Munich's Olympic legacy

Host City visited Munich’s 1972 Olympic Park and Olympic Village for a close-up look at how the Olympics can still generate great interest more than three decades after the event

Olympic Parks can be hugely expensive. The recent trend for temporary venues means that future hosts could be tempted to build Olympic Parks with very few permanent fixtures. But a visit to the site of the 1972 Games provides a perfect illustration of why a more long-lasting facility is vital.

Upon arrival at Munich, Germany’s Olympiazentrum tube station, the first thing you are struck by is the amount of signposts pointing in various directions towards attractions. There are numerous sights to see, it’s just a question of picking which one to visit first.

Aerial shot of Munich Olympic Park taken from the viewing
decks of the Olympic Tower

To the left the enormous Olympic Tower rises high above the line of the trees. To the right, the Olympic Village, looking far more welcoming than the famous images, which became globally familiar for all the wrong reasons (thanks to the terrorist atrocities at the 1972 Games). And straight ahead is Olympic Stadium, its shiny canopy glistening in the sunlight.

The majority of Olympic sites from this era now exist solely in the memories of those who were there at the time. This Olympic Park has stood the test of time better than most. In fairness, it does show its age in places, but that seems to add to its charm. The archaic, almost quaint ticket offices and primitive television gantry in the Olympic Stadium are the most obvious signs that this is a complex from a different era.

Elsewhere though, the park has moved with the times – balancing the continual need for tourism with providing a great community facility for the local Munich people. This is one of Munich’s major event centres, attracting regular sport and concerts of all sizes to any of several venues here.

And some of the community that the park serves live within the park itself, in the Olympic Village’s post-Games incarnation as apartment-based accommodation.

The staggered levels of white apartment blocks look like luxury holiday homes from a distance, with an array of greenery sprouting over the edge of almost every balcony. Yet from this far back, the first thought of many visitors old enough to remember, will be of the shocking terrorism that overshadowed the Games in the early 1970s. Eleven Israeli athletes, five terrorists, and a German policeman all lost their lives.

Such was the impact of the tragedy on the German authorities that they take the Olympic security of their own athletes very seriously these days. At last year’s Games in Athens the German House in the Olympic Village had its own accreditation scheme, where visitors received an ID card containing biometric fingerprint data.

Olympic Village has real character since being
converted into housing

However, once seen up close, the Village has real character and does not seem to be haunted by its tragic past. The occupants of each apartment have uniquely furnished their homes. An atmosphere of tranquillity exists in this relaxed neighbourhood. Residents mingle around the Village’s shopping precinct and children play safely on pedestrianised streets. Sculptures, fountains and open spaces help to make the place more attractive.

While the inhabitants of the tower blocks are a mix of students and young people, as well as families with children, the adjacent “mini-village” of small houses and narrow cobbled streets is infinitely more bohemian.

Residents in this fascinating corner of the Village are students at a nearby art college. It would appear the occupants have been given a free rein to decorate the outsides of their houses however they please. The results are extraordinary and colourful. Some are meticulously painted in intricate details in keeping with a theme chosen by the occupant. Others are brutally spray-painted with graffiti. Often these contrasting artistic styles sit side-by-side. In some places, larger sidewalls have gradually been turned into quirky murals as people add their own small contributions to ever-evolving works of art.

Over the Hanns-Braun bridge and the visitor is in the heart of the park. This is where the action took place, and still does today. The reflective fibreglass roof canopy climbs above the venues like a huge spider’s web – the 1960s brainchild of chief architect Günther Behnisch.

Hundreds of kilometres of cable and thousands of knots comprise the network that ties the tent-like structure to the ground. Designers did not originally plan to have a transparent roof. It was modified to appease television companies who wanted to minimise the contrasts of light and shadow in the complex; they insisted that a translucent fibreglass shell would far better facilitate colour TV broadcasts.

The more adventurous tourists can take a guided tour
onto the fibreglass roof

One venue completely under the roof’s cover is the Olympic Hall, an impressive indoor arena capable of staging a host of sports, concerts and exhibitions – from cycling, basketball, tennis and judo, to musical superstars like the Rolling Stones and Luciano Pavarotti.

Opposite the hall is the Olympic Stadium, half covered, and striking with its rows of seats coloured in subtly different shades of green. The seemingly random scattering of different shades presumably helps create the impression that a part-full stadium appears busier than it really is by disguising any areas where tickets have not been sold.

The park offers plucky tourists the opportunity to climb up the roof, for impressive views of the park. Those brave enough to get up among the roofing and floodlights do so secured with ropes and hooks, walking along footpaths and up steps to finally arrive at the very top of the roof for a great photo opportunity.

Just on from the Olympic Stadium and Olympic Hall is the Olympic Swimming Centre, which is now open to the public, and still used as a training venue for professional swimmers. It was the location for US swimmer Mark Spitz winning seven gold medals in 1972 to become one of the most famous Olympians in history. Now it holds German championships, Olympic qualification races and daily training for Munich swimming clubs.

On from the Swimming Centre is the park’s most obvious landmark. The immense Olympic Tower stands 291.28m high – one of Europe’s tallest buildings. An elevator whisks you skyward at a speed of seven metres-per-second to the viewing decks. From here visitors can enjoy unparalleled views of the beautiful historic city. There is even a revolving restaurant here too. The park looks stunning from above and you can even see the new Allianz Arena in the distance.

But this is not all the park has to offer. Other attractions include the Olympic Ice Sports Centre, an impressive 5-a-side football arena, an amphitheatre that can host medium-sized concerts and performances, a separate event arena, trampolining facilities, as well as restaurants, beer gardens and a picturesque boating lake.

While the current trend in building temporary venues is understandable, it can also be a great pity. Munich Olympic Park is still drawing in scores of tourists after 34 years, as will Athens’ marvellous OAKA Olympic Park. But are such Olympic hubs destined to become a thing of the past? Munich has reaped the benefits of tourism here for over 30 years, and Sydney and Athens will doubtless do the same. There is a strong argument for temporary venues in other parts of a city, but at the central location it must be preferable if a long-lasting Olympic monument survives for future generations to use and enjoy. Munich proves this point better than anywhere.