The Olympiapark (English: Olympic Park) in
Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...
,
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
, is an
Olympic Park
An Olympic Park is a sports campus for hosting the Olympic Games. Typically it contains the Olympic Stadium and the International Broadcast Centre. It may also contain the Olympic Village or some of the other sports venues, such as the aquatics ...
which was constructed for the
1972 Summer Olympics
The 1972 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XX Olympiad () and commonly known as Munich 1972 (german: München 1972), was an international multi-sport event held in Munich, West Germany, from 26 August to 11 September 1972. ...
. Located in the Oberwiesenfeld neighborhood of Munich, the Park continues to serve as a venue for cultural, social, and religious events, such as events of worship. It includes a contemporary
carillon
A carillon ( , ) is a pitched percussion instrument that is played with a keyboard and consists of at least 23 cast-bronze bells. The bells are hung in fixed suspension and tuned in chromatic order so that they can be sounded harmoniou ...
. The Park is administered by Olympiapark München GmbH, a holding company fully owned by the state capital of Munich.
Location and structure
The use of the term ''Olympiapark'' to designate the overall area has prevailed as a semiofficial practice, but no official name for the entire area exists.
The general area comprises four separate sub-areas:
[Otto Haas, Wolfgang Kösler (Red.): Offizieller Olympiaführer der Spiele der XX. Olympiade München 1972. Organisationskomitee für die Spiele der XX. Olympiade München 1972. Atlas Verlag, München 1972. ]
* Olympic Area: Includes the Olympic sports facilities such as the
Olympic Stadium
''Olympic Stadium'' is the name usually given to the main stadium of an Olympic Games. An Olympic stadium is the site of the opening and closing ceremonies. Many, though not all, of these venues actually contain the words ''Olympic Stadium'' as ...
and the
Olympic Hall Olympic Hall is a music venue located within the Olympic Park, in Bangi-dong, Songpa-gu, Seoul, South Korea.
In 2011, the Olympic Hall was renovated as a concert hall by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Sports Promotion ...
with
Olympic Tower
Olympic Tower is a 51-story, building at 641 and 645 Fifth Avenue, between 51st and 52nd Streets, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), the mixed-use development contains ...
. Also in this area are the
Aquatic Center and Olympic Event Hall.
*
Olympic Village
An Olympic Village is an accommodation center built for the Olympic Games, usually within an Olympic Park or elsewhere in a host city. Olympic Villages are built to house all participating athletes, as well as officials and athletic trainers. Afte ...
, comprising two villages, one for male and one for female athletes.
* Olympia-Pressestadt, today the home of the Olympia Shopping Center. Strictly speaking, this portion belongs to the area of the
Moosach
Moosach is a Municipalities of Germany, municipality in the Upper Bavarian district of Ebersberg (district), Ebersberg and a member of the ''Verwaltungsgemeinschaft'' (administrative community) of Glonn.
Geography
The community lies in a pictur ...
district.
* Olympic Park, adjoining the Olympic Area to the south, it includes the Olympic Hill and Olympic Lake.
The park is located in the
Milbertshofen-Am Hart
Milbertshofen (Central Bavarian: ''Muibatshofa''), Am Riesenfeld and Am Hart (Central Bavarian: ''Am Hoart'') are three boroughs situated in the north of Munich in Germany. Jointly, they form the city district 11 Milbertshofen-Am Hart. , the t ...
borough near
BMW Group headquarters and the "
Uptown" skyscraper of
O2. Georg-Bräuchle-
Ring
Ring may refer to:
* Ring (jewellery), a round band, usually made of metal, worn as ornamental jewelry
* To make a sound with a bell, and the sound made by a bell
:(hence) to initiate a telephone connection
Arts, entertainment and media Film and ...
divides the area into two halves: Olympic Village and Olympia Pressestadt to the north and Olympic Area and Olympic Park to the south.
[
]
History
Third Reich
In the 1930s the Nazi
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
Party planned to develop Munich as the "Capital of the Movement," with this area to serve as the central slaughterhouse and marketplace of the city. The Second World War hindered implementation of this plan.
Up until 1939, Oberwiesenfeld has largely been used as an airfield.
Post-WWII years
After 1945, the Oberwiesenfeld area remained fallow, and was known as a ''"Trümmerberg,"'' which in German refers to a hill erected from the rubble resulting from the destruction caused by bombings during the war.
Following the war, the US Army occupied this area and had facilities at the Oberwiesefeld. In October 1957, the Army housed most of the refugees from the Hungarian Revolution in a camp at this facility.
Apart from infrastructure projects such as the Oberwiesenfeld Ice Rink, the area remained largely vacant during the post-war decades and presented an ideal site for the construction of the Olympic Stadium and complex.
Preparing for the 1972 Summer Olympics
The International Olympic Committee
The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swiss ...
awarded Munich the 1972 Summer Olympic Games on 26 April,1966.The proposed plans for the urban redevelopment of the Oberwiesenfeld area were solidified.Something that was seen as innovative at the time and that decades later would be commonplace in major sporting events.
The old airfield, intensely used up until 1939,when lost its importance as the Munich-Riem airport was opened that year and was expanded during the next thirty years until it was decommissioned in May 1992. As a result, Oberwiesenfeld airfield area remained largely idle.
When bidding for the 1972 Summer Games,West Germany used the arguments and the concept about a idea of "green and sunny Olympic Games", with an emphasis on democratic and liberty values. Officials sought to integrate optimism toward the future with a positive attitude toward technology and modernist ideals,and in so doing set aside memories of the past, such as the 1936 Summer Olympics
The 1936 Summer Olympics (German: ''Olympische Sommerspiele 1936''), officially known as the Games of the XI Olympiad (German: ''Spiele der XI. Olympiade'') and commonly known as Berlin 1936 or the Nazi Olympics, were an international multi-sp ...
in Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
under Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Germany from 1933 until his death in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and then ...
. The architecture firm of Günther Behnisch Günther, Guenther, Ginther, Gunther, and the variants Günter, Guenter, Guenther, Ginter, and Gunter, are Germanic names derived from ''Gunthere, Gunthari'', composed of '' *gunþiz'' "battle" (Old Norse ''gunnr'') and ''heri, hari'' "army". Gund ...
and its partners developed a comprehensive and avant-garde master plan for the sports and recreation areas, which was under construction from 1968 until 1972. The landscape layout was designed by Günther Grzimek. The eye-catching tensile structure
A tensile structure is a construction of elements carrying only tension and no compression or bending. The term ''tensile'' should not be confused with tensegrity, which is a structural form with both tension and compression elements. Tensile st ...
that covers much of the park was designed by German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
architect and engineer Frei Otto
Frei Paul Otto (; 31 May 1925 – 9 March 2015) was a German architect and structural engineer noted for his use of lightweight structures, in particular tensile and membrane structures, including the roof of the Olympic Stadium in Munich for ...
with Behnisch. At the end, the project cost 1.35 billion German marks to complete.
The name "Olympiapark" was related to the city's administrative commission practice for naming metro stations along the city's public transport system.As U and S-system (subway and metropolitan railroad) routes in the city area. On 3 November 1969, they chosen the name "Olympiapark" for the new subway station inside Olympic village, set on the U3 line of the Munich U-Bahn
The Munich U-Bahn (german: U-Bahn München) is an electric rail rapid transit network in Munich, Germany. The system began operation in 1971, and is operated by the municipally owned Münchner Verkehrsgesellschaft (MVG; Munich Transport Company) ...
. This naming decision was based on the idea that the name "Olympiapark" was related to the central theme of a "green and sunny Olympic Games". It was also related to the central function of the U-Bahn station, which, together with the bus system,served all the area logistic needs at the area during the games and after their end. The term quickly entered into quasi-official common parlance, and consequently into the international media use. In most situations, the meaning established by the administrative commission is used to describe the entire area, not just the U-Bahn station,unlike was originally intended.
Transportation
Using public transportation, the Munich U-Bahn
The Munich U-Bahn (german: U-Bahn München) is an electric rail rapid transit network in Munich, Germany. The system began operation in 1971, and is operated by the municipally owned Münchner Verkehrsgesellschaft (MVG; Munich Transport Company) ...
's U3 line provides a direct route: From Münchner Freiheit
The Münchner Freiheit (called ''Münchener Freiheit'' until 1998) is a square in Munich's Schwabing, near the English Garden. It is a popular tourist attraction, especially during winter when one of Munich's largest Christmas markets takes plac ...
(one of Munich Main Plazas,at the district of Schwabing
Schwabing is a borough in the northern part of Munich, the capital of the German state of Bavaria. It is part of the city borough 4 (Schwabing-West) and the city borough 12 (Schwabing-Freimann). The population of Schwabing is estimated about 100 ...
, located on Leopoldstraße Leopoldstraße is a street in the Munich districts Maxvorstadt, Schwabing and Milbertshofen. It is a major boulevard, and the main street of the Schwabing district. It is a continuation of Ludwigstraße, the boulevard of King Ludwig I of Bavaria, n ...
), the line connects to Olympiapark via Schwabing
Schwabing is a borough in the northern part of Munich, the capital of the German state of Bavaria. It is part of the city borough 4 (Schwabing-West) and the city borough 12 (Schwabing-Freimann). The population of Schwabing is estimated about 100 ...
and the midtown area. In 2007, the U3 line was extended to continue on to Oberwiesenfeld station near the northern end of the Olympic Village buildings and Olympia- Einkaufszentrum mall for the most far areas of the Park. The continuation to Moosach Station, where the line connects to the S1 S-Bahn
The S-Bahn is the name of hybrid urban- suburban rail systems serving a metropolitan region in German-speaking countries. Some of the larger S-Bahn systems provide service similar to rapid transit systems, while smaller ones often resemble co ...
line, was finnished during 2010. Olympiazentrum U-Bahn station is a central stop for the MVG bus line. The southern and western portions of the Olympiapark were now also be connected via Munich tram lines 12, 20, 21, and 27. As these areas are remote from the northern part of Olympiapark, they are primarily of interest for the annual Tollwood music festival held there each summer.
After the 1972 Summer Olympic Games, the Olympic Stadium Station was disconnected from regular lines. It was used for some events, but the station was closed in 1988 and the tracks taken up in 2003.Since this,the station is it is completely deactivated and has since been abandoned and unused.
The Olympiapark is accessible by car via Mittlerer Ring motorway. The Olympic Village area is actually closed off from car traffic.
Olympic Area in detail
The Olympic Area lies south of Georg-Brauchle-Ring and north of the Olympiasee lake; it is the smallest portion of the entire Olympiapark area. It comprises the following competition sites:[
]
Olympic Stadium
The central stadium, constructed from 1968 to 1972, was designed by the architecture firm of Behnisch and Partners. It is currently home to the highest number of staged national and international competitions in Germany. Originally constructed to hold 80,000 visitors, this number was reduced at the end of the 1990s to 69,000 due to security concerns. After the Olympic Games, the Stadium was used primarily for football matches and served as the home stadium for the football teams FC Bayern München and TSV 1860 München. Since the opening of the Allianz Arena
Allianz Arena (; known as Fußball Arena München for UEFA competitions) is a football stadium in Munich, Bavaria, Germany with a 70,000 seating capacity for international matches and 75,000 for domestic matches. Widely known for its exterior ...
in 2005, the site is used almost exclusively for cultural events.
Olympic Hall
Also designed by the architecture firm of Behnisch and Partners, Olympic Hall is a sport and recreational facility located northeast of the Olympic Stadium. Its capacity is 12,500 with seats, or 15,700 without seats.
Small Olympic Hall
Smaller event facility at the Olympic Hall for up to 1,000 seated individuals, according to stage size.
Aquatic Center
This venue became an integral part of Olympic history when the US swimmer Mark Spitz won 7 gold medals there during the 1972 Munich Games. This amounted to a remarkable comeback for Mark Spitz, who had fallen short of the 5 gold medals expected of him at the 1968 Mexico Olympics. The venue also saw significant success by the young women's team of the GDR, which was later found - albeit, the matter was essentially an open secret - to be the result of an extensive doping programme.
One notable feature of the Munich ''Schwimmhalle'' is the way in which the cobbled paths leading to the venue continue under the canopy as far as the top of the seating area, thus creating the genuine impression of walking in off the street to one's seat. The venue is available both to swimming teams and also to the public.
Olympic Ice Sports Center
The Olympic Icestadion was built from April 1965 by the plans of Rolf Schütze and opened on 12 February 1967 with the ice hockey
Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...
game between FC Bayern Munich
Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), also known as FC Bayern (), Bayern Munich, or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional men's football team, which play ...
and SC Riessersee
SC Riessersee is a professional ice hockey team based in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Oberbayern, Germany. They currently play in The Oberliga, the third level of ice hockey in Germany. Prior to the 2013–14 season, they played in the 2nd Bundesliga ...
. After using it for the 1969 World Table Tennis Championships, the Icestadion was used for the Olympic Summer games 1972 for the Boxsports. The stadium has a capacity for 6,142 visitors and is used for the games of the team of EHC Red Bull München at the Deutsche Eishockey Liga
The Deutsche Eishockey Liga (for sponsorship reasons called "PENNY Deutsche Eishockey Liga") (; English: ''German Ice Hockey League'') or DEL, is a German professional ice hockey league and the highest division in German ice hockey. Founded in ...
.
On the left site of the Icestadion stands an open air ice skating rink. In 1980 it was decided to build a roof over the open air rink in order to have it operational during the whole year independent of the weather conditions. The German architectural firm Ackermann und Partner designed an elegant light-weight tensile structure spanning 100 meters length-wise. The building was completed in 1983. In 2004 the ice skating rink was closed and is now used to play Indoorsoccer.
On the right side of the Icestadion 1991 the new training hall for the Icesport world championship was built over the parking area after the plans of Kurt Ackermann
Velodrome
Olympic Tower
The Olympiaturm has an overall height of 291 m and a weight of 52,500 tonnes. At a height of 190 m there is an observation platform as well as a small rock and roll museum housing various memorabilia. Since its opening in 1968 the tower has registered over 35 million visitors (as of 2004). At a height of 182 m there is a revolving restaurant that seats 230 people. A full revolution takes 53 minutes. The tower has one Deutsche Telekom
Deutsche Telekom AG (; short form often just Telekom, DTAG or DT; stylised as ·T·) is a German telecommunications company that is headquartered in Bonn and is the largest telecommunications provider in Europe by revenue. Deutsche Telekom was ...
maintenance elevator with a speed of 4 m/s, as well as two visitor lifts with a speed of 7 m/s which have a capacity of about 30 people per cabin. The travel time from the ground to the viewing platform is about 30 seconds.
Olympic Village
This was the site of the Munich massacre
The Munich massacre was a terrorist attack carried out during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany, by eight members of the Palestinian people, Palestinian militant organization Black September Organization, Black September, who i ...
in the second week of the Games, when eleven of the Israeli team and a West German policeman were murdered by Black September Palestinian terrorists.
* Olympic Village
* Student District
Olympia Pressestadt
The Olympia Pressestadt lies west of the Olympiapark between Landshuter Allee
The Landshuter Allee is an avenue in Munich and through most of its course it is part of the ''Mittlerer Ring'', the Bundesstraße 2 R. It joins ''Donnersbergerbrücke'' at Arnulfstraße in the Neuhausen district and runs from Dachauer Straße we ...
in the east and Riesstraße in the west. It is the site of the former media center and today provides regular housing.
Carillon
The carillon
A carillon ( , ) is a pitched percussion instrument that is played with a keyboard and consists of at least 23 cast-bronze bells. The bells are hung in fixed suspension and tuned in chromatic order so that they can be sounded harmoniou ...
, built in 1972, was one of five carillons in Bavaria
Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...
. Rather than occupying a traditional bell tower
A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell tower ...
, it was set on an open framework with the bell
A bell is a directly struck idiophone percussion instrument. Most bells have the shape of a hollow cup that when struck vibrates in a single strong strike tone, with its sides forming an efficient resonator. The strike may be made by an inter ...
s exposed to view. It was built for the 1972 Summer Olympics on Coubertinplatz, the central square in the Olympic Park. It was made by the Dutch bell foundry Royal Eijsbouts
Royal Eijsbouts ( nl, Koninklijke Eijsbouts) is a bell foundry located in Asten, Netherlands.
The workshop was founded in 1872 by Bonaventura Eijsbouts as a "factory for tower clocks." In 1893 Eijsbouts was joined by his 15-year-old son, Joha ...
and has a range of 50 bells (originally 49 bells, 1991 retrofit a Cis bell).
In 2007, the Olympic Carillon was dismantled due to restructuring measures in the Olympic Park. It was reinstalled in 2012, with American carillonneur
A carillon ( , ) is a pitched percussion instrument that is played with a keyboard and consists of at least 23 cast-bronze bells. The bells are hung in fixed suspension and tuned in chromatic order so that they can be sounded harmoniou ...
Jim Saenger "ringing in" the rebuilt carillon with a concert on April 16, 2012.
Munich Olympic Walk Of Stars
In 2003 the Munich Olympic Walk of Stars was constructed as a path from the Olympic Sea, als Weg am Olympiasee, in the style of the Hollywood Walk of Fame
The Hollywood Walk of Fame is a historic landmark which consists of more than 2,700 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along 15 blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, Californ ...
. Celebrities leave their hand- and footprints behind in the concrete. Singer Howard Carpendale
Howard Victor Carpendale (born 14 January 1946) is a South African-German singer living and working in Germany.
Biography
Carpendale is a pop singer who sings most of his songs in German. His 1979 song ''Nachts, wenn alles schläft'' had been ...
was the first to do so, and since then roughly 30 personalities from culture and sport have left impressions of themselves behind.
Regular events (apart from concerts)
The Olympiapark host a number of regular events on a yearly basisː[Katrin Schulze: Der Park als Spiellandschaft – zum Spielkonzept von 1972 für den Olympiapark München. In: Die Gartenkunst 28 (1/2016), S. 127–136]
Olympic Hall
* Six-Day-Run (since 1972)
* Munich Indoors (since 1998)
* Supercross-Cup (since 1999)
* Holiday on Ice
Holiday on Ice is an ice show currently owned by Medusa Music Group GmbH, a subsidiary of CTS EVENTIM, Europe's largest ticket distributor, with its headquarters in Bremen, Germany.
History
Holiday on Ice originated in the United States in Decem ...
(since 1975)
* Night of the Proms
Night of the Proms is a series of concerts held annually in Belgium (since 1985), the Netherlands, Germany and Luxembourg. Regularly there are also shows in France, Spain, Austria, Switzerland, Poland, Denmark, the United States and Sweden. The co ...
(since 1995)
* International Exhibition
A world's fair, also known as a universal exhibition or an expo, is a large international exhibition designed to showcase the achievements of nations. These exhibitions vary in character and are held in different parts of the world at a specif ...
(since 1972)
* Watchtower-Congress of the Jehovah's Witnesses
Jehovah's Witnesses is a millenarian restorationist Christian denomination with nontrinitarian beliefs distinct from mainstream Christianity. The group reports a worldwide membership of approximately 8.7 million adherents involved in ...
(since 1973)
Olympic Swim Hall
* 24-Hour-Swim (since 2000)
* Munich Triathlon (since 2003, always at the end of May)
They opened at 17 January 1970
Open-Air Theatron
* Summer Music Theatron
Ancient Greek theatre was a theatrical culture that flourished in ancient Greece from 700 BC. The city-state of Athens, which became a significant cultural, political, and religious place during this period, was its centre, where the theatre was ...
(since 1972)
* Open-Air Pentecost Theatron (since 2001)
Others
* Spartan Race
Spartan Race is a series of obstacle races of varying distance and difficulty ranging from 3 miles to marathon distances. These races are held in the United States and have been franchised to 30 countries, including Canada, South Korea, Austra ...
Sprint
* Tollwood Festival
The Tollwood Festival is a festival which takes place semi-annually in the Olympiapark (summer) or on the Theresienwiese (winter) in Munich.
History
The first Tollwood Festival was held on the southern grounds of the Olympiapark in the summe ...
(summer music festival)
* Summerfest in Olympiapark
* Münchner Sommernachtstraum
Public establishments
Education and learning
* Elementary school on Nadistrasse (known as "Nadischule")
* Zentrale Hochschulsportanlage
The Zentrale Hochschulsportanlage (ZHS) is with 125.000 Students and over 17.000 active participants each semester the biggest university sports facility in Germany. The 45 ha area lies at the Olympiapark in Milbertshofen-Am Hart in Munich and cou ...
, joint central sports facility of Munich's universities and colleges.
* Department of Sport and Health Sciences at Technical University of Munich.
* Olympiastützpunkt Bayern
Health
* Outpatient department for sport orthopedics at TU Munich's Rechts der Isar teaching hospital.
Sport
* Olympic staging post of Bavaria
Memorials
* Memorial for the civilian victims of the Second World War (Olympiaberg)
* Memorial plaque for the victims of the attack on the Israeli Olympic team of 1972
* Erinnerungsort Olympia-Attentat
The Erinnerungsort Olympia-Attentat is a memorial in the Munich Olympiapark for the victims of the Munich massacre during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany, at which eleven Israeli Olympic team members were taken hostage and eve ...
See also
* Tensile and membrane structures
* Zentrale Hochschulsportanlage
The Zentrale Hochschulsportanlage (ZHS) is with 125.000 Students and over 17.000 active participants each semester the biggest university sports facility in Germany. The 45 ha area lies at the Olympiapark in Milbertshofen-Am Hart in Munich and cou ...
References
External links
Olympiapark München GmbH
www.olypark.de
(a student project of the tum/dept Architecture)
Olympiapark München
- Interactive Panorama
* ttp://www.theatron.de Internetauftritt des Theatron
muenchen.de: Olympiapark
Webcam Olympiastadion
GigaPan ultra-high-resolution interactive panorama
{{Authority control
Carillons
Olympic Parks
Venues of the 1972 Summer Olympics
Sports venues in Munich
Tensile membrane structures
Olympic International Broadcast Centres
Parks and open spaces in Munich
Milbertshofen-Am Hart