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Draft for exhibition space in the future Sports Museum ©MuseumsJournal
The new permanent exhibit at the Berlin Sports Museum (Marathoneum) – Spielfeld Berlin (Berlin Playing Fields) – By Andreas Pinkow
The Berlin Sports Museum boasts the most extensive and diverse sports collection in Germany, but until now did not have space for a permanent public exhibit.
Starting in 2019, the Spielfeld Berlin (Berlin Playing Fields) concept will present Berlin's sport history in a new permanent exhibit in the historically protected Maifeldtribüne (Mayfield Grandstands) at the Glockenturm (Bell Tower) in the Olympic Park.
The original Berlin Sports Museum was destroyed in 1934; the fact that Berlin once again has a sports museum is testamony for the dynamic social changes of our times and proof of the importance of sports in society.
The dramaturgical main idea of the concept is the categorization of the exhibit into the Playing Fields of Berlin-eight representative topographical and historical sporting locations:
Schlossplatz (Palace Square), Hasenheide, Tempelhofer Feld (Tempelhof Field), Sportpalast (Sport Palace), Charlottenburg, Jahnsportpark (Jahn Sport Park), Hohenschönhausen and the Olympic Park.
For each area, spatial images have been created that tell the story of how the development of the culture of movement has influenced the Berlin community, and vice versa. Objects and media portray how sport can provide information about the organization of a society, its paradigms, and hierarchies.
An impressive collection of objects will embellish and provide a backdrop for the stories: sports and training equipment, competition equipment, athletic clothing and gear from various sports, which either tell a special story, are creations or innovations made in Berlin, have disappeared from sports and and are pretty much unheard of today, or that represent changes in technological developments.
A side building will provide space for additional concepts of the exhibit:
An interactive sports lab will bring sport history to life for kids and youth; the collection Marathoneum focusses on running as a human and cultural life phenomenom; and there will be additional exhibition space for special exhibits. The museum culminates in an extra room for museum pedagogy and events.
By visiting the museum and participating in pedagogical museum workshops, the various target groups will gain an appreciation for the dynamics of social change in sports, leading to further inquiries about the commercialization and politicization of sports, as well as the professionalization of mass sports.
Berlin clearly demonstrates that sport history is also social history.
Andreas Pinkow is the founder of Focus + Echo and has been contracted by the Kulturprojekte Berlin, in close collaboration with the Sports Museum and the Forum for Sport History, to design the Berlin Sports Museum.
The article first appeared in MuseumsJournal 2/2017, p. 20.
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