The enthusiasm was great when the delegation, led by the young Mayor Hans-Jochen Vogel (SPD), coming from Rome landed at the airfield in Riem: They also had big things in their luggage – the promise of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) that Munich is allowed to host the summer games in 1972. This Tuesday marks the anniversary of this event. On April 26, 1966, Munich prevailed at the IOC session in the Italian capital in the second ballot with 31 votes against Montreal (15 votes) and Madrid (13); Detroit had already been eliminated in the first round.
When the IOC members entered the room where the delegations from the candidate cities were waiting after the secret ballot, Hans-Jochen Vogel was initially shocked. The Canadian IOC representative had given Jean Drapeau, the Mayor of Montreal, an effusive hug. A bad sign? Only a glance at the German IOC member Willi Daume calmed Munich’s mayor: Daume had his hand tight on his upper body and stretched his thumb. The two Olympic champions had previously agreed on this sign.
Shortly thereafter, IOC President Avery Brundage officially announced: “The Games are awarded to Munich.” And Vogel immediately sent a telegram to the Bavarian Prime Minister Alfons Goppel (CSU): “Munich Olympic city 1972! Please inform the Chancellor.” At the time, his name was Ludwig Erhard (CDU) and when Daume and Vogel presented the Olympics idea to him over coffee and cake in the Chancellor’s bungalow in Bonn in November 1965, he decided that one could “not always gloat and announce unpleasant things to the people”. people need good news sometimes.
They now had it, even if the mayor tried to curb arrogance right at the airport after returning from the assignment. Everyone in Munich must now help to ensure that the project succeeds, Hans-Jochen Vogel warned, “disappointments” are inevitable: “An invisible stopwatch is already ticking.”
As a reminder of the awarding of the games, the Olympic Tower, the tallest building in the city, will not be illuminated in the colors of Ukraine (blue and yellow) this Tuesday – as it has been since the beginning of the war – but in the Munich city colors of yellow and black.