The Olympic Stadium in Berlin is the venue for the ultimate of the European Championship. Its historical past is loaded, if solely as a result of Hitler addressed hundreds right here. The historical past of the Olympic Stadium in 5 questions.
1. What function does the Olympic Stadium play on this event?
With 75,000 seats, it’s the largest stadium. The ultimate will probably be held right here on 14 July. Similar to on the 2006 World Cup, when Frenchman Zinedine Zidane headbutted his Italian opponent Marco Materazzi. The misplaced EC group match with Austria (2-3) was solely the primary time that the Dutch nationwide crew performed within the Olympiastadion.
2. There’s a Nazi scent across the Olympic Stadium. What’s the motive for that?
On August 1, 1936, Adolf Hitler, three years in energy, addressed 120,000 spectators right here. Numerous outstretched arms responded to his opening speech on the Olympic Video games. Ultimately, the black American sprinter Jesse Owens received 4 gold medals and embarrassed the Nazis in his personal nation.
3. Nazi architect Albert Speer claimed to have designed the Olympic Stadium. Is that true?
“Speer is without doubt one of the most influential storytellers in German historical past,” says historian Magnus Brechtken (60) of the Institut für Zeitgeschichte in Munich. Speer’s lie was taken with no consideration for many years, due to Speer’s biographer Joachim Fest and writer Wolf Siedler. For twenty years, historians have held the consensus that Werner March, not Speer, was the architect of the stadium.
4. Has the air cleared across the Olympic Stadium?
In keeping with Brechtken, the stadium was efficiently ‘democratized’. ‘The Stones additionally carried out in 1965 within the Waldbühne theater, within the park subsequent door. Propaganda Minister Goebbels would have turned in his grave.’ However, the Olympiapark continues to be a subject of debate. Brechtken needs extra consideration for this piece of historical past, however: ‘The Olympic grounds don’t come first.’ The town has extra vital locations of remembrance, he emphasizes.
5. There are additionally ‘Nazi sculptures’ on the Olympic Stadium. Is there going to be an iconoclasm?
The monumental sculptures of ‘Aryan’ discus throwers and relay runners commissioned by the Nazis often spark debate. ‘Eliminate these statues,’ wrote SPD senator Peter Strieder in Die Zeit in 2020. Brechtken is in favour of preserving them: ‘You will need to draw consideration to traditions and continuities.’
