On 3 July 1921 the
Berliner Sport-Club (BSC), the
Sport-Club Charlottenburg (SCC) and the
Schwimm-Club Poseidon organised the first sports festival under the current name of Internationales Stadionfest or ISTAF. On 23 March 1937 the
BSC, the
Deutscher Sport-Club (DSC, later
Olympischer Sport-Club OSC) and the
SCC, agreed to hold international sports festivals together and organized the first meeting on 1 August 1937 at the Olympic Stadium, where the event is still held today. Four ISTAF meetings, in 1938, 1941, the first post-war in 1949, as well as 1953, were all held at the
Mommsen Stadium, but since 1955 meetings have been held annually at Berlin's Olympic Stadium in
Charlottenburg. The 2002 and 2003 ISTAF meetings were held at the
Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Sportpark instead, due to reconstruction of the Olympic Stadium in preparation for the
2006 FIFA World Cup. There were several ISTAF-free years during the Second World War and after: 1940, as well as 1943-48 and again in 1950 and 1951. A meeting wasn't held in 1972 because of the
1972 Summer Olympics and again in 1973, as a result of the
terrorist attack at the 1972 Olympic Games. From 1993 to 1997, the
IAAF classified ISTAF among the
Golden Four meetings and from 1998 to 2009, it became part of the
IAAF Golden League. When the
Diamond League was conceived, it had been provisionally planned for Berlin to hold one of its meetings, but it was unable to meet the criteria set for the new elite series, therefore as from 2010, ISTAF became part of the second tier World Challenge circuit instead. ==Indoor events==