From Rubble to Stadiums—Urban Planning, Architecture, and Sports in the Early GDR

These construction histories not only provide new insights into East Berlin’s urban planning and architecture, but also illustrate how the SED asserted its rule in the early years of the GDR. In Berlin in particular, the construction of sports facilities was part of the Cold War ‘competition between systems’. The SED sought to demonstrate the superiority of socialism – not least through the building of stadiums.

The discussion that follows offers an opportunity to explore the book’s subject matter with regard to aspects of sports science, as well as social and socio-structural issues relating to the GDR and its architecture.

Programme

• Welcome: Prof. Dr Axel Klausmeier, Director of the Berlin Wall Foundation
• Keynote address: Ulrich Pfeil, historian, Université de Lorraine, Metz
• Discussion with: Jutta Braun (Centre for Contemporary History Research, Potsdam), Ulrich Pfeil and Harald Engler (Institute for Spatial Social Research, Erkner)

• Moderator: Prof. Dr Axel Klausmeier

In cooperation with the Federal Foundation for the Reappraisal of the SED Dictatorship