Exhibition in the State Library: Olympia 72 in pictures. -Munich
They should be cheerful and show a new, colourful, open and democratic Germany. But what is primarily remembered at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich is the assassination attempt by the Palestinian terrorist group “Black September”. Eleven athletes and a German policeman fall victim to this victim, five of the eight terrorists also did not escape alive. And even though it was “The Games must go on” the next day, nothing was the same afterwards. But not only this dark event changed the city of Munich. In just a few years it had mutated into a modern city, not only had new tourist sights, but also two subways, an S-Bahn and new ring roads. And that is also something that belongs to the legacy of Olympia.
What has also remained are: the light blue, green, silver, white, yellow and orange. The colors that Otto “Otl” Aicher, who was responsible for the design of the games, chose at the time and which many contemporary witnesses still remember. You can now see these colors again in the Bavarian State Library. They shape the color concept of the exhibition “Olympia 72 in pictures” and the associated posters and flags. With which the library also honors Otl Aicher in addition to 50 years of the Olympic Games in Munich. He would have been 100 years old on May 13. A double anniversary, then, for which the exhibition on the Olympic Games as a social, political and cultural event 50 years Olympics it is an excellent introduction.
The aim was to present a democratic and purified Germany
Because here, in the form of around 140 photos, some of which have never been seen before, from the detailed photo collection of the State Library and isolated objects from private ownership, you get a bundle of all the essential aspects, developments and consequences of this event, which shaped the Bavarian capital like no other. Only the sport hardly occurs here. But it’s ok like that. It’s the focus in other places. Instead, the focus here is on the aforesaid claim to present a new, democratic and purified Germany. And an Olympia that is diametrically opposed to the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. This is described in a total of five exhibition modules: “Urban Development”; “From Oberwiesenfeld to the Olympic Park”; “Design, Culture and Media”; “The Assassination” and “Afterlife”.
As far as the urban development at that time is concerned, one can make the discovery that Munich politics can also be Olympic fast. After all, what the city under Hans-Jochen Vogel created in just six years after the election in 1966 for the next Olympic venue was originally planned for a period of 30 years. As already mentioned, this included the U 3, U 6, the S-Bahn between the main and Ost stations and new ring roads such as the Mittlerer Ring. But new residential complexes were also created, the construction of the Stachus passages accelerated and all of this under the motto “Munich is becoming more modern”, which was advertised with signs in the city. The exhibition also includes pictures from the city council meetings and construction work, as well as a photo from a fashion show that took place in 1968 in the Alte Heide underground station when it opened.
Olympic stadium and hall, the swimming pool, Olympic mountain, lake and village were built on the Oberwiesenfeld. Architecture and nature should be combined to form a harmonious entity on the site, which used to be used as a parade ground, barracks location and airfield. From 1945, 2.2 million cubic meters of war debris and rubble were stored here. Ancient theater buildings serve as models for the architectural ensemble, which is now a listed building and includes the famous acrylic glass roof designed by Günter Behnisch. How all this developed step by step can be wonderfully understood on aerial photographs taken by Max Prugger. Its photo archive was purchased in 2019 and is just one of many Hausen archives that served as a fundus for the exhibition curated by Cornelia Jahn.
The games were accompanied by an extensive cultural programme
Felicitas Timpe documented the extensive cultural program of the Games, which has largely been forgotten today. More than a million of her photos are now in the library. And when you read that the games were accompanied by 63 operas, 10 ballet performances, 30 plays, 74 concerts and six exhibitions, you realize with amazement that sport and high culture are by no means mutually exclusive. Timpe’s photographs show, among others, John Cage and Karlheinz Stockhausen having a chat at the bar and the important Moscow puppeteer Sergei Obraszow. It also fits that the uniforms for the staff – like the modern, light-blue dirndl variations for the around 1,600 hostesses – were designed by the French star designer André Courrèges, for example.
What is not forgotten is the assassination. And the sad fact that 27 years after the Shoah, eleven Jewish people died on German soil. The dramatic events, which were watched on television by millions of people locally and around the world, can be seen in the exhibition on pictures from the Stern photo archive. The archive, which contains around 15 million images, became the property of the State Library in 2019. The lax security precautions at the games and the sometimes amateurish approach of the overwhelmed security authorities were later heavily criticized.
The fact that the victims have only been commemorated in the form of a memorial since 2017 is also not a triumph. The Olympic Committee even publicly commemorated the victims of the fighters for the first time in 2021 at the Summer Games in Tokyo with an official minute’s silence. Now, 50 years later, it is time to remember them all over again. But also of many other things that have been largely forgotten or repressed today, that changed and shaped the city of Munich in the summer of 1972.
Olympia 72 in pictures, until 4 Sep., Bavarian State Library, Ludwigstr. 16, www.bsb-ausstellungen.de