True story · No. 34

Berlin 1974: The Marathon Born in the Forest

Berlin Marathon history begins on October 13, 1974, when 286 runners gather outside a stadium in Charlottenburg for a race nobody is expecting. A chalk line on the asphalt, a forest, and a pastry baker with bigger dreams. Fifty years later, it is the race of 13 world records.

By the PacePoster desk · October 16, 2026 · 3 min · 12 sources

Berlin Marathon runners on Unter den Linden, near the Brandenburg Gate, September 25, 2022 Unmarcheprovencal, 2022, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons — PacePoster duotone, same license

01A Chalk Line in Charlottenburg

Horst Milde is a baker and pastry chef by trade and a middle-distance runner at SC Charlottenburg. In 1973, Runner's World Germany tells us, a day of distance races in Berlin drew only 92 runners. At the club, they think that's not many. In August 1974, Milde files the applications for a first marathon on behalf of the SCC.

The start is on Waldschulallee, in front of the Mommsenstadion. According to the Berliner Zeitung, the start line is a simple chalk line. The race is then called the "1st Berlin People's Marathon."

286starters in 1974

25,000runners in 1990

13world records

02Berlin Marathon History: Two Laps of the Grunewald

The course is an out-and-back along the Avus, through the Grunewald forest to the Wannsee, to be run twice. 286 start, including a handful of women, and 244 finish. Günter Hallas wins in 2:44:53, Jutta von Haase takes the women's race in 3:22:01.

The details people remember come from Runner's World Germany: both winners skip every aid station over the 42.195 km. Entry costs 12 marks. At the finish: a medal, a certificate and a results list typed by hand. Nothing more, and already a lot.

A chalk line on the asphalt, a forest, and a pastry baker with bigger dreams.

031981: The City Opens Its Streets

For seven editions, the race stays a forest affair. On September 27, 1981, it starts for the first time in front of the Reichstag and runs through the streets of West Berlin. There are 3,486 runners, from 30 nations. West Berlin discovers that a city can be run.

Eliud Kipchoge at km 14.5 of the Berlin Marathon, September 25, 2022, the day of his 2:01:09 world record Unmarcheprovencal, 2022, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons — PacePoster duotone, same license

041990: The Gate

On September 30, 1990, three days before German reunification, the course passes under the Brandenburg Gate for the first time. About 25,000 runners join the party, according to AIMS and Runner's World Germany (Tracksmith magazine puts it closer to 23,000). It took negotiating with East Berlin: Milde had to get the agreement of the mayors on both sides, granted only a few weeks before the race, Tracksmith reports. A race that circled the woods sixteen years earlier now crosses what used to be a border.

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05Record Territory

The course is flat and fast, and Berlin becomes the city of fast times. To date, 13 marathon world records have been set there, men and women combined, more than at any other race. Among them is Eliud Kipchoge's 2:01:09 in September 2022, which improved his own 2018 record by 30 seconds. In the forest of 1974, nobody imagined a time like that.

Sources for this story (12)

Every fact was cross-checked in at least two independent sources. Where they disagree, the story says so.