8. Olympiastadion
If you have heard of the infamous 1936 German Olympics where African-American sprinter Jesse Owens infuriated Hitler by garnering four gold medals in both the sprint and long-jump category, then you have a remote idea of the Olympiastadion. By the time the Olympics were scheduled for Berlin Germany, it was 1916, several years before Hitler came to power. And these games were slated for the Deutsche Stadion, a multi-use stadium located in Berlin, Germany initially used as the arena of German football championship matches.
World War I reared its ugly head and together with the economic crisis they forced the momentous games to be postponed to 1936. Adolf Hitler, wanting to prove German superiority, saw the Olympics as the chance to stage a propaganda event that would succeed in aligning the German folk as the heritors of the Greek tradition.
He had the two brothers Albert and Werner March put up a great stadium, Olympiastadion, to host the 1936 Olympics. The father of these architects Otto March was supposed to handle the project before Adolf Hitler’s chancellorship.
They worked on the project between 1934 and 1936. When the Olympiastadion was completed, it measured 326 acres (1.32 square kilometers). It was comprised of the Olympia Stadion, the Waldbühne amphitheater and the Maifeld (Mayfield). The structure also featured additional facilities and buildings for various sports – equestrian events, football, swimming, and field hockey in its northern segment. Today, the Olympiastadion hosts the Hertha BSC football club.