Choreography of masses

Following the Football European Championship UEFA EURO 2012, in this book the Akademie der Künste in Berlin focuses on the stadium as a key public space and as a venue for holding mass events. Volkwin Marg, a member of the Akademie and a founding partner of gmp von Gerkan, Marg and Partners architects, presents the historico-cultural interplay of sport, architecture, and fan culture, together with the historian of architecture Gert Kähler and Michael Kuhn (gmp). The content of the six chapters ranges from the sacred background to contests in ancient times to the current politicization and commercialization of sport. The authors place sport and sporting venues in the context of social and political circumstances in ancient times, under National Socialism and in the post-war era, with the stadium as the architectural reflection of the social structure.