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

Book Presentation, Reading

After 1945, the GDR leadership went to great lengths to build prestigious sports facilities in East Berlin, which have now almost completely disappeared. Using the Walter Ulbricht Stadium, the Friedrich Ludwig Jahn Sports Park, and the Werner Seelenbinder Hall as examples, Ulrich Pfeil recounts the clearing of rubble and the reconstruction of the divided city. 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 systemic competition during the Cold War. The SED sought to demonstrate the superiority of socialism—not least through stadium construction.

The discussion that follows offers an opportunity to explore the book’s theme with regard to aspects of sports science as well as social and sociocultural issues related to the GDR and its architecture.

Program

Welcome: Prof. Dr. Axel Klausmeier, Director of the Berlin Wall Foundation

Keynote Address: Ulrich Pfeil, Historian, Université de Lorraine, Metz

Discussion with: Jutta Braun (Leibniz-Center for Contemporary Historical Research, Potsdam), Ulrich Pfeil, and Harald Engler (Leibniz-Institute for Spatial Social Research, Erkner)
Moderator: Prof. Dr. Axel Klausmeier

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

Translated with DeepL

Meeting point: Berlin Wall Memorial, Visitor Center, Bernauer Straße 119, 13355 Berlin

Booking: Please register at

Next date:

• Date Thursday, 24/September/2026 18:30 bis 20:00
• Venue Gedenkstätte Berliner Mauer
• Address Bernauer Straße 119, 13355 Berlin-Kreisfreie Stadt Berlin