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sister_luckTomorrow is that fateful day of German history, so expect lots of topical pictures tomorrow.
But first, the stadium built for the Berlin Olympics in 1936:
The architecture is certainly designed to make you feel small - the individual is tiny, but when they all come together, they make might.
Today, the stadium has a big roof covering the seating area, but when it was built all the seating was open to the elements.
This is the view towards the Marathon Gate where the Olympic Flame was lit to great effect. In the background you can see the belltower - more about that later.
The staircases of the stadium are huge and oppressive:
We got a tour and while it was interesting to see all the V.I.P. areas and the changing rooms and the underground car park, those were not much different from the local football stadium. There was something we don't have though: an escalator custom-built for the protection of the football players about to step on the field - the stairs were deemed much too long and steep to walk up and down in football boots and you can't have an international football star break their leg in your stadtium even before they've gone onto the pitch.
This is the view from the Marathon Gate towards the spot where I took the first inside picture:
If you strain your eyes, you might be able to spot the huge video screen - the biggest in the Bundesliga with 137,5m² - about as much space as we have in our house.
The stadium is part of a huge area and we walked to the bell tower that you can see in the second picture:
The big grey clouds really make clear that this is not cheerful architecture in any way.
From the top of the belltower you can see how vast the whole area is with the Maifeld which was already designed with military parades in mind between the tower and the stadium.
The next pictures are more about the coloured leaves than about the architecture:
There is a bit too much going on here, with the metal stairs and railings and so on:
And now something for you music aficionados out there:
I'm sure that you either own a concert recorded here or have seen one on TV or video.
The most famous concert at the Waldbühne is the 1965 Rolling Stones concert which quickly turned into a riot.
Again, the structure was part of the Olympics propaganda effort - but today it is mostly known as a venue for rock and pop music.
This BBC article about the renovations for the 2006 Football World Cup gives you some more information.
There is also this:
"The history is there, the totality of the buildings is there. The whole Nazi landscape has not disappeared," says sports sociologist Guenter Gebauer.
And that is certainly true, as much as they have tried to modernise it and even though they have many events there that directly contradict Nazi ideology, you cannot escape the history of the whole complex. And you shouldn't be able to.
But first, the stadium built for the Berlin Olympics in 1936:
The architecture is certainly designed to make you feel small - the individual is tiny, but when they all come together, they make might.
Today, the stadium has a big roof covering the seating area, but when it was built all the seating was open to the elements.
This is the view towards the Marathon Gate where the Olympic Flame was lit to great effect. In the background you can see the belltower - more about that later.
The staircases of the stadium are huge and oppressive:
We got a tour and while it was interesting to see all the V.I.P. areas and the changing rooms and the underground car park, those were not much different from the local football stadium. There was something we don't have though: an escalator custom-built for the protection of the football players about to step on the field - the stairs were deemed much too long and steep to walk up and down in football boots and you can't have an international football star break their leg in your stadtium even before they've gone onto the pitch.
This is the view from the Marathon Gate towards the spot where I took the first inside picture:
If you strain your eyes, you might be able to spot the huge video screen - the biggest in the Bundesliga with 137,5m² - about as much space as we have in our house.
The stadium is part of a huge area and we walked to the bell tower that you can see in the second picture:
The big grey clouds really make clear that this is not cheerful architecture in any way.
From the top of the belltower you can see how vast the whole area is with the Maifeld which was already designed with military parades in mind between the tower and the stadium.
The next pictures are more about the coloured leaves than about the architecture:
There is a bit too much going on here, with the metal stairs and railings and so on:
And now something for you music aficionados out there:
I'm sure that you either own a concert recorded here or have seen one on TV or video.
The most famous concert at the Waldbühne is the 1965 Rolling Stones concert which quickly turned into a riot.
Again, the structure was part of the Olympics propaganda effort - but today it is mostly known as a venue for rock and pop music.
This BBC article about the renovations for the 2006 Football World Cup gives you some more information.
There is also this:
"The history is there, the totality of the buildings is there. The whole Nazi landscape has not disappeared," says sports sociologist Guenter Gebauer.
And that is certainly true, as much as they have tried to modernise it and even though they have many events there that directly contradict Nazi ideology, you cannot escape the history of the whole complex. And you shouldn't be able to.
