This article focuses on the stadium as a site of cultural space. Its key example is that of the Olympiastadion, which was built for the Munich Olympics 1972 and subsequently passed on to Germany's largest soccer club, Bayern Munich. It examines a double problematic relation: that between architecture and the legacy of history (World War II), typified by the stadium's original purpose of presenting a New Germany on the world stage, and that between symbolism and the body, exemplified by the soccer club's abandonment of the site. The article poses wider questions about the role of bodies and history in the discipline of sports geography.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Assmann, J. (1997). Das kulturelle Gedächtnis. Schrift, Erinnerung und politische Identität in frühen Hochkulturen [Cultural memory: Writing, memory and political identity in early advanced civilizations]. Munich: Beck.
2.
Bale, J. (1989). Sports geography. London: E. & F. N. Spon.
3.
Bale, J. (1993a). The spatial development of sport. Review for the Sociology of Sport, 28(2/3), 122-133.
4.
Bale, J. (1993b). Sport, space and the city. London: Routledge.
5.
Bale, J. (1994). Landscapes of modern sport. Leicester, UK: Leicester University Press.
6.
Bale, J. (1995). The stadium as theatre: A metaphor for our times. In J. Bale & O. Moen (Eds.), The stadium and the city (pp. 311-322). Keele, UK: Keele University Press.
7.
Bale, J. (2000). Human geography and the study of sport. In J. Coakley & E. Dunning (Eds.), Handbook of sports studies (pp. 171-186). London: Sage.
8.
Beckenbauer, F. (1987). Meine Gegner, meine Freunde: Stationen einer Karriere [My opponents, my friends: Important moments in a career]. Hamburg, Germany: Rasch und Röhring.
9.
Blundell Jones, P. (2000). Günther Behnisch. Basle, UK: Birkhäuser.
10.
Connerton, P. (1989). How societies remember. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
11.
Dürr, A. (2000, December 7). Kein Großumbau des Olympiastadions [No major renovation of the Olympic Stadium]. Süddeutsche Zeitunghttp. Retrieved from http://www.sueddeutsche.de/stadion
12.
Eichberg, H. (1973). Der Weg des Sports in die moderne Zukunft [The development of sport into the modern future]. Baden-Baden, Germany: Koerner.
13.
Eichberg, H. (1995). Stadium, pyramid, labyrinth: Eye and body on the move. In J. Bale & O. Moen (Eds.), The stadium and the city (pp. 323-347). Keele, UK: Keele University Press.
14.
Eichberg, H. (1998). Body cultures: Essays on sport, space and identity. London: Routledge.
15.
Filser, H. (2002, February 22). Der Fall ist rund. Ein Objekt der Begierde: Jacques Herzog und Pierre de Meuron über das Münchener Fußballstadion. [Interview]. Süddeutsche Zeitunghttp. Retrieved from http://www.sueddeutsche.de/stadion
16.
Gregory, D. (1994). Geographical imaginations. Oxford, UK: Blackwell.
17.
Grzimek, G. (1992). Gedanken zur Gestaltung der Olympialandschaft [Thoughts on the construction of the Olympic landscape]. In J.-K. Schmidt & U. Zeller (Eds.), Behnisch und Partner. Bauten 1952-1992 [Behnisch and Partners. Buildings 1952-1992] (pp. 33-41). Stuttgart, Germany: Verlag Gerd Hatje.
18.
Hill, J., & Varrasi, F. (1997). Creating Wembley: The construction of a national monument. Sports Historian, 17(2), 28-43.
19.
Hornby, N. (1992). Fever pitch. London: Victor Gollancz.
20.
Inglis, S. (1990). The football grounds of Europe. London: Collins.
21.
Knapp, G. (2000, January 28). Frankensteins Stadion [Frankenstein's stadium]. Süddeutsche Zeitung. Retrieved from http://www.sueddeutsche.de/stadion
22.
Lefebvre, H. (1976). The survival of capitalism: Reproduction of the relations of production. London: Allison and Busby.
23.
Lefebvre, H. (1991). The production of space. Oxford, UK: Blackwell.
24.
Leist, K.-H. (2000, July 17). Poesie statt Hexenkessel [Poetry rather than witches' cauldron]. Süddeutsche Zeitung. Retrieved from http://www.sueddeutsche.de/stadion
25.
Maguire, J. (1995). Sport, the stadium and metropolitan life. In J. Bale & O. Moen (Eds.), The stadium and the city (pp. 45-58). Keele, UK: Keele University Press.
26.
Mandell, R. (1984). Sport: A cultural history. New York: Columbia University Press.
27.
Markovits, A. (1988). The other American “exceptionalism”—why there is no soccer in the United States. Praxis International, 8(2), 125-150.
28.
Markovits, A. (1990). The other “American exceptionalism”: Why is there no soccer in the United States? International Journal of the History of Sport, 7(2), 230-264.
29.
Markovits, A., & Hellerman, S. L. (2001). Offside: Soccer and American exceptionalism. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
30.
Markovits, A. S., & Hellerman, S. L. (2003). The “Olympianization” of soccer in the United States. American Behavioral Scientist, 46(11).
31.
Meinig, D. (Ed.). (1979). The beholding eye. In The interpretation of ordinary landscapes (pp. 33-48). New York: Oxford University Press.
32.
Nielsen, N. K. (1995). The stadium in the city: A modern story. In J. Bale & O. Moen (Eds.), The stadium and the city (pp. 21-44). Keele, UK: Keele University Press.
33.
Nora, P. (1985-1992). Lieux de memoire [Places of memory]. Paris: Gallimard.
34.
Official Report of the 1972 Olympic Games. Die Spiele (1973). Die Organisation [Official report: The games] (Vol. 1). Munich: proSport München.
35.
Raitz, K. (1987). Perception of sport landscapes and gratification in the sport experience. Sport Place, 1(1), 49-62.
36.
Riehl-Heyse, H. (2000, November 3). Blessierte Helden einer Kesselschlacht [The wounded heroes of the battle of encirclement]. Süddeutsche Zeitung. Retrieved from http://www.sueddeutsche.de/stadion
37.
Rosenfeld, G. D. (2000). Munich and memory: Architecture, monuments, and the legacy of the Third Reich. Berkeley: University of California Press.
38.
Sugden, J., & Tomlinson, A. (2002). International power struggles in the governance of world football: The 2002 and 2006 World Cup bidding wars. In J. Horne & W. Manzenreiter (Eds.), Japan, Korea and the 2002 World Cup (pp. 56-70). London: Routledge.
39.
Wagner, P. L. (1981). Sport: Culture and geography. In A. Pred (Ed.), Space and time in geography: Essays dedicated to Torsten Hägerstrand (pp. 85-108). Gleerup, UK: Lund.
