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Rosemarie Ackermann jumped the 1977 world record in high jump at the Istaf
Photo: Chris Hoffmann / picture-alliance / dpa
Where the Berlin Olympic Stadium is today, there was a stadium a hundred years ago.
It was called the Grunewaldstadion, later it was called the German Stadium, with a lot of affinity for the capital.
It was torn down to make room - for Berlin's monstrous Olympic plans in the 1930s.
On July 3, 1921, the Berlin Sport Club, the Sport Club Charlottenburg and the Swimming Club Poseidon invited to an "International Stadium Festival" in the Grunewald Stadium, where athletics and swimming competitions were to take place.
At that time the festival was already abbreviated to Istaf.
A tradition was born.
Swimming has long ceased to exist, but the Istaf, the largest athletics festival in Germany, celebrates its 100th anniversary on Sunday.
The sports festival survived the World War, the division, it's still there.
It even took place in corona year 2020, in front of 3500 spectators.
The Istaf belongs to the city like the six-day race, like the Carnival of Cultures or the marathon.
Several times in its long history it was as good as dead, in the early seventies the organizers ran out of money, and in 2002 the sports festival faced bankruptcy again.
The long-time meeting boss Gerhard Janetzky bought the Istaf with partners and saved it with a relaunch over time.
Most of the time it's not the metropolises
Athletics meetings in Germany - it is mostly small places that have made a name for themselves: Rehlingen in Saarland, Eberstadt in Hesse, Rheinfelden in Baden-Württemberg, Wesel in North Rhine-Westphalia. Keeping athletics attractive and effective for so many years in a metropolis is a demanding job, also in view of the competition on offer. Especially since the stadium sports festival is usually scheduled in September, at the end of a long season. The record hunts are then mostly over, the season highs are exceeded.
The Istaf managed it anyway, also because it kept reinventing itself. On Sunday, in addition to the well-known athletics names such as Johannes Vetter, Malaika Mihambo, Karsten Warholm and Konstanze Klosterhalfen, Paralympic athletes will also compete: shot putter Niko Kappel, among others. Since 2014 there has been an indoor istaf, an indoor event in February. During his time as Istaf boss, Janetzky had the idea of betting on powerful duels.
There were still world records, 15 in this Istaf century.
GDR star Rosemarie Ackermann was the first woman to jump over 2 meters in the high jump in 1977, two years ago Gesa Krause ran the world record over the rarely run 2000 meter obstacle.
The creative inventing of competitions and running tracks that are not part of the Olympic program and in which records are then set is part of the portfolio of athletics meetings.
Without appropriate PR, such events will eventually run out of air.
Everyone was there once
This also includes the famous names that are needed for such a meeting. From Paavo Nurmi to Carl Lewis, from Sergej Bubka to Armin Hary, from Edwin Moses to Mike Powell, from Fanny Blankers-Koen to local hero Robert Harting, they have all been to the Istaf, the mythical figures of athletics. At the 1977 Istaf, where Ackermann set the world record in the high jump in the long-forgotten straddle style, the young Harald Schmid won the 400 meter hurdles just ahead of US star Edwin Moses, a historic event in retrospect. Then Moses remained undefeated in 119 races.
Pole vault superstar Bubka celebrated seven Istaf successes between 1985 and 1997 alone, Luz Long, the great rival of Jesse Owens, jumped 7.90 meters in the long jump in 1937 when the Istaf celebrated its premiere in the Olympic Stadium - a mark that was in Berlin was only surpassed for the first time almost 40 years later.
The vicissitudes of the weather are part of an open-air event like the Istaf.
In 1957 it was so hot in Berlin that only 9,000 people came to watch. Most West Berliners crowded into the Wannsee for a swim instead.
A year later, the track can no longer absorb the water after a downpour.
In 1968 they move to the Deutschlandhalle because the Olympic Games in Mexico move the date of the Istaf to October.
The topic of doping has an impact
An athletics meeting that has existed for so long - it is clear that the subject of doping also resonates.
No one has been convicted at Istaf in recent years.
"But I don't want to rule out that one or the other was not as clean as he presented himself," Janetzky said days ago on Deutschlandfunk.
The Istaf followed an ambivalent course in this regard.
Janetzky had repeatedly spoken out in favor of inviting doping sinners caught after their ban to the meeting.
On the other hand, invitations to athletes involved in doping cases such as Justin Gatlin or Dwain Chambers were also rejected.
Today's Istaf boss Martin Seeber likes to point out that one refrains from inviting athletes with a doping past.
Doping is an issue that has made it difficult for athletics to save their charisma from the past to the present. The Istaf notices that too. In order to keep the meeting fit for the future, those responsible let 800 children and young people take part in their own races at the Istaf. There is the “Istaf goes to school” initiative, in which those responsible advertise athletics in front of schools. Even with 100 years of history behind you, creating the future is hard work.
