BERLIN (Reuters) – England face Spain in the Euro 2024 final on Sunday at the site of an infamous moment in their football history when the players gave the Nazi salute to the Olympiastadion crowd before the start of their 1938 friendly against Germany in Berlin.
Adolf Hitler was not there that day but Joseph Goebbels, Hermann Goering and Rudolf Hess were in the crowd as England’s players raised their arms to give the ‘Heil Hitler’ salute during Germany’s national anthem ahead of the game.
Neville Chamberlain’s British government was seeking appeasement with the Nazis, hoping to head off impending war.
The players were instructed before the match to give the Nazi salute, with the order coming from the Foreign Office for the sake of Anglo-German relations.
England won 6-3 but history has not looked kindly on the incident.
The Olympiastadion then held over 100,000 spectators, having been built for the 1936 Olympics where Black American sprinter Jesse Owens’ four gold medals punctured the Nazi myth of Aryan racial superiority.
If Owens’ achievements at the Berlin Games won him a place among the great all-time athletes, then Usain Bolt’s 9.58 seconds 100 metres world record at the stadium in 2009 at the world athletics championship sets him out as the best ever.
The Jamaican also ran 19.19 seconds in the 200 at the same meeting, a mark that also still stands some 15 years on.
Since World War Two, the Olympiastadion has had several renovations, notably ahead of the 2006 World Cup when a gigantic oval-shaped roof was installed and the stands extended further downwards, so that the crowds are closer to the playing surface.
Berlin hosted the final, another game remembered for a notorious incident rather than the action. Zinedine Zidane’s head-butt on the chest of Italy defender Marco Materazzi saw the France midfielder sent off and the Italians won on penalties.
The stadium is home to the German Cup final every season but its regular tenants Hertha Berlin slipped down to the second division last year, and attendances declined. Rivals Union Berlin played their Champions League matches there last season.
England remain unbeaten after five visits to the stadium, the last a 3-2 friendly win over Germany in March 2016.
Spain, whose only previous match at the Olympiastadion was in 1942, started their European Championship campaign at the venue with a 3-0 victory over Croatia that set the tone for their progress to Sunday’s final.
(Reporting by Mark Gleeson; Editing by Ken Ferris)
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