Four years after the end of the war, ISTAF was back in business. The beginning on May 26, 1949 was understandably a modest one in front of 4,000 spectators in the Mommsen Stadium. It would still be a year before the German Athletics Federation (DLV) was permitted to become a member of the IAAF, the world-governing body for athletics. Berlin had become a divided city and German athletics was only in its initial stages.
