History
Work on the stadium, the Deutsches Stadion ("German Stadium"), began in 1912 at what was the Grunewald Race Course. It was planned to seat over 18,000 spectators. On 8 June 1913 the stadium was dedicated with the release of 10,000 pigeons. 60,000 people were in attendance.
At the outbreak of World War I in 1914, organization continued as no one expected that the war would continue for several years. Eventually, though, the Games were cancelled.
A winter sports week with speed skating, figure skating, ice hockey and nordic skiing was planned; the concept of this week eventually gave rise to the Winter Olympic Games. The central venue was to have been the Deutsches Stadion. Berlin returned to Olympic bidding in 1931, when it beat Barcelona, Spain for the right to host the 1936 Summer Olympics.
Read more about this topic: 1916 Summer Olympics
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The history of any nation follows an undulatory course. In the trough of the wave we find more or less complete anarchy; but the crest is not more or less complete Utopia, but only, at best, a tolerably humane, partially free and fairly just society that invariably carries within itself the seeds of its own decadence.”
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963)
“In the history of the United States, there is no continuity at all. You can cut through it anywhere and nothing on this side of the cut has anything to do with anything on the other side.”
—Henry Brooks Adams (1838–1918)
“I cannot be much pleased without an appearance of truth; at least of possibility—I wish the history to be natural though the sentiments are refined; and the characters to be probable, though their behaviour is excelling.”
—Frances Burney (1752–1840)