BERLIN -- During the 35-year history of the Berlin Marathon seven world records have been broken, but six of them happened from 1998 to 2008. Though no other race can boost such a number of records it is something else that makes the Berlin Marathon special.
It is the story of how the race began in the western part of the once divided city of Berlin and in 1990 it unified the two parts of Germany a couple of days earlier than the official political reunification.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall, which took place in November 1989, marathon organizers took a brave and historic step. They changed the course of the next marathon to run through Brandenburg Gate and both parts of the city.
The political significance of that race was enormous and caused worldwide attention. Suddenly people were indeed running across what used to be one of the world's major borders - the line between East and West, where a number of people lost their lives when they tried to flee to the West during the Cold War for most of the last half of the 20th century. TV pictures and newspaper reports of this race appeared worldwide.
The Berlin Marathon on September 30th, 1990 became the race of the year.
In 1974, the first Berlin Marathon took place next to the ‘Grunewald,' a forested area in West Berlin. The event was moved into the city in 1981, a move made possible only because of significant help by the western allied forces in the city: the Americans, the British and the French.
The Americans, especially, used their major political influence to overturn skeptics among the Berlin police authorities, who at first did not want to open certain roads for the runners. Further, the allied forces ran refreshment stations and provided equipment to organize the race. Without their support, today's Berlin Marathon might well not exist.
By the 1980s, the Berlin Marathon had well established itself as an international race with a fast course, very good organization, and enormous crowd support.
A record number of 16,410 athletes entered the 1989 race. Tanzania's Alfredo Shahanga clocked a course record and the first sub 2:11 time (2:10:11). Päivi Tikkanen of Finland won the women's race in 2:28:45, the eighth consecutive time that the women's course record had been broken.
But during that race on October 1,1989, no one could have imagined that one year later the race was to lead through the Brandenburg Gate and into East Berlin.
"In former years we passed the Brandenburg Gate and thought it would the greatest thing ever to run through it. But we thought we will never be able to experience this," said Bernd Hübner, the only runner to have finished all editions of the Berlin Marathon up to date.
Before 1990, runners in the eastern part of the city dreamed of being able to run the Berlin Marathon. There was nothing comparable in the German Democratic Republic (GDR), though the communist government had established the 'Friedenslauf' (Peace Race) in East Berlin. It drew huge numbers of participants, but the political influence was significant.
Eyewitnesses remember that participation figures were falsified in order to make a big impression and show that these races also work in the East. One year, a figure of 70,000 runners was given. The actual number was probably half that big, and those entrants ran on an unattractive course which, mainly, led up and down a major road.
For a few runners from East Germany, it was indeed possible to take part in the Berlin Marathon. If they were elder, and it was judged that they would not take the opportunity to flee to the West, they were allowed to visit relatives there. Using this as an excuse, some managed to smuggle themselves into the marathon
"They had to be careful because if the Eastern state security police would have known, they would be in a difficult situation," long-time race director Horst Milde said.
Milde recalled that one runner from the central German state of Thuringia first entered the race using the names of his cat and his dog and even the name of the village he came from.
To be able to view the start of the race runners from the GDR went up the TV tower on Alexanderplatz in East Berlin, which is located about 2000 meters from the former starting point. In 1988 and 1989, there were so many people trying to climb the tower that it had to be closed.
Others who lived close to the Berlin Wall in the East were able to listen to a radio broadcast of the race provided by a station in Berlin. They were listening to the live report, but were not "officially" allowed to tune in.
With the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Berlin Marathon had the opportunity to develop into one of the world's leading road races. But who thought of the 1990 race on the historic day of November 9, 1989 when the Berlin Wall came down?
The next day Milde's phone rang. Michael Coleman, a sports editor at the London Times and a supporter of the Berlin Marathon, convinced Milde that this situation presented a unique opportunity. While the Race Director was skeptical at first, Coleman told him, "Your race will be the running event of the year if the course leads through Brandenburg Gate!" Organizers then worked on fulfilling that dream.
On Jan. 1, 1990, organizers of the Berlin club SC Charlottenburg staged a race leading through the wall next to the Brandenburg Gate. Some 20,000 runners took part in this 4k event. The President of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), Primo Nebiolo, was a guest of honor.
As soon as it became public that the course of the Berlin Marathon would indeed lead through the Brandenburg Gate, organizers were flooded with entry forms from all over the world. However, the limit was set at 25,000 runners and many thousands were unable to get a bib number.
At 9 a.m. on September 30, 1990 the dream race was started on Strasse des 17. Juni and the course led through Brandenburg Gate. This point was reached after about three kilometers (two miles). In 2003, the course was changed so runners now pass through the Gate with just 400 meters to go to the finish. Three days before the official reunification of Germany, the race reunited East and West in stunning fashion.
Many runners had tears in their eyes as they celebrated passing through the Brandenburg Gate in 1990. After a loop through the eastern city center, the course led back into West Berlin at Potsdamer Platz. Twenty-two thousand, eight hundred six runners and 55 wheelchair athletes finished the race on Kurfürstendamm. One million spectators lined the streets. Both were record figures for the race.
The Berlin Marathon had a Japanese main sponsor, Yanese, in 1990. Interest in Japan was such that the race was broadcasted live on TV there. For the first time that year a city marathon was shown live on German TV.
Australia's Steve Moneghetti won the historic 1990 race in 2:08:16, which was the first sub 2:10 time in Berlin and the first world leading result ever achieved in the race's history. Gidamis Shahanga, the brother of the 1989 champion Alfredo, was second in 2:08:32, while East Germans Jörg Peter (2:09:23) and Stephan Freigang (2:09:45) took third and fourth places.
There could not have been a more fitting women's winner in 1990 than three-time Boston Marathon and Berlin Marathon winner Uta Pippig. The former East German, who had fled to the West right after the fall of the Wall, took the race with a course record of 2:28:37.
"I got goose pimples when I ran through Brandenburg Gate," Pippig recalled.
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