"Berlin is a haunted city with ghosts from its Prussian, Wilhelmine, Weimar and communist times. But the most disturbing spirits are those from the Nazi era." How is Germany reconciling its architectural legacy of Nazism? The Financial Times has a good piece on Berlin's ongoing struggle for a new identity in light of the recent renovation of the Olympic stadium, which will soon host the World Cup.
A political arena
By David Winner
Published: January 13 2006 16:25 | Last updated: January 13 2006 16:25
Berlin stadium
The sky darkens and autumn rain falls at the end of the football match at the Olympic stadium in Berlin. The beautifully renovated arena will be seen by millions around the world in July when it hosts the World Cup final.
But the newly revamped stadium also houses a controversial history; it was the venue for the Nazi Olympics of 1936.
Beyond the curve of the cream-coloured new roof, the derelict Nazi structures are visible: Arno Breker-style statues venerating the Nazi physical ideal, the rotting terraces and gigantic clock tower of the old Maifeld where mass rallies were held.
Football has been played here for seven decades, but the stadium isn’t famous for that. Filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl used it as a prop for her documentary about the 1936 games, Olympia. The black American athlete Jesse Owens won four gold medals that year - but couldn’t stop the Nazis turning the games into a propaganda triumph.
Berlin is a haunted city with ghosts from its Prussian, Wilhelmine, Weimar and communist times. But the most disturbing spirits are those from the Nazi era. After the war, Germany created a rich, vibrant democracy and Berlin became a place of diversity and tolerance. Yet Germany has never quite known what to do with the architectural legacy of Nazism.
Many buildings were demolished straight after the war. Nothing remains of such symbolic structures as Hitler’s bunker or chancellery, for example. Most of the old government buildings on Wilhelmstrasse were demolished and replaced with bland apartment blocks. The epicentre of evil, the SS quarter from which the Holocaust and other crimes were organised, was bulldozed.
The Olympic site is the largest and most perfectly preserved example of Nazi monumental architecture in the city - and Berlin is still trying to adapt, incorporate and move on from the structure’s history.
The stadium survived the war almost unscathed, but by 1998 this old, grey behemoth was decrepit. Berlin had to choose whether to pull it down or restore it. They chose the latter. Two years later Germany beat England to stage the 2006 World Cup - and the Olympic Stadium was awarded six games, including the final. After a four-year refit costing 2225m, the stadium reopened last year with concerts, fireworks and popular approval.
In the arena where Hitler received the acclaim of millions in the 1930s, fans of Berlin’s football team Hertha BSC now celebrate an easy win over a visiting team from Mainz, courtesy of two goals from their Brazilian star Marcelinho. The fans clap, wave their blue flags and chant: “sieg!... sieg!... sieg!†But this is a good-natured crowd - and the word “sieg†means “victoryâ€. It’s their way of saying “we won the gameâ€.
“What can you do?†shrugs Andreas Nachama, former leader of Berlin’s Jewish community. “It’s the German language, and you can’t change the language. You can’t erase the history either. Part of being in the new Germany is that we live in the grounds and buildings of the remnants of the Third Reich. Yes, Berlin was the centre of Nazi evil, but there is a new spirit here, a new state, a new generation has taken over.â€
The renovation by architects Gerkan, Marg and Partners is impressive but disconcerting. Inside the arena everything is new, more comfortable and softer-looking than before. It’s still unsatisfactory for watching football because the running track distances the crowd from the pitch. But the stands have been rebuilt with better seating. The VIP areas look like the lobbies of swanky hotels. The new giant screens, sound and floodlight systems are state-of-the-art. Even the toilets gleam.
From outside, however, apart from a slight change to the roofline, everything looks much as Hitler wanted it back in 1936 when it was the biggest, most proudly fascist piece of architecture in the world. The hard, clean, lines of the building are intact. So are the colonnades, the imposing symmetry and the distinctive open end with its “Marathon Tower†and Olympic flame urn. Spectators still approach the stadium across a great empty space, through two imposing towers between which hang the Olympic rings.
The stadium’s authorship is disputed. According to the World Cup and Berlin city websites, it was the work of the lesser-known architect Werner March, whose father had designed an earlier, smaller stadium on the site for the 1916 Olympics.
But March had guidance. In his memoir, Hitler’s architect Albert Speer claimed the Fuhrer hated March’s original “modernist†plans involving glass and concrete and threatened to cancel the games. Speer wrote: “Overnight I made a sketch showing how the steel skeleton already built could be clad in natural stone and have more massive cornices added. The glass partitions were eliminated, and Hitler was content.†Most historians accept Speer’s story, though some such as architectural historian Wolfgang Schache still refute it.
This story - and many others - will now be incorporated into the structure, which will include a 23m historical exhibition about the history of the site, put together by the German Historical Museum.
The museum’s director, Hans Ottomeyer, explains: “We cannot use the stadium of 1936 without saying what it is, what it was for, how it was used and what was the ideology behind the whole thing. It was an expression of Nazi ideology and a way to project Nazi image to the world.â€
Some have queried the wisdom of using a monument for a 21st century showpiece, but Ottomeyer insists: “Making a big taboo out of it is definitely not the way. We can only look into the eye of history with awareness. We are sure that it will work in the right way, not becoming a place of blind veneration for young men with short hair who came out of the communist kindergartens of the east and learned nothing about the Nazi time.â€
Architect Kay Zareh is still uncomfortable about the prospect of a global television audience watching this summer. “I hope they don’t show very much of the outside of the stadium and the architecture but only the inside and the grass where they are playing.
“That stadium really tries to impress and intimidate, to make a person feel little and timid. I know they’ve changed it but it will always be what it stands for.â€
Zareh would have preferred a new stadium built on another site. “In 200 years, it would be good to have at least one or two buildings from that period to be able to show following generations what happened here. But I would prefer to have the old stadium as a ruin, not as the ‘perfect sporting arena’.â€
Schache disagrees: “You could say: ‘This site is contaminated and we will go some kilometres away and build something new, and say history isn’t there any more.’ But that’s not the right way. It’s better to show the changing of history, and the changing also of Germany by doing this at this place. It is better to use architecture to discuss this subject. You can’t hide away from history. The Olympic Stadium is still the same building, but in another way, it is something else. You can see both: the history and the new and modern things. It shows we have really finished with this story from 1936.â€
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