Abandoned venues of the Rio Olympics just 6 months later: Update - all abandoned Olympic venues

[tru_m.a.c]

Hitler's abandoned Olympic Village is a decaying concrete wasteland





The 1936 Berlin Olympics are shrouded in myth and tragedy.

Just as Adolf Hitler was rising to power, the International Olympic Committee granted the German capital the right to host in 1931. Banners bearing the swastika soon hung beside the iconic Olympic flag.

Today, the 1936 Olympic Village, located in Elstal, Wustermark, on the edge of Berlin, remains, but it is in ruins. Photographer Sylvain Margaine visited for his book, "Forbidden Places: Exploring our abandoned heritage," and website Forbidden-Places.net.

With permission, we've published a selection of his photos here.

View As: One Page Slides



In 1931, Berlin won the right to host the 1936 Summer Games. The city threw all available resources behind an extravagant village, erecting 145 buildings and a 120,000-seat stadium.

As construction of the Olympic Village ramped up, so did the Nazis' reign. The newly passed Nuremberg Laws marginalized Jews and stripped them of most political rights.

Here we see Hitler, center, and two aides entering the Olympic Village for an inspection. The gateway inscription reads, "To the Youth of the World."

Jewish and leftist groups threatened to boycott the Games, but the International Olympic Committee insisted that the games' message of unity would tame the Third Reich.

Of course, the Games accomplished no such feat. While Hitler’s regime dialed back its persecution of Jews that summer, it went on to commit some of the gravest crimes in human history.

Today the 1936 Berlin Olympic Village is in ruins. Photographer Sylvain Margaine visited the site for his book, "Forbidden Places: Exploring our abandoned heritage."

The House of Nations, a main dining hall, was the centerpiece of Berlin's Olympic Village.

The large, horseshoe-shaped building housed 38 dining rooms, designated for different countries participating in the Games.

Records show that in three weeks, participants consumed 100 cows, 91 pigs, over 650 lambs, and 8,000 pounds of coffee — mostly prepared here, in the kitchen.

When athletes weren't wining and dining, they were training. The gymnasium was once sunlit and airy.

A indoor pool allowed swimmers and divers to practice and relax before competition. It now sits empty and unused.

Conservationists spent a reported $2.25 million restoring the pool house's roof.

The changing rooms, once painted in electric shades of blue and olive, have since decayed.

In the amphitheater, a base-relief sculpture by German artist Walter von Ruckteschell depicts German troops marching.

This drawing of Russian revolutionary leader Vladimir Ilyich Lenin points to what became of the historic Olympic Village. The facilities later served as a German military academy, then a hospital for troops wounded in World War II.

Eventually the area became an interrogation and torture center under Communist rule. For 50 years, Soviet forces occupied the grounds. These barracks remain, rotting away on the village outskirts.

Edit: The links died so I'm updating the OP below:

• 
  
  Spoiler: Berlin 1936

  [*]
  

  

  
  JOHN MACDOUGALL/AFP/Getty Images
  View of the swimming pool in the 1936 Olympic village in Elstal, west of Berlin, on May 5, 2008.
  [*]

  

  
  JOHN MACDOUGALL/AFP/Getty Images
  View of the swimming pool in the 1936 Olympic village in Elstal, west of Berlin, on May 5, 2008.
  [*]

  

  
  Montag/ullstein bild/Getty Images
  Deserted houses for the athletes in the former Olympic Village (Olympic Games 1936 in Berlin). Here, a wasted bathroom at the “Jesse Owens House.”
  [*]

  

  
  Ritter/ullstein bild/Getty Images
  Deserted houses for the athletes in the former Olympic Village (Olympic Games 1936 in Berlin).
  [*]

  

  
  Montag/ullstein bild/Getty Images
  Deserted houses for the athletes in the former Olympic Village (Olympic Games 1936 in Berlin).
  [*]

  

  
  Martin Sachse/ullstein bild/Getty Images
  Deserted houses for the athletes in the former Olympic Village (Olympic Games 1936 in Berlin).
  [*]

  

  
  Martin Sachse/ullstein bild/Getty Images
  Deserted houses for the athletes in the former Olympic Village.
  [*]

  

  
  Martin Sachse/ullstein bild/Getty Images
  Deserted houses for the athletes in the former Olympic Village.
  [*]

  

  
  Martin Sachse/ullstein bild/Getty Images
  Deserted houses for the athletes in the former Olympic Village.
  [*]

  

  
  Martin Sachse/ullstein bild/Getty Images
  Deserted houses for the athletes in the former Olympic Village.

 

[Scoop]

Should be revitalized into low income housing

 

[EndDomination]

Should be revitalized into low income housing

I was actually thinking it could be revitalised into temporary housing for refugees that country has accepted.
Not like its being used for anything else.
I wonder how much it costs to purchase, I know France sold a castle for like $4Ms a few years ago.

 

[Scoop]

I was actually thinking it could be revitalised into temporary housing for refugees that country has accepted.
Not like its being used for anything else.
I wonder how much it costs to purchase, I know France sold a castle for like $4Ms a few years ago.

Pretty sure Germany already owns it. They could do whatever with it.

I'm more inclined to take care of your own poor before giving free housing to refugees.

 

[hashmander]

well once they've accepted the refugees they've become germany's poor too.

 

[Poh SIti Dawn]

Should be revitalized into low income housing

For syrian placement?

Good idea.

Never knew this existed in Berlin, thought u were talking about Nuremberg at first lol.

 

[tru_m.a.c]

Should be revitalized into low income housing

I was actually thinking it could be revitalised into temporary housing for refugees that country has accepted.
Not like its being used for anything else.
I wonder how much it costs to purchase, I know France sold a castle for like $4Ms a few years ago.

I'm sure the bacterial decay and degradation will cost a grip. You'd have to rig up new plumbing, prevent led and asbestos poisoning, and go through a host of other precautionary measures to get the buildings up to code.

Then you'd have to get over the stigma of the are being a nazi holy grail and communist detention camp. Wild shyt.

 

[tru_m.a.c]

It's hard to believe that Rio de Janeiro hosted the Summer Olympics just six months ago.

Today, the Olympic Village has turned into a ghost town, and many of the venues have fallen into disrepair.

At the Maracana Stadium, the power has been turned off because there is nobody to pay the energy bill. Water in one practice pool is orange. Turf has turned brown and, along with countless stadium seats, inexplicably removed from the field.

And that doesn't even begin to describe the situation in Rio's favelas, which were supposed to be cleaned up ahead of the start of the Olympics. Instead, as Gizmodo noted, sewage and feces flow through the streets "in small rivers."

Of course, none of this should come as much of a surprise. Time and again we have seen Olympic hosts promise that the billions of dollars spent on the two-week spectacle would have a lasting effect on the local economy and its citizens only to watch silently as the venues are abandoned and begin to decay.

Here's what Rio's Olympic venues look like six months later.

Spoiler: Rio 2016

The Olympic golf course took three years to make and drew much ire because it was built in a national wildlife reserve. Now it's run-down and empty.

Nacho Doce/Reuters
The Olympic Village, too, is a ghost town.

Nacho Doce/Reuters
One practice pool has turned orange, and the structure next to it is quite literally falling apart.

Nacho Doce/Reuters
Here's a closer look at the eerie orange water ...

Pilar Olivares/Reuters
... and the nearby structure, where panels are falling off.

Pilar Olivares/Reuters
Inside the Aquatic Center, the pool is drained except for some unpleasant standing water.

Pilar Olivares/Reuters
A notice at the Deodoro Sports Complex reads "We are in recess."

Pilar Olivares/Reuters
An outside view of the Carioca Arenas, which hosted the basketball events and others.

Pilar Olivares/Reuters
Quite symbolically, this set of Olympic rings is half covered.

Silvia Izquierdo/AP
The famed Maracana Stadium has gone to waste.

Nacho Doce/Reuters

http://www.businessinsider.com/rio-...-wildlife-reserve-now-its-rundown-and-empty-1

 

[tru_m.a.c]

Spoiler: Rio 2016

The turf is brown, and patches are missing.

Mario Lobao/AP

Seats have been pried from the stands.

Silvia Izquierdo/AP


In one dugout, a trash can has been overturned and seats are crumbling.

Silvia Izquierdo/AP

Wires hang in a broadcast booth in the Maracana.

Silvia Izquierdo/AP

Here are seats at the Maracana.

Silvia Izquierdo/AP

Another depressing scene from the Olympic stadium.

Silvia Izquierdo/AP


The media center was recently demolished and is now a health hazard.

Mario Tama/Getty

Here's a closer view of the trash left over from the demolition of the media center.

Mario Tama/Getty

The beach volleyball venue is used sporadically.

Pilar Olivares/Reuters

Thousands of favelas residents were displaced during construction of the Olympic venues, and the favelas that were supposed to be improved ahead of time have only gotten worse.

Chris McGrath/Getty

Source: CBC


Craziest of all, the Olympics were only six months ago.

Pilar Olivares/Reuters

 

[Robbie3000]

Pathetic. Atlanta might be the only city to leverage on the Olympics to promote growth in the city.

 

[FaTaL]

They use one of the World Cup stadiums to park their transit buses

 

[mbewane]

This is not gonna sound like I want it to, but the Olympics should only take place in cities that already have the infrastructure. I'm aware that means basically only in Western countries, but look at the waste. I mean even if you have the means all of this, unless you have big local sport events regularly, those infrastructures are lost.

 

[FaTaL]

This is not gonna sound like I want it to, but the Olympics should only take place in cities that already have the infrastructure. I'm aware that means basically only in Western countries, but look at the waste. I mean even if you have the means all of this, unless you have big local sport events regularly, those infrastructures are lost.

That would be a handful of places then

Somebody gotta get shaked down

 

[tru_m.a.c]

Pathetic. Atlanta might be the only city to leverage on the Olympics to promote growth in the city.

Well technically all US cities that lobbied for the Olympics - not even the those that won - have been able to use it to their advantage to leverage growth.

@88m3 did you make that thread on how NYC was able to use the Olympics proposals to increase the budget for the highway and transit system?

 

[tru_m.a.c]

This is not gonna sound like I want it to, but the Olympics should only take place in cities that already have the infrastructure. I'm aware that means basically only in Western countries, but look at the waste. I mean even if you have the means all of this, unless you have big local sport events regularly, those infrastructures are lost.

Nah we understand what you mean and so would those negatively affected by the Olympics and World Cup.

Unfortunately we know that the companies and politicians who lobby and host these games make off with a huge financial pay day. So what if a few impoverished people get kicked in the ass right?

It's just crazy when you think about it though, all the money used to build and prep for these games, could've gone into the local economy and lifted millions of people out of poverty. Instead you get a bunch of wasted crap.

I made a thread right before the Olympics about the remains of they stadium used during the Jesse Owns Olympics games and how desolate it looks now. Unfortunately I couldn't find it.