At the beginning there is a paved footbridge. On one side red pipes, on the other a white wall. In the background the horizon with a blue sky and in front of it massive terraced buildings that soar roughly towards the clouds. The immovable wall of exposed concrete of the Olympic Village in the north of Munich can seem overwhelming. Whoever comes closer, however, opens up a vast expanse – with winding paths, green natural places and car-free connections – that is rarely found in other parts of the city. The district planned as a model settlement has been around for 50 years, but how well does the village work in the middle of the big city?
Frank Becker-Nickels is standing in front of the entrance to the village, this drafty gap, as he calls it. His white, slightly thinning hair looks even lighter in the sunlight. A striped scarf hangs around his neck and he wears frameless glasses, which is unusual for his profession. The architect and artist has lived in the Olympic Village for 49 years.
Frank Becker-Nickels has lived in Olydorf since 1973. Every morning he sends his friends a picture of the day from his balcony. There he looks at the Olympic tent roof, the student bungalows, but also at the other concrete buildings.
(Photo: Alessandra Schellnegger)
Over the years and phases of life, he has tested different types of housing in the settlement – from the two-room apartment to the terraced house and back. “I bought my first apartment on the Helene-Mayer-Ring for 95,000 marks. That was a bit more expensive than elsewhere,” he says, pointing in the direction of the high-rise buildings on the edge of the shopping street, which architecturally he dislikes the most today.
Not social housing but popular with families
The contract for the 1972 Summer Olympics triggered real building fever in Munich. Thanks to the first urban development plan initiated in the post-war period, many projects could be implemented much more quickly than before. In addition to the sports and training facilities, a residential area consisting of 22 terraced high-rise buildings, 40 low-rise buildings and 800 bungalows was planned for the athletes on Oberwiesenfeld, which was later to be used as a district. As the developer, Deutsche Wohnbau GmbH (Deba) was in charge of building more than 3,000 privately financed apartments. The city wanted a large part of this as affordable living space for families and young professionals.
The first oil crisis and the recession that followed brought sobering. In October 1974, a good 1,350 apartments in the village were still empty. A square meter cost between 1,600 and 2,200 Deutsche Mark (DM). “The crux of the Olympiadorf is even more than the prices, the unfavorable layout of the apartments in the terraced complex and of course the high additional costs, caused by the complex special facilities, such as the underground roads,” wrote the Southgerman newspaper at that time. Which is why the new development area was mockingly referred to in the rest of the city as a ghost town with a high concentration of academics.
The car-free residential area was designed for 10,000 people, today a good 5,000 live there. There are also 1,800 students who live in the former village of athletes in two high-rise buildings, five half-timber buildings and 800 bungalows belonging to the student union. Frank Becker-Nickels has a direct view of the student village from his balcony on Connollystrasse. A few years ago, the 79-year-old moved into his late mother’s apartment. He handed over his terraced house to the next generation. His daughter now lives there with her family. A bird chirps down from one of the neighboring balconies, the noise of construction mixed in with the song. Something is always being renovated, says Becker-Nickels.
Cars are relegated to underground roads in the Olympic Village.
(Photo: Alessandra Schellnegger)
“It resonates quite a bit from below,” he says while standing between wildly blooming flower pots and all kinds of sculptures. He always sends his friends “a picture of the day”. If you show the Alps or the tent roof of the Olympic Stadium, that would be well received. The listed terrace buildings are a less popular motif. “I prefer this view, the ledges remind me of the mountains,” he says. That’s why he called an exhibition “Concrete like Rock: Naked” in which he will be showing his drawings of the “concrete mountains” in the village until the beginning of June.
Students are allowed to live in the bungalow for six semesters
Derya Yavuz also started painting, after all it’s a tradition here to leave marks on one’s own home. Red bricks can be seen on their small house. “The sign from the café from the TV series Friends is still missing,” says the 23-year-old student. Shortly after the pandemic began, she moved to the bungalow village. She is in her 8th semester studying mechanical engineering at the TU and is involved in the “Association of Students in the Olympic Village”. It was difficult to keep the community alive during the Corona period. “A lot of information has been lost due to relocations,” she says.
The student Derya Yavuz lives in one of the bungalows in the student village.
(Photo: Alessandra Schellnegger)
The Olydorf actually reminds you of a holiday village. “Everyone knows each other, there’s always something going on. You can walk by anywhere and thirty of your friends are already there,” she says. Yavuz hopes that the festival planned by the student association can take place for the Olympic anniversary. “We want to set up an outdoor stage in the bungalow village from June 23 to 25 and hold music and dance events there,” she says. She appreciates being outdoors where she lives. “If you want to relax in Munich, you go outside. It’s particularly nice here because you’re right in the countryside,” she says. Other students obviously don’t like this closeness “Oly-Zoo: 1054 exposed concrete enclosures” someone wrote on the wall of his house, which faces directly towards the Olympic Park.
It’s never far from the lush green spaces to the next shade of green. Colors are used for orientation in the Olympic Village. Visitors are guided through the network of streets by the so-called “Media Lines”, tubes on stilts with fluorescent tubes for lighting. On to the green Nadistraße, you will pass overgrown gardens and playgrounds where the bobby car is already waiting for the players. A shrine has been attached to a garden shed: a figure of the Madonna looks out onto the path, while flute sounds come from somewhere.
Gift cabinet and bag tree – neighbors are looking for sustainable solutions
A narrow alley leads to a few steps and suddenly, as at the end of the ridge, the next terraced peak. Brigitte Strauss lives at the foot of this skyscraper. She dries cotton bags in her garden, while her neighbor Ramona Müller is sitting at the table in the dining room. Both women are active in “Olytopia”, an initiative that aims to make the Olympic Village even greener – i.e. more environmentally friendly.
Ramona Müller has been living here with her husband and two children for four years. She is committed to a more sustainable village and looks after the fair tailer at Olytopia in the OhCircle café on Ladenstrasse.
(Photo: Alessandra Schellnegger)
The bags go to a tree in the village’s shopping street, from which anyone who has forgotten theirs can take one. “This should make a small contribution to avoiding waste,” says Strauss, who is also working on a sustainability podcast. She has lived in the village since 2005 and has never regretted moving there with her family. As far as environmental issues are concerned, there is still room for improvement. “We had considered installing solar panels on the roofs, but it’s very complicated just because of the ownership structure,” she says.
There are 17 homeowners’ associations in the village, in which the individual property owners are organized. The general infrastructure in the village belongs to all residents and must be maintained by them. Therefore, the owners have founded a company that takes care of the maintenance and care of the common areas. The costs for this are passed on to the residents. So if chipboard is lying over the pedestrian walkways, like just now, it means that one of the bricks is broken again and needs to be replaced. The path through the village can sometimes be rocky for residents because they are reminded every day of what they can invest in soon.
The Olympiadorf residents are celebrating the 50th birthday of their district with a festival week from Friday 13th to Sunday 22nd May. A nostalgia evening with a 1970s fashion show is planned for Friday, May 20, 7 p.m., city planning officer Elisabeth Merk explains on Monday, May 16, at 7 p.m. why she considers the Olympic Park to be a model of sustainable urban development, and director Emanuel Rotstein will be available for a discussion on Wednesday, May 18, after the screening of his documentary film “The Eleventh Day” on the Olympic attack (starting at 7 p.m.). There are also guided tours, discussions, concerts, exhibitions and a scout camp. On the second weekend, live music is on the program in the marquee on the meadow between Connollystrasse and Nadistrasse. Event overview below https://eig-olympiadorf.de/Tickets for the Forum2 at www.kultur-forum2.de.