Sport in Berlin

The 2006 FIFA World Cup Final was held in Berlin.

Exterior of Olympiastadion in 2011.

Berlin is a major sporting centre in Germany and Europe. In 2013 around 600.000 Berliners were registered in more than 2.300 amateur sports- and fitness clubs.^[1]

Berlin has established a high-profile reputation as a host city of international sporting events.^[2] The city was host to the 1936 Summer Olympics, the 2006 FIFA World Cup Final and is the venue for several professional sports clubs in Germany's top leagues.

The largest Olympic training centre in Germany is the Sportforum Hohenschönhausen, at 55 hectares one the largest sports and training centres in Europe. It is home to 19 sports clubs, a school and competitive sports centre, as well as a dormitory for athletes in training.

History

Friedrich Ludwig Jahn

Friedrich Ludwig Jahn known as Turnvater Jahn ( father of gymnastics) was born in 1778 and worked as an assistant teacher in Berlin. At Berlin's Hasenheide Friedrich Ludwig Jahn opened the first German gymnastics field ('Turnplatz'), or open-air gymnasium, in spring 1811. His activities were particularly pointed at the youth, with whom he went to the gym field in free afternoons. The German gymnastics, understood by Jahn as a whole of the physical exercises.

AVUS Road Race in 1932.

Jahn developed well-known gymnastic equipment, invented also new apparatuses. Particularly by his main writing "Die Deutsche Turnkunst" (1816) the apparatus gymnastics developed to an independent kind of sport, and so the gym activities were not only limited to simple physical exercises, which he quoted as following: "Going, running, jumping, throwing, carrying are free exercises, everywhere applicable, as free as fresh air."

With the national gymnastics festivals in Coburg in 1860, in Berlin in 1861 and in Leipzig in 1863, the memory of Jahn's ideas returned into the people's consciousness. The inscription at the gable of his house "Frisch, Frei, Fröhlich, Fromm", translated as 'fresh, free, happy, good", which originated in Jahn's time, became the basic idea of the German gymnastics movement.

Football

Stadion An der Alten Försterei

The two main football clubs in Berlin are Hertha BSC and the 1. FC Union Berlin. The Stadion An der Alten Försterei is the largest single-purpose football stadium in the German capital. The 2006 FIFA World Cup Final was held at Berlin's Olympic Stadium.

Open Air gatherings of several ten thousands spectators have become popular during international football competitions, like the World Cup or the UEFA European Football Championship. Many fans and viewers come together to watch the matches on huge video screens. The event is known as the Fan Mile and takes place at the Brandenburg Gate every two years.^[3]

Basketball

Mercedes-Benz Arena

The main basketball club in Berlin is Alba Berlin, which dominated the Basketball Bundesliga especially in the late 90s and early 2000s. Altogether, the team won eight German Championships, seven German Cups and the Korac Cup. The now dissolved LSV Spandau also won one German Championship in 1939.

Ice Hockey

Eisbären Berlin in the Mercedes-Benz Arena

The main ice hockey club in Berlin is Eisbären Berlin. Altogether, the team won seven German Championships and the European Trophy once.

Handball

The main handball club in Berlin is Füchse Berlin.

Karl Schelenz, "father" of Handball was born in Berlin in 1890.

Volleyball

The FIVB World Tour has chosen an inner-city site to present a beach volleyball Grand Slam every year.

Athletics

Usain Bolt broke his sprint world record 2009 in Berlin.

The Berlin Marathon is one of the largest and most popular road races in the world. In 2008 alone the race had 40,827 enrolled starters from 107 countries, 35,913 official finishers and more than one million spectators.^[10][11] Along with five other races, it forms the World Marathon Majors.

Berlin-Marathon

The most marathon world records for men and women have been set at the Berlin course, which is known for its flat profile, even surface. The event is split over 2 days. About 8,000 additional inline skaters compete at the marathon course the Saturday before the running event. Power walkers, handbikers, wheelchair riders, and a children's marathon (4.2195 km) are also part of the marathon weekend, which is organised by SCC EVENTS.

The annual IAAF World Challenge event ISTAF for athletics are also held here.^[12]

The IAAF World Championships in Athletics were held in the Olympiastadion in August 2009.^[13] In the men's 100 metres dash, Usain Bolt broke his own 100 metres sprint world record with a time of 9.58.^[14]

Snooker

Berlin has hosted several times the German Masters, a snooker ranking tournament. It is held at the Tempodrom since the 2011 tournament.^[15]

Skateboarding & BMX

The Mellowpark in Köpenick is one of the biggest skate and BMX parks in Europe.^[16]

Venues

Europasportpark

The traditional Sechstagerennen (Six Day Race) takes place in the Velodrom every January. Around 75,000 spectators attending this sport event every year.

Next to the venue, the Europasportpark SSE is one of the biggest swimming and diving pools in Europe, where both professional clubs and locals can swim their laps. The venue was host to many national and international competitions in all kind of swim sports from high diving to swimming the crawl.

Both form a sports complex built in the course of the application of Berlin, for the 2000 Summer Olympics.

International Sporting Events

1936 Summer Olympics

The Olympic Flag flying over the Olympic Stadium, Berlin 1936.

The 1936 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XI Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event that was held in 1936 in Berlin, Germany.^[17] Berlin won the bid to host the Games over Barcelona, Spain, on 26 April 1931, at the 29th IOC Session in Barcelona (two years before the NSDAP party came to power).

Jesse Owens won four gold medals in Berlin.

To outdo the Los Angeles, USA games of 1932, Germany built a new 100,000-seat track and field stadium, six gymnasiums, and many other smaller arenas. They also installed a closed-circuit television system and radio network that reached 41 countries, with many other forms of expensive high-tech electronic equipment.^[18] Filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl, was commissioned by the German Olympic Committee to film the Games for $7 million.^[18] Her film, titled Olympia, pioneered many of the techniques now common in the filming of sports.

The Olympic village was located at Elstal in Wustermark, (at 52°32′10.78″N 13°0′33.20″E / 52.5363278°N 13.0092222°E / 52.5363278; 13.0092222), on the western edge of Berlin. The site, which was 30 kilometres (19 mi) from the centre of the city, consisted of one to two-floor dormitories, dining areas, a swimming pool, and training facilities.

Total ticket revenues were 7.5 million Reichsmark, generating a profit of over one million marks. The official budget did not include outlays by the city of Berlin (which issued an itemized report detailing its costs of 16.5 million marks) or outlays of the German national government (which did not make its costs public, but is estimated to have spent US$30 million, chiefly in capital outlays).^[19]

1974 FIFA World Cup Group A

Group A at the 1974 FIFA World Cup featured three matches at Berlin's Olympic Stadium, all involving Chile, against West Germany, East Germany and Australia. West Germany won 1-0, although the other matches were draws. The infamous match between the two German teams, however, was played in Hamburg.

2006 FIFA World Cup Final

French midfielder Zinedine Zidane in his last-ever match, the 2006 FIFA World Cup Final in Berlin.

The 2006 FIFA World Cup Final was held on 9 July 2006 at Berlin's Olympiastadion to determine the winner of the 2006 FIFA World Cup. Italy beat France in a shootout after the match finished 1–1 after extra time. France's Zinedine Zidane was sent off in his last-ever match, for headbutting Italy's Marco Materazzi's chest in retaliation to verbal insults.

2015 UEFA Champions League Finals

In May 2013 the Olympiastadion was chosen as the venue for the 2015 UEFA Champions League Final.^[20] In July 2014 it was announced that Berlin will also be the host for the 2015 UEFA Women's Champions League Final. The women's final will be played at the Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Sportpark.^[21]

Berliner Olympians

• Franziska van Almsick
• Robert Harting
• Claudia Pechstein
• Jochen Schümann
• Ulf Timmermann
• Katarina Witt

References

External links

Media related to Sport in Berlin at Wikimedia Commons

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