The month of August was very successful for the Berlin Sports Museum – AIMS Marathon Museum of Running regarding additions to the collection. There were a great number of donations to the archives.

For many years a very import part of the collection of the Berlin Sports Museum – AIMS Marathon Museum of Running was focused on the "Big guys of running", the World Marathon Majors, such as the New York City Marathon, the London Marathon, the Boston, the Chicago Marathon – and of course the Berlin-Marathon – as well as the Berlin Half Marathon and the 25 km Run Berlin. Through the promotional activities of the Berlin Marathon both nationally and internationally, many documents, posters and souvenirs made their way to Berlin from, for example, the visited marathon expos. In addition, many participants from these events were now ready to part with their mementos and have passed them on to the museum.

At the traditional meetings of the World Marathon Majors and recently at the Olympic marathon races in London in 2012, we have had the opportunity to encourage the organisers to provide us with more of the materials we are still missing for the running and marathon museum.

Allan Steinfeld, the long-time race director of the New York City Marathon and former president of the New York Road Runners Club, was presented on the GRR website a while ago for his gift of t-shirts from the New York City Marathon, which belongs to the core of the museum's collection.

In 1980, Bernd Hübner and Manfred Templin already visited the NYC Marathon and brought back materials from it. As I have been a member of the New York Road Runners Club myself since 1981, I received monthly mailings with running information, magazines and brochures. Guenter Erich, now from New Jersey but formerly from Berlin, sent us some really old materials from the Road Runners Club. In this fairly large collection in Berlin we have, for instance, over 100 posters from the NYC Marathon.

Since 1981, the Berlin promotional team has been participating in the expo for the London Marathon; there are many artefacts from this marathon in Berlin as well. The Chicago Marathon is well represented, and following a meeting at the London Olympics in 2012, Chicago sent us press guides, programs and lists of results.  There is still some catching up to do there.

Boston, as the oldest marathon, had its 100-year anniversary in 1996. Since then the collection has had considerable additions. Gerd Steins from the promotional organisation for the Berlin Sports Museum was there in 1996 to collect as many materials as possible from the event for the museum. Unique items from Boston have already been on display in Berlin, such as the race number Bill Rodgers wore when he won the race in 1980, as well as the honorary prize presented to the only German victor, Paul de Bruyn, in 1932 – a clock! A large banner from the Boston Marathon decorates the wall in one of the exhibition rooms.

Peter Christ, long-time treasurer for AIMS, presented to the museum photos from the 3^rd AIMS World Congresses in Berlin in 1985 – as well as many pins and patches from various international AIMS members and a few novelties from ISTAF Berlin.

Gordon Rogers/Canada is a long-time member of the AIMS executive committee and is responsible for controlling the measuring of the courses for the AIMS members. The museum received several books specialising in course measurement from him for the library.

Daniel Büchel delivered 2 race numbers from the Berlin Ekiden (relay from Potsdam to Berlin) from 1990/1991 and 1992, an event inspired by the Japanese.  The museum already had programmes from the event in the archives, but no race numbers, so that is a nice addition. Here is Büchel's report from this race:

Artefact ‘Race Numbers RHH-1 and M2-5' from the Ekiden Relay Potsdam-Berlin on November 8, 1992

Race No. RHH-1 from Daniel Büchel, starting runner for the Rheinhessen select team, 28:41 for 8.5 km – total time: 2:17:28 (39^th place) und Race No. M2-5 from Reiner Huber, final runner for the mixed team for the German select team, 36:07 for 10.595 km – total time: 2:17:43 (40^th place)

The Ekiden Marathon Relay, a relay from Potsdam to Berlin, which was called to life to celebrate the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1990, took place for the third time on November 8, 1992. Each team had five runners who ran stretches between 5 and 10.595 kilometres to reach the total 42.195 km of the classic marathon course. Taking part were Daniel Büchel as starting runner for the Rheinhessen select team and Reiner Huber, who came to Berlin as a substitute runner for the Rheinhessen team but who ended up running as the final runner for the German national mixed relay team. He described the event:

‘On the morning of November 8, 1992, 40 runners prepared for their mission at Cecilienhof, which is known as the site of the Potsdam Conference in 1945. Among the runners was Fita Bayessa from Ethiopia, who later won the bronze medal at the World Championships in the 5000m race in Stuttgart in 1993. Everyone had the same goal, to pass on the baton to their relay teammates on the Glienicke Bridge after 8.5 kilometres. In addition to teams from 20 state organisations of the German Athletics Association and the national mixed relay, there were 19 other national teams.' The media accurately described the goal of the select teams from the German states: ‘Being there to watch and learn from the world's best athletes while giving your best.'

At the end, Ethiopia won the international competition in 1:57:03 ahead of the tied teams from Germany and Kenya. The young Haile Gebreselassie, who was a junior at the time, was 30 seconds faster than Dieter Baumann over 5 km, who had won Olympic gold in the 5000m just one month earlier in Barcelona. The first relay team in the state completion was Berlin I in 2:07:42 with Steffen Dittmann and Michael Heilmann."

Isabell and Thomas Hübner from Dresden sent in a bunch of materials from the Rennsteiglauf, including race numbers, certificates, medals, participant information and t-shirts, as well as other race novelties. That provided a helpful and necessary addition to the artefacts already in the collection.

Jürgen Feil from Bietigheim-Bissingen participated several times in the classic event "100 km of Biel" – and he gave the museum older race numbers from 1980 and 1986, the Biel programme from 1992, photos, his hand-written "march chart" with the "planned times" and "real times", as well as the newspaper Bieler Tagblatt from 1991 with the list of results. His donation also included a "certificate" from the Schwarzwald Marathon in 1978, as well as a programme and video from the New Year's Eve Bietigheimer Silvesterlauf in 2002.

One very special artefact that now belongs to the museum is a signed boxing glove that belonged to World Champion boxer Arthur Abraham, which was presented to the museum by his wife, Bärbel Pfennig.

The AIMS members and event organisers are very important to the collection and documentation of athletics and international running, who send us their materials and items. They are the mainstay of the AIMS Marathon Museum of Running. The museum thus kindly asks that donations continue to be made to constantly improve and strengthen the collection.

 

Horst Milde

 

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More information about "The Artefact of the Month":

 

“The Artefact of the Month” No I. – Rare museum artefacts from the Berlin Sports Museum – AIMS Marathon Museum of Running – The Starting Pistol – Horst Milde reports

 

Artefact of the Month” No. II. – Museum Rarities from the Berlin Sports Museum – AIMS Museum of Running – The New York City Marathon – Current Gifts – Horst Milde Reports

 

“The Artefact of the Month” III. – Rare museum artefacts from the Berlin Sports Museum – AIMS Marathon Museum of Running – Dr. David Martin (Atlanta, GA) and his donations to the Berlin Sports Museum – AIMS Marathon Museum of Running – Current Donations – Horst Milde reports

 

"The Artefact of the Month" IV. – Museum Rarities from the Berlin Sports Museum – AIMS Museum of Running – Wim Verhoorn / NED and his Gifts to the Berlin Sports Museum – AIMS Marathon Museum of Running – Current Gifts – Horst Milde Reports

 

"The Artefact of the Month" V. – Museum Rarities from the Berlin Sports Museum – AIMS Museum of Running – Bernd Hübner / Berlin and his Gifts to the Berlin Sports Museum – AIMS Marathon Museum of Running – Current Gifts – Horst Milde Reports

"The Artefact of the Month" VI. – Museum Rarities from the Berlin Sports Museum – AIMS Marathon Museum of Running – The “Golden Shoe” from the AIMS/ASICS World Athlete of the Year Award. Horst Milde Reports

 

Berlin Sports Museum – "AIMS Marathon Museum of Running" receives the "David E. Martin Collection" – The "Artefact of the Decade"!

 

"The Artifact of the Month" VII. – Museum Rarities from the Berlin Sports Museum – AIMS Marathon Museum of Running – Victah Sailer and his donation. Horst Milde Reports

 

"The Artifact of the Month" VIII. – Museum Rarities from the AIMS Marathon Museum of Running – Berlin Sports Museum – Tokyo Marathon and Athens Classic Marathon – Horst Milde Reports

 

"The Artifact of the Month" IX. – Museum Rarities from the AIMS Marathon Museum of Running – Berlin Sports Museum – The PUMA Sprint Spike from Usain Bolt – Horst Milde Reports