Exhibition
Historic Site: Olympic Grounds 1909 – 1936 – 2006
An exhibition by the German Historical Museum, with the financial support from the Federal Commissioner for Cultural and Media Affairs.
The documentary exhibition on the Olympic grounds offers information on the various phases in its construction and use. The Langemarckhalle at the foot of the Bell Tower is placed in this historic context.
The documentary exhibition is made up of five Parts:
The first part
deals with the way in which the role of sport has changed in German society.
It takes us from the beginnings of the German gymnastics movement in the Nineteenth century to the workers’ sport movement and the increasing popularity of sport coming from Great Britain to the Nazi Gleichschaltung (synchronisation) of sport culture.
The second part
concentrates on the event leading to the extension of the grounds and the buildings still maintained to the present day: the 1936 Olympic Games.
Here the focus is on the Nazi propaganda machine’s effective staging of the Games for both the masses and the media.
Part three
Part three illustrates the various stages in construction. The main part of this section is a 3D animation film, showing in fast motion the individual stages since the beginning of the Twentieth century in the building, extension and modification of the grounds.
The forth part
focuses on the use of the grounds up until the present day. The site united excellent sporting facilities with the Mayfield, intended for mass rallies, and the Langemarckhalle, dedicated to the hero cult and remembrance of the fallen. The Olympic Stadium today hosts two major sporting events: The Internationales Stadionfest (ISTAF) and the German Football League Final attract tens of thousands of visitors every year.
The fifth and final part
of the exhibition gives a commentary on the origins and history of the Langemarck myth. This has its origins in the First World War as a glorification of the supposedly willing sacrifice of life by young volunteers in a failed military offensive.
A film with some hitherto unknown material from the time is shown for extra information. The journalist Reinhard Appel accompanies the film. His experiences as a young man – as one of the spectators at the Olympic Games and as a Hitler youth stationed at the Reichssportfeld in the last days of the war – are representative of the experiences of an entire generation.
