Deutschlandhalle

The Deutschlandhalle was an was an arena located in the Westend neighbourhood of Berlin, Germany. It was inaugurated on 29 November 1935 by Adolf Hitler. The building was granted landmark status in 1995, but on December 3, 2011 the building was demolished.

Built primarily for the 1936 Summer Olympics, the Deutschlandhalle could hold 8,764 people. The Olympic boxing, weightlifting and wrestling competitions took place here. On 19 February 1938 test pilot Hanna Reitsch demonstrated the first indoor flight in the arena with a Focke-Wulf Fw 61 helicopter.

Heavily damaged by air raids in 1943, the Deutschlandhalle was rebuilt after World War II and from 1957 served as a multi purpose arena and sports venue, in the last years primarily for ice hockey, but also for indoor soccer and again for boxing.

The arena hosted the 1980 basketball euroleague final between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Real Madrid (Madrid won 89-85), the 1995 basketball Korać Cup final in which local ALBA Berlin won the trophy and the 1995 World Amateur Boxing Championships.

The building has also been used for musical events: Ella Fitzgerald performed here in 1960; the concert was recorded as Ella in Berlin. On 4 September 1970, it was the site of Jimi Hendrix's second-to-last performance.

The 1981 film Christiane F. shows a performance by David Bowie in the Deutschlandhalle.

After the 1990 German reunification, the Deutschlandhalle lost its position as Berlin's primary arena, replaced by the newly erected Velodrom, Max-Schmeling-Halle and O2 World. After the building had to be closed for repairs several times in recent years, most recently in 2009, the Berlin Senate in May 2008 finally decided to demolish it and build a new ice arena on the site. Demolition began on December 3, 2011 with the explosive deconstruction of the roof.