BERLIN, June 12, 2006 (AFP) - The memories of 20th century politics and politically-charged sporting events past will Tuesday provide a silent, slightly eerie, backdrop for the first match of this World Cup to be hosted in Berlin. The honour of opening the action in the capital falls to holders Brazil and Croatia, Munich having been accorded the accolade for the tournament curtain-raiser between Germany and Costa Rica. Berlin's 66,000-capacity Olympic Stadium is the backdrop for the entrance of the samba stars. The stadium has been given a major 240 million-euro (280 million dollars) overhaul since its use for the 1974 tournament which the old West Germany hosted. The Brazilians met Germany to mark the September 2004 inauguration of the venue but it has not escaped the notice of many observers that this is a venue with an unparalleled history which rises above even a tournament as big as a 21st Century World Cup. And whereas 'The Beautiful Game' is the epitome of sporting entertainment the Olympic Stadium is additionally no stranger to politics and international relations marred by politics's ugliest guise. War. The stadium's history goes back to 1912, when the International Olympic Committee decided Berlin should host a Summer Olympics in 1916. No sooner had the blueprint come to the fore than World War I got in the way of the entire project. But eventually, in 1931, the IOC designated Berlin for the 1936 Games. However, Adolf Hitler's Nazi Party came to power in 1933 and Hitler quickly saw a propaganda tool, using the annexe to the stadium for speeches where he would whip huge crowds into a frenzy. As a result of the Nazi regime the architects produced a series of statues of Aryan musclemen, the figures the work of Arno Breker, a sculptor whose work was endorsed by the Nazis. With the statues easily visible around the complex which will host the July 9 final, a German activist behind the successful campaign to build a Holocaust memorial in Berlin earlier this month called for the sculptures to be covered up. "The sculptures of Arno Breker, at least, should be veiled," Lea Rosh told Bild newspaper. "It should also be explained to the public why this is done. Breker was a big Nazi," she added. But the dozen statues, standing about six metres (20 feet) high, remain and, coupled with the majestic scope of the renovated venue, the stadium complex has a somewhat eerie atmosphere for keen students of German political history. "It sends a bit of a shiver down your spine, given the history of the site," one German reporter observed contemplating the vast circular roof of the stadium. The 1936 Olympic Games incarnation, scene of Jesse Owen's four gold medal-winning performances, was the backdrop for the fabled "Olympia" documentary produced by Leni Riefenstahl, an actress-turned-producer who filmed Nazi rallies in Berlin and Nuremberg. Today, Owens, who single-handedly destroyed the Nazi myth of the superiority of the Aryan Master Race to the fury of the watching Hitler, is remembered with a large thoroughfare outside the stadium - Jesse Owens Allee. Hitler did later meet with Owens - warmly congratulating him - but refused to have photographs taken of the moment which was better than President Franklin Delano Roosevelt back in the United States, who refused point blank to meeting the athlete. In all the stadium, comprising a new glass and steel roof and renovated by Hamburg-based von Gerkan, Marg and Partners, will host six matches - four group matches, a quarter-final and the trophy match.
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