Hitler's Olympics Read Online Free PDF Page B

under lease by the racecourse and it would be taken over. The owners were offered compensation.
    At that moment, the 1936 Olympic Games found their home. 13
    March brought Hitler a topographical map and showed him an area big enough to accommodate half a million people for assemblies, festivals and processions. Hitler was pleased, but a curious problem arose: that of symmetry. If they abandoned the old stadium and sited the new one 150 metres away it would be parallel to the rod-like avenue from Unter den Linden out to Charlottenburg and the countryside. Hitler liked symmetry and said do that .
    The new stadium could be built vast enough to accommodate however many spectators Hitler wanted. No doubt for further reasons of symmetry – and practicality, because every spectator had to be able to see the events – the number 100,000 felt right.
    March broached the subject of a gigantic Olympic bell to toll the beginning and end of the Games, and do so from a bell tower so tall it would be visible from many points in the city.

    The Reich was now in charge of the whole construction project. The entire direction of the execution of the tremendous project was in the hands of the Minister of the Interior [Pfundtner]. It was necessary, first, for the Minister to create the legal prerequisites necessary for the commencement of construction. Then, as construction chief, he had to ensure that the new structure should blend harmoniously with the architecture of Berlin. He was responsible for the athletic organisation, the building of the approaches, and the technical equipment. He was furthermore entrusted with the task of welding these parts into a pleasing, artistic and organic whole. His most important responsibility was to make sure that this tremendous programme was carried out within the short time before the beginning of the Olympic Games. This would require the utmost efforts on the part of all concerned. State Secretary Pfundtner devoted himself untiringly to the negotiations for the acquisition of the necessary grounds. Within the surprisingly short period of eleven weeks, he had clarified all legal points. 14

    Pfundtner had a rounded face, all jowels, with a tuft of hair peeking over the back of his head. He couldn’t help looking like a thug.
    Hitler provided the broad sweep, kept an eye on the detail and the whole project went on to something resembling a war footing. Its scope, character and extent were the same as waging a war.
    The main entrance, the Olympic Gate, was to have fifty-two turnstiles for the paying public and the two wings beside them would contain ‘every possible provision for the reception and the care of the spectators’. This would include ‘one large office for replying to enquiries and giving information, one office for the exchange of tickets, one medical station for giving first aid, one police office, a room for the checking of the tickets sold, accommodation for the control officials and the cleaners, and three dwellings for the officials of the stadium administration’. The south entrance would have twenty-eight turnstiles. Cumulatively, the 100,000 could buy tickets and enter within an hour.
    The new stadium’s central area, where the competitions took place, would be excavated far below ground level giving it a deceptive appearance from the outside: because of the excavation it was much bigger than the external walls suggested. Shaped like an enormous oblong bowl, it would be divided into two ‘rings’, one dug 13 metres down, the other rising 16 metres. That would allow the comings and goings of the 100,000-strong crowd to be carried out ‘in two distinct halves in half the time required if only the surface arrangement were available. The division of the spectator traffic is helped further by the twenty gangway stairs to the upper ring and the twenty passages to the lower ring arranged round the oval at equal distances from each other. The stream of spectators is still further divided