Talking Racism in Hitler's Stadium

[Kellanved]

In the catacombs of Hitler's stadium, in a windowless bunker-like room, sits a man discussing racism, his skin color is black. Tokyo Sexwale lays out two sheets of paper in front of him and raises his head, he has quick, slightly dull eyes. "I would like to read my speech from the manuscript because the issue of racism is so close to my heart," he says.

It would be hard to find a more historically charged venue to talk about racism and sport than the cellar of Berlin's Olympic Stadium. In the glare of TV lights, Sexwale is flanked by German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble, FIFA President Sepp Blatter and Franz Beckenbauer, the head of Germany's World Cup organizing committee.

Sexwale comes from South Africa, where the next World Cup will be held in 2010. He knows all about racism. He grew up under Apartheid and fought it. The price he paid: 15 years in prison on on Robben Island. "I got a discount," he says with a laugh, referring to the fact that his sentence called for him to spend 18 years behind bars.

An African talks about racism in Germany and laughs? It's a scene that fits in nicely with the country's image of itself in recent weeks as a light-hearted, open and warm place, a land that is both likeable and welcoming.
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http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/spiegel/0,1518,424984,00.html



Truth be told: the Olympic Stadium can be a bit too much. Very few existing places are so obviously Nazi in their Layout; then again, it never was Nazi enough for the Nazis.