Berlin Olympic Stadium
The World Cup was the big news of the summer here in Berlin, drawing millions of people from around the world to the most watched sporting event on the planet. The final game was held at Olympic Stadium just outside of the city, a place that is amazing to behold, and rich with history. It is probably most famous for the 1936 Summer Olympic games in which Jesse Owens the Nazi party who boasted of Arian superiority over other races including those of African decent. Owens achieved 4 gold medals that year in the sprint and long jump events. A major street in front of the stadium has been named for Jesse Owens to commemorate his achievements.
These games were the first to be televised live, and introduced basketball to the games. In preparation for the games the Nazi party moved all homeless beggars, and vagrants to the first work camps in an effort to prepare the city for the onslaught of foreign visitors. This was a socially acceptable practice at the time as most people saw it as a logical way to make the voluntarily unemployed to contribute positively to society. Of course no one suspect at this time that the people being sent to these camps would be mistreated, and ultimately worked to death.
It’s pretty easy to look back at this as archaic and disrespectful, but the city of Atlanta did something not so different for the 1996 Summer Olympics. The city gave many homeless people one-way train tickets out of the city in an effort to clean the place up. It’s not the same as sending people to work camps, but it is certainly disrespectful.
The stadium is really an amazing place with its new glass awning made just for the World Cup.
I think that that is really cool that you had thought in jesse
December 13th, 2007 at 12:34 pm