SC Minerva (& others); Berlin, Germany

I've not had the pleasure of seeing a match here, but I was pointed towards it by 'experts' who post on the Tony Kempster forum, after I put on a general request of grounds to look at, when I visited Berlin in September 2007.

I'm not entirely sure which club(s) play here. from internet searching I've found SC Minerva; BFC Tur Abdin; Union 06 & ASV Berlin! If there are others..I do not know!

It is a stadium in the middle of renovation, but it looked as though worked had been stopped when I was there. Behind the seats going round the ground is a wooded area, but this is actually the old overgrown terracing! This stadium is almost a forgotten relic of German footballing history, & was one of the venues for the football at the 1936 Olympics.

I actually entered the ground through a gap in the fence, & through the woods, behind one of the goals, climbing up from an all weather pitch behind.

Outside, this is the frontage of the main stand.




Clearly in a very poor state of repair.




This is behind the goal, where I gained access to the ground, through the old terracing.




In front of this is some terracing, and a stretch of open seating. All I've got to now is get inside!




Here we look over to the main stand, we saw the back of this at the start.




Old 'modern' terracing, by the look of it, with the new seats along the side again.




Another glance over to the main stand.




I'm still up on the old heavily overgrown terrace, nowadays 'outside' the ground.




I've taken several snaps of the old steps, because it is so unusual.




Still in the overgrowth, you can see just how heavily overgrown it is, and me calling it a 'wooded area' is not an exageration.




There are even old crush barriers still in place!




I've now worked my way round the ground, still outside, towards the main stand.




All the time still on the 'old' terracing.




I make no apologies for including so many similar photos, I'm captivated by the 'history' of the place.




Here we look along the terrace in front of the stand, and it is from this point that I finally find a gap in the fencing to clamber over & into the ground!




Looking back I don't know why I didn't go round the whole ground once inside, but then I hadn't started this photoblog yet!




Yes, all of that wooded area was once old banks of terracing!




The stand doesn't appear to be in use, it looks as though they were working on it, but it stopped.




This was just over a year and a half ago though, so it may have been completed by now, who knows?





I've 'risked' those open concrete steps & climb up into the stand. Here we look across the pitch.




At the far end is a small new area of terrace, but directly behind the goal is 'out of bounds', & totally overgown & fenced off.




This is the overgrown area there.




Looking back at the main stand, from this corner, you can almost 'feel' the ghosts of history' about the place.




I got onto the track to take this picture in front of the stand.




Back up in the stand the exits are shut, and you can see there are no seats at all.




I had to very careful 'climbing' up it, but I did so to take picture of the graffiti at the back.





From up here we can look behind the goal again.




As we look at more graffiti.




Before glancing in the other direction.




A similar high angle at the other end, before we leave.




Outside, behind the main stand, is this all weather pitch. I don't know if it is connected with the Post Stadium, nor what it is called.




But there is a small stretch of terracing down one side.




And behind this is what appears to be a disused running track, which may or may not, have been used for football in the past. Who knows?




Again I have no name for this ground.




On the far side is this banking, which presumably was once the vantage point for spectators.