In this vintage photograph, some 80,000 people packed into Munich’s Olympic Stadium to watch the Opening Ceremony of the 1972 Games of the Summer Olympiad. Munich is one of four German locations in the running to host the Games sometime during the next 20 years.
Bettmann Archive
Half a century has passed since the Olympic Games were held in Germany, and many in the country feel it’s high time the nation got in line to host again.
Since its last Summer Olympics in Munich in 1972, Germany has not been bashful about applying again, even though it has not really come close to landing another Games. Instead, Germany has contented itself with a number of smaller multisport Games and World Championships in a rainbow of Olympic sports and Olympic-sports-to-be (coming up in 2026: equestrian in Aachen, flag football in Dusseldorf, and rhythmic gymnastics in Frankfurt).
Now come the winds of change. The German Olympic Committee recently announced that it would look into having one of four proposed locations – Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, and the Rhine-Ruhr region – bid for the Summer Games for 2036, 2040, or 2044. Exploratory committees for each have been given the go-ahead to put together proposals, and the national Olympic Committee is expected to choose a winner next year.
2036 might not happen for any of them. Five other candidates have officially entered the race, and unlike Paris, which made the most of its centennial Games last year, it’s hard to imagine Germany doing the same. The 2040s seem more promising.
All four early candidates have compelling arguments. Five cities in the northwestern Rhine-Ruhr region, with a little help from Berlin, banded together this summer to produce a colorful and well-organized World University Games, proving again that a Games doesn’t have to be pegged to a single city to work well. Munich has the name recognition and sports infrastructure that has remained in place since the 1972.
Berlin’s painful history could even potentially help its cause, giving it a platform to show how it has evolved into an accepting, inclusive place, the antithesis of what it was in 1936. Hamburg meanwhile is underlining sustainability, promising that “not a single venue will be newly constructed as a result of the Olympic plan.”
Yet Germany — and Europe, where more Olympics have been held than anywhere else — faces increasing competition from the rest of the world. With Los Angeles 2028, the Olympics will be returning to the Americas for the first time since 2016. With Melbourne in 2032, the Games will stop in Oceania for the first time in a generation. Asia got Tokyo in 2020 and has presented a number of strong contenders for 2036. In terms of geographical fairness, as Gameswatcher FrancsJeux points out, Europe’s time is due again around 2040.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/blythelawrence/2025/09/20/germany-wants-to-host-an-olympics-sometime-in-the-next-20-years/
