Berlin’s Olympic stadium

Berlin Olympic stadium
Hertha Berlin 

Berlin was first selected to host the Olympics in 1916 but events in Europe ment that the 1916 Olympics would be cancelled. The grounds for the stadium had all ready been selected near an old horse racing track and some work had taken place to construct a stadium. 

Berlin was later selected during 1931 to host the 11th Olympiad of 1936. The government at the time intended to use the stadium as per the 1916 design as it a lot of the work had taken place. 

Berlin Olympic stadium 
Hertha Berlin 

When the National Socialist party was elected in the 1933 elections they saw the Olympics as a great soap box to promote their vision and ideology and wanted to invest in a much grander Stadium and pushed for the construction of the huge stadium. 

If you are familiar with stadiums across the globe this one is constructed a little bit differently. Instead of it being built up it’s actually mostly hollowed out and the lower tiers, pitch and track are below ground level. 

Why does Berlin have a Blue running track ? Berlin stadium is the home of Hertha Berlin Football Club who play in Blue and white the local rivals to Hertha are Union Berlin who play in Red. By agreement the track is blue so as to prevent the colour of their rivals being in the stadium ( athletics tracks are normally red ) it is said the the blue track is faster to run on and that Berlin has the most running records ( I’m not so sure ! )