Munich Olympic Park

Today, the Munich Olympic Park is a local recreation area, event site and still a place where athletes can be found. We went in search of traces of the Olympic past.

To this day, the Olympic Games are a crowd puller and huge areas with sports facilities, accommodation for the athletes, hotels and leisure facilities are being built in the host cities. And what happens after the Olympic Games? The host cities try to continue using many of the facilities. This usually proves to be easy with the accommodation. These are converted into apartments. It is more difficult with the sports facilities. The sports halls could certainly be put to good use everywhere. However, they are often too large to be economically viable for “normal” club operations. In 1972, the Summer Olympics were held in Munich. Here, too, many sports facilities and the large Olympic Park were built. We were very curious to see what traces of the Olympic flair we would still discover there after so many years.

The former site is divided into four areas:

Olympic site with Olympic Tower, Olympic Stadium, Olympic Hall
Olympic Village – where the athletes’ accommodation was located
Olympic Press City: located in the Moosach district
Olympic Park with lake and mountain

An Olympic site is being created

For a number of years, the site of the Olympic site was home to the Munich-Oberwiesenfeld commercial airport and the sports ground of FC Teutonia. After Munich’s new airport was completed, a newutzte zunächst die Luftwaffe das Gelände und nach Kriegsende die US-Armee. Auf Teilen des ungenutzten Geländes lagerte man den Kriegsschutt und es entstanden die Münchner Trümmerberge. Einer dieser Trümmerberge wurde 56 Meter hoch aufgeschüttet.

Even before the Games were awarded to Munich, the ice stadium at Oberwiesenfeld and the television tower were built. As large areas were unused, the site was ideal as building land for the major Olympic project.

In 1966, the Olympic Committee awarded the 1972 Games to Munich. They were to be held under the motto “Olympic Games in the Green” and included the Oberwiesenfeld in the redesign. The design of the site was based on the design of a 1967 competition, which was won by the architectural firm Behnisch & Partner, who created the overall concept for the sports facilities, the Olympic Village and the network of roads and paths for the venues. The green areas were designed by various landscape planners.

Construction work began in 1968 with the earthworks. Numerous unexploded bombs from the war were found, which had to be systematically removed, costing additional time and money. The first trees were planted almost at the same time as the initial construction work so that they could grow and flourish before the games.

To ensure that the site would be easily accessible for visitors, the subway line from the main station to the Olympic Center was quickly extended. The material excavated there was used by the planners for embankments and plateaus on the Olympic site.

The famous roof of the Munich Olympic Stadium was installed by the workers from 1971, turf was laid and trees were planted and sown. The total costs amounted to DM 1.35 billion. Everything was finished just in time and the games could begin!

The Munich Olympic Park is one of the largest parks in the city today. Numerous events take place here.

After a short walk from the bus stop, we reached the Olympic grounds. There was a circus tent in an open space. Parents and children run back and forth, a babble of voices buzzes around us. We continue along a rampart and it becomes increasingly greener around us, trees provide shade – it’s an oasis in a big city.

In front of us, the most unmistakable image of the Olympic site, the roof of the Olympic Stadium, appears like a fixed point towards which we are walking. We want to go there and take a look inside the stadium.

Olympic Stadium

When we reach the stadium, the first question we ask ourselves is “Where is the entrance?”. We walk along the fence until we reach the large forecourt in front of the entrance used today. The ticket booths from 1972 are still standing here. The design reminds me a little of the ICC in Berlin with its metallic and futuristic look.

We buy our ticket at the entrance to the stadium. In addition to visiting the stadium, there is also the opportunity to take part in a guided tour of the stadium roof. However, you have to book this in advance as the limited places sell out quickly. If you want to experience an even bigger adrenaline rush, you can also take a ride on the zipline over the stadium. Here, too, you have to book the limited places in advance.

The stadium was built between 1968 and 1972 and originally had a capacity of 80,000 spectators. Following a number of renovations, around 69,000 people can now sit in the hard-shell seats.

unbequeme Sitze im Müncher Olympiastadion

When we were there, construction work was taking place for an event. After the Olympic Games, FC Bayern Munich mainly used the facility for their home games. Since the club has been playing in the Allianz Arena, it has mainly been used for cultural events. We were able to watch a stage being set up. It was exciting to see how they worked there and how quickly the construction progressed.

Otherwise, the tour offers little that is spectacular. Fans in Bayern jerseys taking selfies, screaming zipline riders, people on the stadium roof and empty seats. Due to the construction work, access to the lower grandstand area and the interior was not possible and so the tour ended quite quickly for us.

A stroll through the grounds

The Olympic Stadium is not the only place on the 1972 site that is still in use today.

The Olympic Hall, where the gymnastics and handball competitions took place, is now an arena where sports, art and cultural events are held. The originally small hall, which was directly adjacent, was removed during renovation work. Instead, a new underground hall was built, which is also suitable for volleyball.

The former Olympic swimming hall has now been renovated and is used for national and international competitions, as a training pool and public swimming pool. Athletes used the Werner-von-Linde-Halle for warming up, and today it houses the Bavarian Olympic athletics training center. The Olympic tennis facility with its 14 clay courts is also still in use.

Even before the 1972 Summer Games, there was the ice sports center, then called the Eisstadion am Oberwiesenfeld. The boxing events took place there. After the major event, the facility was expanded and an additional training hall was built. It was not only EHC Munich that played its ice hockey matches here. It was also the German performance center for figure skating and short track. However, the ice stadium was closed when the SAP Gardens (a multi-purpose hall) opened in summer 2024. The new multi-purpose hall was built on the site where the Olympic cycling stadium once stood and is now the venue for the top ice hockey and basketball teams in Munich.

The striking Olympic Tower already stood in Munich before the Games. It was built in 1965-68 in cooperation with the German Federal Post Office. The television tower is over 291 meters high and is one of the landmarks of the city and the Olympic Park. It is possible to visit the tower at certain times.

In addition to all the buildings, the Munich Olympic Park is actually what the name says, a park. There are numerous landscaped paths on around 160 hectares. These lead, for example, to the 56m high mountain. This is not only a popular vantage point, but also the highest point in the city. There was even a time when ski courses and even a World Cup parallel slalom were held there.

At the foot of the mountain is the artificial Olympic lake. The rain from the sealed surfaces in the surrounding area is collected here. Swimming is not possible, but rowing boats can be used on the lake.