1972 Summer Olympics

Games of the XX Olympiad
Emblem of the 1972 Summer Olympics
LocationMunich, West Germany
MottoThe Cheerful Games
(German: Heitere Spiele)
Nations121
Athletes7,134 (6,075 men, 1,059 women)
Events195 in 21 sports (28 disciplines)
Opening26 August 1972
Closing11 September 1972
Opened by
Gustav Heinemann
President of West Germany[1]
Closed by
Avery Brundage
President of the International Olympic Committee
Cauldron
Günther Zahn[1]
StadiumOlympiastadion
Summer
Winter
1972 Summer Paralympics
Olympic rings
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1972 Summer Olympics

The 1972 Summer Olympics (German: Olympische Sommerspiele 1972), officially known as the Games of the XX Olympiad (German: Spiele der XX. Olympiade) and officially branded as Munich 1972 (German: München 1972; Bavarian: Minga 1972), were an international multi-sport event held in Munich, West Germany, from 26 August to 11 September 1972. It was the second Summer Olympics to be held in Germany, after the 1936 Games in Berlin, which had taken place under the Nazi rule. Germany became only the second country at that point after the United States to have two different cities host the Summer Olympics.[2]

The West German government had been eager to have the Munich Olympics present a democratic and optimistic Germany to the world, as shown by the Games' official motto, "Die Heiteren Spiele",[3] or "the cheerful Games".[4] The logo of the Games was a blue solar logo (the "Bright Sun") by Otl Aicher, the designer and director of the visual conception commission.[5] The hostesses wore sky-blue dirndls as a promotion of Bavarian cultural heritage.[6] The Olympic mascot, the dachshund "Waldi", was the first officially named Olympic mascot. The Olympic Fanfare was composed by Herbert Rehbein.[7] The Soviet Union won the most gold and overall medals.

The Olympic Park (Olympiapark) was based on Frei Otto's plans and became a Munich landmark after the Games. The competition sites, designed by architect Günther Behnisch, included the Olympic swimming hall, the Olympics Hall (Olympiahalle, a multipurpose facility) and the Olympic Stadium (Olympiastadion), and an Olympic village very close to the park. The design of these stadia was considered revolutionary, with sweeping canopies of acrylic glass stabilized by metal ropes, used on such a large scale for the first time.[8]

The event was overshadowed by the Munich massacre in the second week, in which 11 Israeli athletes and coaches and a West German police officer at the Olympic Village were killed by the Palestinian militant organisation Black September.

  1. ^ a b "Factsheet – Opening Ceremony of the Games of the Olympiad" (PDF) (Press release). International Olympic Committee. 9 October 2014. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 August 2016. Retrieved 22 December 2018.
  2. ^ "List of Olympic Host Cities – Architecture of the Games". Retrieved 14 August 2024.
  3. ^ "Ein Geschenk der Deutschen an sich selbst". Der Spiegel (in German). No. 35/1972. 21 August 1972. pp. 28–29. … für die versprochene Heiterkeit der Spiele, die den Berliner Monumentalismus von 1936 vergessen machen und dem Image der Bundesrepublik in aller Welt aufhelfen sollen
  4. ^ Digitized version of the Official Report of the Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXth Olympiad Munich 1972 (Volume 2) (in German). proSport GmbH & Co. KG. München Ed. Herbert Kunze. 1972. p. 22. Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 December 2018. Retrieved 13 February 2015. … the theme of the "cheerful Games"…
  5. ^ "Official Emblem – Munich 1972 Olympics". Retrieved 8 April 2013.
  6. ^ Strassmair, Michaela (September 2019). "Typisch Oktoberfest? Darum gehört ein Dirndl eigentlich nicht auf die Wiesn". www.focus.de (in German). Retrieved 9 May 2020.
  7. ^ "Herbert Rehbein: Olympic Fanfare Munich 1972 (TV Intro)". Retrieved 7 May 2023.
  8. ^ Uhrig, Klaus (20 March 2014). "Die gebaute Utopie: Das Münchner Olympiastadion" (in German). Archived from the original on 13 February 2015. Retrieved 13 February 2015.