Forum for Sports History Berlin honored with Heritage Plaque from World Athletics for preserving running history

On Tuesday (September 30, 2025), the Forum for Sports History Berlin was awarded the World Athletics Heritage Plaque (category: culture) for documenting and preserving the history of athletics and running since 1954.

The history of the Forum for Sports History began in 1954 with the founding of the Willy Kohlmey Circle in West-Berlin.

The Forum, which also includes the “AIMS Marathon – Museum of Running,” is based in the “Haus des Deutschen Sports” (House of German Sport) in Berlin’s Olympic Park, where it houses its collections, including a picture archive and the extensive marathon library of the late Dr. David Martin from Atlanta, USA.

Olympic Park Berlin – Photo: Forum for Sports History

Sebastian Coe, President of World Athletics, said: „With the award of the World Athletics Heritage Plaque, we are honoring the more than 70 years of work by the Forum for Sports History in Berlin, which is methodically engaged in researching, preserving, and promoting the history of running.

The Forum, led by its president Gerd Steins, is supported by many passionate enthusiasts such as Horst Milde, Martina Behrendt, Thomas Willaschek, and Dagmar Beer, and continues to make an invaluable contribution to the chronicle of our sporting history.

Our thanks also go to the Association of International Marathons and Distance Races (AIMS), which has supported the Forum for Sports History since 2008. The “AIMS Marathon Museum of Running,” also known as the “Marathoneum,” is maintained by the Forum and houses countless running treasures, including a milestone from the Olympic Marathon at the 1908 Olympic Games in London, where the current marathon distance of 26 miles and 385 yards was run for the first time.

The president of the Forum for Sports History, Gerd Steins, commented: commented: „My colleagues and I are delighted to receive the Heritage Plaque, which will spur us on to further efforts for the Marathon Museum in Berlin.

“We would like to thank everyone in Germany and abroad who has supported the Marathon Museum since 1994 with many objects, advice, assistance, and donations. Without this many years of tremendous help, the Marathoneum would not have been possible, and we ask you to continue to support our Marathon Museum in Berlin.”

Gerd Steins (left), President of the Forum for Sports History, with Pierre-Jean Vazel, Director of the World Athletics Archive & Museum – Photo: Forum for Sports History/Jürgen Engler Berlin

The World Athletics Plaque, which honors the long-standing work of the Forum for Sports History and its founder, the Willy Kohlmey Circle, was presented on Tuesday by Pierre-Jean Vazel, Director of the World Athletics Archive & Museum. The occasion was the conclusion of the first day of a three-day conference of the Forum for Sports History on the topic of German sports museums, archives, and collections. “Strengthening the memory of sport. Promoting discourse on sports history.”

The World Athletics Heritage Plaque will be permanently displayed in the colonnade in the atrium of the “House of German Sport.”

World Athletics Heritage

The Heritage Plaque was presented during a ceremony on Tuesday, September 10, 2025, at 7:00 p.m. in the Coubertin Hall of the Manfred von Richthofen House of the Berlin State Sports Federation, Jesse-Owens-Allee. It was part of the 12th DAGS Symposium, which took place in Berlin from September 30 to October 2, 2025, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the “Museum für Leibesübungen” (Museum of Physical Exercise) in Berlin.

The World Athletics Heritage Plaque award is similar to the Nobel Prize or the World Heritage Award in that it is the highest recognition an organization can achieve.

Gerd Steins and his team, as well as the city of Berlin – and, of course, the founding fathers – can be more than proud of what they have achieved, which also serves as a foundation and “memory” for future generations.

Gerd Steins, his biography, and his extensive life’s work in the historical reappraisal of sports are presented in the appendix.

Horst Milde

Steins Gerd – Biography – Work and Honorary Position (german)

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