The stadium from 1936 was partly designed as an earth stadium , in which only the upper ring clad with Franconian shell limestone protruded above the ground level, which is why its external effect was not as overpowering as, for example, in the congress hall on the Nazi party rally grounds in Nuremberg, which was no longer completed .
Architect March closely followed Hitler's planning policy guidelines for the buildings on the Reichssportfeld in 1936. The essential dramaturgical moments of the gigantic plans of the following period can already be found in this Olympia building ensemble , as was later particularly the case with the Nuremberg Nazi party rally grounds and with the plans to transform Berlin into a " world capital Germania ": urban development in axes, pathetic, antique-looking stone lamination of modern Building constructions, targeted installation of large-scale NS sculptures that emphasize architecture, opportunities to march for the crowds, driver's stands and architecture for the cult of the dead.
When looking at the buildings of the Reichssportfeld in the east-west axis, the Olympic Square forms a prelude, then the Olympic Stadium (then also called the "arena") the venue, followed by the Maifeld as a parade and rally area and finally the bell tower with the Langemarckhalle and its sacrificial cult as a highlight in the sense of Nazi ideology. The incision in the stadium at the marathon gate, which opens up the view of the Maifeld and the bell tower, emphasizes the axial character.
The Olympic construction project was the first of Hitler's major construction projects. As a result of the expansion of the existing planning, expenses rose from the originally calculated 5.5 million to 42 million Reichsmarks (adjusted for purchasing power in today's currency: around 183 million euros). With the Olympic Games in Germany he wanted to show the world that the German Reich under his leadership was primarily a peace-loving, socially and economically aspiring country. In addition to the possibility of deceiving other countries about the true character of the Nazi state by hosting the 1936 Olympics in Germany, there was the opportunity to counter the economic misery in the Reich with various construction measures, to reduce the number of unemployed and in this way to increase its popularity to increase his government, another motive for Hitler's endeavors. He justified his decision for the extensive construction project of the Reichssportfeld as follows:
"When you have four million unemployed, you have to find work."
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Artistic design
The relationship between the installed Nazi art and the Reichssportfeld and its buildings can be read in 1936:
“How much healthier and artistically stronger is that which was created outside in the Reichssportfeld in terms of images: born out of compelling necessity, bound to a clearly defined task, built into the framework of a great architecture for all times, this sculpture has its associated not only purely practical Found place. Rather, it is also ideally integrated into the district of that new spirit, of which the Olympic Games in 1936 were proof. "
Even the predecessor of the Olympic Stadium, the German Stadium, was equipped with a wealth of sculptural decorations. For the 1936 Olympic Games, various artists were commissioned to design individual components of the figurine decorations. Most of them have survived to this day.
The sculptures Relay Runner and Discus Thrower by Karl Albiker are located on the area surrounding the Olympic Stadium .
At the transition to Maifeld standing Rosse leader of Joseph Wackerle . To the south of this is the sculpture Comrades by Sepp Mages .
At the transition between sports forum, Maifeld, the goddess of victory is Nike by Willy Meller . The robe is a loan from ancient Greece , the oak leaf in her hand is a traditional German symbol of victory. In addition, the oak has long been considered a "German" tree. Their hard wood and the characteristic, late-falling leaves have made them a metaphor for immortality and steadfastness since the time of the Teutons (see also Irminsul ). The work is in the tradition of the Victoria and Germania statues of the national and war memorials of the 19th century. Already in the previous facility from 1913 ( German Stadium ) there was an indication - in the form of a victory column imitation - that “sport for the benefit of the fatherland” should take place. The depicted trampling of the “ evil serpent ”, a motif taken from the Bible , is, according to the Nazi ideology, a threat to the enemies of the “ Third Reich ”. The sculpture stands in the area of the transition from the publicly accessible part of the stadium to the practice facilities of the Reichssportfeld, with a view of the Maifeld .
There are numerous sculptures on the grounds of the Sportforum. At the entrance to the House of German Sports there are two eagle sculptures by Waldemar Raemisch , on the outside staircase of Jahnplatz the decathlete and the winner by Arno Breker , at the forum basin the resting athlete by Georg Kolbe and in the entrance hall of the House of German Sports Kolbe's decathlon man . On access to Jahnplatz are bull and cow of Adolf Strübe . A little off on the Anger is the boxer of Josef Thorak .
The side walls of the stairwells of the gymnasium and the swimming pool in the German Sports Forum on Jahnplatz were provided with wall reliefs. In the gymnasium , the Munich painter Louis Gruber depicted athletes and animal pictures with “strength” slogans from the National Socialist era, in the swimming pool the expressionist artist August Babberger decorated the walls with swimming athletes in stylized, Hellenistic poses and clothes.
At the entrance to today's Waldbühne , the sculptor Adolf Wamper created 3.9 meter high reliefs made of shell limestone on both sides with the titles Patriotic Celebration and Artistic Celebration . The relief to the left of the entrance shows two men with a torch and sword in antique nudity. Opposite the men on the right-hand side are two women baring themselves with the laurel as a symbol of honor and the lyre . According to March 1936, the two reliefs refer to “the dual purpose of the facility for musical consecration and patriotic celebration”. The two portraits of men are forerunners of Arno Breker's statues in the New Reich Chancellery . The sculptures were financed by the Propaganda Ministry, to which Goebbels had to agree. What is striking is the way the works are executed in a form that is not very veiled and with a dedicated Nazi content, unlike most of the other examples of Nazi art on the site of the Summer Olympics.
After 1936
In 1938 the final construction of the Reichssportfeld took place with the completion of the home for the Reichssportführer . Albert Speer's plans for the construction of the “ World Capital Germania ”, which began in 1935, envisaged a university town on both sides of Heerstrasse southeast of the Reichssportfeld, to which the Reichssportfeld with the Olympic Stadium would later have been added. As the architectural highlight of the university town, a new, gigantic Langemarckhalle was to be built, which would have put all existing buildings in the shade.
The building complex and the open spaces of the sports forum in the north (today's Olympiapark Berlin) were used by the British allies as headquarters after the Second World War and were inaccessible to the public. Important parts of the Olympic site are hardly anchored in the city's consciousness.
The areas of the Olympic site used by the British Allies were given to the State of Berlin on September 30, 1994, the Berlin Olympic Park is managed by the Berlin Senate Department for the Interior and Sport , the Olympic Stadium by the Olympiastadion Berlin GmbH.
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From the year 2000, the Hertha BSC club center was located on the Olympic site and expanded. This includes the office, the "professional center" and the "football academy". The professional training takes place today on Schenkendorff-Platz. Instead of the former pitch of the German Sport Forum , the amateur stadium was opened in July 2004 . It is used by the second team and various youth teams from Hertha BSC.
Until 2005, there was also a 180.7-meter-high guyed transmitter mast for mobile and VHF radio that was erected in 1951 and which the British used for the BFBS military station until they withdrew in 1994 . The tower, which was ultimately functionless, was demolished in July 2005.
The Olympic Stadium was completely renovated for the 2006 World Cup and received, among other things, a wide roof. Since 2006, the permanent exhibition, the historical site of the Olympic site 1909 - 1936 - 2006 (in the bell tower building) and 45 bilingual information boards in and around the site have been informing visitors about the history of the 100-year-old sports facility.
In 2012, the ice rink in Charlottenburg , west of the Maifeld, was completed. In 2015, the Olympiapark was the venue for the first European Maccabi Games , the largest Jewish sporting event in Europe, to be held in Germany.
On March 30, 2017, after the publication of a feasibility study, Hertha BSC announced that they would build their own stadium for around 55,000 spectators on the Schenckendorffplatz of the Olympic Park or in the Brandenburg Park in Ludwigsfelde . The planning was carried out by the architectural office Albert Speer und Partner . The arena is to be 100% privately financed and will open when the lease for the Olympic Stadium expires in 2025.
Path through the Olympic Park
The area of the other sports facilities north of the Olympiastadion can be crossed on the way between the Berlin Pichelsberg train station on the S 3 to the Olympiastadion station on subway line 2 (Berlin) . From the Pichelsberg S-Bahn station, the route leads to the bell tower . The area of the forest stage opposite is affected. Then it goes to the large sculpture of the Deutsche Nike by Willy Meller at the transition to the Marsfeld. Passing between the swimming stadium and the Hertha BSC stadium and arching across Hanns-Braun-Straße, the route ends at the Olympiastadion underground station.
See also
Web links
Entries in the Berlin State Monument List:
- Reichssportfeld, Olympic site, German sports forum, Grunewald racecourse & sports facility
- Sports, green and garden facilities with sculptures on the Olympic site
Individual evidence
- ^ Werner March: Reichssportfeld building. Deutscher Kunstverlag, 1936, p. 14. Online at digilib.tu-graz.at
- ^ Werner March: Reichssportfeld building. Deutscher Kunstverlag, 1936, p. 13. Online at digilib.tu-graz.at
- ↑ Muschelkalk (Quaderkalk) from Northern Bavaria ( Memento from March 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ [1]
- ↑ Hilmar Hoffmann: Myth Olympia. Autonomy and submission to sport and culture . Weimar 1993, p. 17
- ^ Arnd Krüger: The Olympic Games 1936 and the world opinion. Its importance in foreign policy, with particular reference to the USA. , P. 63.
- ^ Adolf Abel : Von der Plastik des Reichssportfeldes , in: Baugilde, 18. Jg. 1936, pp. 957–975, quoted from Wolfgang Schächen ; Norbert Szymanski: The realm sports field. Architecture in the field of tension between sport and power. - Berlin 2001, p. 99.
- ^ Description panel Deutsche Nike , Olympic site
- ^ History of art in architecture in Germany ( Memento from September 23, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ City Chronicle . In: Berliner Adreßbuch , 1939, before Part 1, p. 13 (description of the construction work).
- ↑ This is Hertha - Club Center , accessed on August 5, 2015.
- ↑ Sebastian Meyer: Hertha Stadium should remain in the Olympic Park. rbb-online.de, March 30, 2017, accessed April 8, 2017 .
- ↑ Bundesliga soccer team: Hertha BSC is planning a new building next to the Olympic Stadium. In: Spiegel Online . Retrieved April 7, 2017 .
- ↑ Michael Rosentritt: Hertha BSC's plans for a new stadium are becoming concrete. In: tagesspiegel.de . April 6, 2017. Retrieved April 7, 2017 .
Coordinates: 52 ° 31 ′ 0 ″ N , 13 ° 14 ′ 19 ″ E
Competition venues for the 1936 Summer Olympics
