7) World of Football

It’s April, two months away from the 2006 World Cup in Germany, Adidas builds a miniature copy of Berlin 1936 Olympic Stadium on the Platz der Republik. It is called World of Football. In 2005 already many locations are in discussion for this venue in the Berlin Senate. Adidas, the major sponsor of the World Cup, proposes to rent the Palast der Republik, with the idea of disguising it in the Olympiastadion; instead the Senate promptly decides to accelerate the time of demolition of the Palace, a much debated GDR political eyesore.

In March 2006 the final location of choice is the 40.000 square meter grass field in front of the Reichstag, where people play frisbee (soccer is here strictly forbidden since the Reichstag reopening of 1999). The field is immediately covered in asphalt. The new 1:3 scale copy of the Olympic Stadium is a steel structure that contains two large screens for all 64 soccer games shown here. It hosts also a stage for concerts and a TV studio for Premiere. Outside the structure is covered with facsimile prints of the Olympic Stadium’s facade. The field in the middle of the arena is in astroturf for VIP games. Regular visitors can play soccer in six fields laid out outside.

By November 2006 Platz der Republik is back in its previous version, the asphalt surface is carried away, quickly substituted with real turf. 5.000 plants for the hedges and 52 trees are replanted looking like they had always been there. Adidas is in possession of a photographic survey of the original trees previous of cutting. The cost of the reconstruction is still unknown.

The 2006 Fussball-WM is a turning point for Berlin, this is the first time the city is perceived as a tourist attraction in its broad entirety, including all its surfaces and artifacts without exception. Tiergarten with the permanent establishment of the “Fanmeile” (now “Festmeile”) has since changed forever.

It’s April, two months away from the 2006 World Cup in Germany, Adidas builds a miniature copy of Berlin 1936 Olympic Stadium on the Platz der Republik. It is called World of Football. In 2005 already many locations are in discussion for this venue in the Berlin Senate. Adidas, the major sponsor of the World Cup, proposes to rent the Palast der Republik, with the idea of disguising it in the Olympiastadion; instead the Senate promptly decides to accelerate the time of demolition of the Palace, a much debated GDR political eyesore.

In March 2006 the final location of choice is the 40.000 square meter grass field in front of the Reichstag, where people play frisbee (soccer is here strictly forbidden since the Reichstag reopening of 1999). The field is immediately covered in asphalt. The new 1:3 scale copy of the Olympic Stadium is a steel structure that contains two large screens for all 64 soccer games shown here. It hosts also a stage for concerts and a TV studio for Premiere. Outside the structure is covered with facsimile prints of the Olympic Stadium’s facade. The field in the middle of the arena is in astroturf for VIP games. Regular visitors can play soccer in six fields laid out outside.

By November 2006 Platz der Republik is back in its previous version, the asphalt surface is carried away, quickly substituted with real turf. 5.000 plants for the hedges and 52 trees are replanted looking like they had always been there. Adidas is in possession of a photographic survey of the original trees previous of cutting. The cost of the reconstruction is still unknown.

The 2006 Fussball-WM is a turning point for Berlin, this is the first time the city is perceived as a tourist attraction in its broad entirety, including all its surfaces and artifacts without exception. Tiergarten with the permanent establishment of the “Fanmeile” (now “Festmeile”) has since changed forever.