Forum for Sport History invited AIMS representatives to a welcome lunch in the International Club in Berlin

The Forum for Sport History Berlin, the supporting association for the Berlin Sports Museum, and the Marathoneum invited prominent guests to a luncheon at the fancy International Club Berlin (ICB) at Theodor Heuss Platz on Thursday, September 25, 2015, three days before the 42^nd BERLIN MARATHON 2015.

For good reason: Paco Borao (Valencia, AIMS President) and Dave Cundy (Sydney, AIMS Vice President) and his wife Fran were visiting Berlin to pay their regards to the BERLIN MARATHON.

The BERLIN MARATHON is one of the highlights of the worldwide organization, receiving the honour of being named the "Marathon of the Decade" by AIMS a few years ago.

The Berlin Sport Museum – Marathoneum has also been known as the AIMS Museum since 1994, and this is where everything has been collected and documented about the history of the AIMS association since it inception. For years, the nearly 400 AIMS members have been sending us their documents and artifacts from their own running history, to ensure that they are preserved for coming generations. Every year, AIMS contributes funds to aid in the safeguarding of these archival materials.


Gerd Steins (President of the Forum for Sport History) welcomed the guests: Martina Behrendt, the head of the Berlin Sports Museum, Andreas Tosberg, representative from the state of Berlin, Claus Hollstein (Chairman of the private non-profit Hollstein Foundation), and Manfred Nippe (sport history advisor to the Berlin Sports Association and Vice President of the Forum for Sport History), and he expressed his thanks to the AIMS Board of Directors and Board Members for their fabulous support of the museum and its archival work.

Paco Borao emphasized in his statement the importance of the Marathoneum for AIMS and for the sport of running, describing the museum as the"Pride of AIMS" and unique in the world!

After the official dinner at ICB, they visited the exhibition rooms of the Berlin Sport Museum in in the House of German Sports in the Berlin Olympic Park. A very important part of their tour was that of the work and storage rooms of the various archives and collections of the Sports Museum. In particular, this is where the sorted and computerized materials from numerous running event organisers are stored and waiting to be archived.

This includes not only the inventory from AIMS events, but also that from events organised by members of German Road Races ( GRR ) and German athletics sports events as well as donations from the collections of many athletics friends and functionaries.

One of the highlights of the holdings of Marathoneum is the collection donated by Dr. David Martin (Atlanta, GA / USA), which was given to the Marathoneum under the name "Dr. David Martin Collection."This collection is his life's work , which is unparalleled in the world of athletics and the sport of running . In the future, his collected treasures will be accessable online – but this will take some time.

The AIMS Board representatives Paco Borao and Dave Cundy also attended various events at the BERLIN MARATHON, such as the official AIMS stand at the marathon expo, where they also visited the German AIMS members including the Dusseldorf Marathon, Frankfurt Marathon, and Hannover Marathon, who were manning their own stands there.

They also attended the marathon get-together on Friday at the celebration hall at "Bolle", were at the start and finish of the marathon, attended private events, and were also at the post-party with John Kunkeler at the club Kunstfabrik Schlot, reflecting on the day together with the pacemakers and a few beers.

For AIMS President Paco Borao and Vice President Dave Cundy, the visit to Berlin and its two main AIMS highlights, the "Marathoneum" and the BERLIN MARATHON, was a great delight.

Horst Milde

The Berlin Sport Museum – Marathoneum is an official museum of the state of Berlin with 5.5 full-time sports historians. The museum is located in the Berlin Olympic Park.

Berlin Sport Museum – Marathoneum
Haus des Deutschen Sports
Olympiapark Berlin
Hanns-Braun-Straße
D-14053 Berlin
Tel: +49 (0)30-3 05 83 00
Fax: +49 (0)30-3 05 83 40

Exhibit opening hours:
Mo – Fr: 10 am – 2 pm
Entrance to the exhibits: Free
Handicap-accessible upon request

Public Transit: Subway U2 to Olympic Stadium, 12 min walk
Parking is only possible outside of the sports venue.
Attention: Dogs are not permitted in the Berlin Olympic Park

Location:

General Information on the Berlin Sports Museum – Marathoneum

Berlin Sports Museum – AIMS Marathon Marathoneum – NEWS

“The artifact of the month”

 

Downloads

Welcome speech by Gerd Steins – President of  Forum für Sportgeschichte

German Road Races e.V. (GRR) auf facebook:
https://de-de.facebook.com/germanroadraces

German Road Races e.V. (GRR) auf twitter:
https://twitter.com/germanroadraces