Day 9: Trip Olympiastadion Berlin

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We ventured out to the Olympiastadion in Berlin. This is the site of the 1936 Olympic Games. I cannot believe someone thought it would be a good idea to give Germany the Olympic games after their economy, infrastructure was demolished and every couple of months there was a new government. But somehow Germany pulled off the creation of the stadium. In this Olympics, the rise of Nazi Germany was taking form. Everything from the architecture of the stadiums, the statues of the gods and the symbolism built in the design spoke to the master race of Germans. It is amazing the amount of detail that went into the construction and how the buildings were cutting edge at the time. The pool was surrounded in emerald green tiles to reflect the pool water, the pillars and bell tower seen through the main stadium gate. It would have been an impressive and intimidating venue to arrive on and was packed to capacity of 110,000 during the games. Jesse Owens competed at these games and won 4 gold medals. Prior to arriving, Hilter was excited to have such an athlete as Jesse coming to Germany. When he arrived and Hilter realized he was black, all of Hilter's views changed of Jesse and he even refused to congratulate him after he won gold. However, part of the games were to inscribe all the Olympic gold medal winners into the stadium walls and to this day Jesse's name is engraved for 3 events and as part of the relay team. The cool thing about the stadium now is that it is repurposed to be the home futbol stadium of Bundesliga's Hertha BSC and has hosted many world cup games when held in Germany. This has prevented the building to go to ruins like the nearby pool and main area that is starting to have weed and garden growth taking it over.

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