In 2006, international attention will again be focused on the Berlin Olympic Stadium. On time for the opening of the Football World Cup, an exhibition in the stand building below the Bell Tower – conceived in collaboration with Hamburg architects Volkwin Marg (gmp) – will present the fitful history of the grounds before the background of sport and politics.

This richly-illustrated book examines the prominent stages in the history of building and events – beginning with the racetrack (opened in 1909), and carrying on from the »Reichssportfeld« to the recent conversion and refurbishment of the Olympic Stadium.

In three essays, topics inextricably linked to the Olympic site are addressed in detail: the significance of the 1936 Olympic Games for National Socialist sport policy, the development of the »memorial cult for the fallen« after the First World War and the architectural importance of the site in an international context.