The Berlin Sports Palace ( German: Berliner Sportpalast ) is a multifunctional cultural and sports center with a capacity of 100 thousand visitors. The Berlin Sports Palace was built in the Schöneberg district of Berlin in 1910 and was demolished on November 13, 1973. Gained fame thanks to the speech of Joseph Goebbels about the " total war ".
| Sight | |
| Berlin Sports Palace | |
|---|---|
| Berliner Sportpalast | |
 | |
| A country |  Germany |
| City | Berlin |
| Architect | |
| Established | |
| Date of Abolition | |
| condition | demolished in 1973 |
History
Internationale Sportpalast- und Winter-Velodrom GmbH acquired the land in 1909 and hired the architect Hermann Dernburg to build it. At the time of its opening in November 1910, the sports palace had the world's largest artificial ice rink . Thanks to him, winter sports, especially ice hockey and speed skating , have become more spectacular and have gained popularity in Berlin. At the grand opening of the sports complex, composer Richard Strauss conducted the orchestra performing the 9th Beethoven Symphony . The peak of the popularity of the sports palace in Berlin fell on the golden twenties : the famous boxing fights took place in it. Since 1911, the annual Berlin six-day cycling race has been held at the Berlin Sports Palace. Screenings were also organized at the sports palace, in 1919 it was recognized as the largest cinema in the world. The sports palace also hosted costume balls and even a beer festival in the 1920s.
In the Weimar Republic, the sports palace in Berlin began to host congresses of political parties. Here the future Reich Chancellor Heinrich Brüning from the Center Party , the leader of the working class Ernst Thalmann from the KKE and the future propaganda minister of the Third Reich Joseph Goebbels delivered speeches. On November 16, 1928, Adolf Hitler made his first appearance at the Berlin Sports Palace.
Goebbels immediately appreciated the propaganda potential of the Berlin Sports Palace and called it "our tribune." Political opponents of the NSDAP also used the sports palace for their own purposes. Even after the National Socialists came to power in Germany, the Communists held a major rally on February 23, 1933 during the March parliamentary election campaign, at which Wilhelm Peak delivered the keynote speech. After the victory in the elections, the National Socialists banned opposition parties, the sports palace was at their exclusive disposal, and sporting events were almost never held in the sports palace.
The biggest political event at the Berlin Sports Palace was Goebbels ’speech on February 18, 1943, known as the“ talk about total war ”, in which, after the defeat in the Battle of Stalingrad, the propaganda minister called for a total war. On January 30, 1942, Hitler delivered a speech at the Berlin Sports Palace on the occasion of the 9th anniversary of the "Millennium Reich." Exactly two years later, on January 30, 1944, the Berlin Sports Palace was bombarded by the Allies. The ruins of the sports palace were dismantled during the war. In the winter of 1944-1945, skaters performed under it in the open air. After the war, the sports palace was quickly restored in a rather simplified form. Before the roof was erected in 1953, a skating rink was working in the sports palace, where hockey competitions were held. After 1953, music concerts were also held in the sports palace.
By the beginning of the 1970s, the operation of the Sports Palace in Berlin ceased to be profitable, and on November 13, 1973 the Berlin Sports Palace was demolished, and in its place in 1977 a residential complex, now known as the Pallaseum , was built. The four-story bunker at the Berlin Sports Palace has survived to the present.
Literature
- Alfons Arenhövel (Hrsg.): Arena der Leidenschaften - Der Berliner Sportpalast und seine Veranstaltungen 1910-1973 . Arenhövel, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-922912-13-3 .
- Sportpalast in Berlin, Potsdamer Straße . In: Zentralblatt der Bauverwaltung , Jg. XXXI, Nr. 35 (29. April 1911) S. 213-216.