A new venue for the Olympic Games
The Olympic Park, located between Schwabing and Nymphenburg, is also very popular. There, on the Oberwiesenfeld, were military installations and, since 1909, an airfield. There was enough space to pile up the war debris from the city center into an imposing mountain. This is where the Olympic Games were to be held in a green setting. In a sports park which, as a completely new landscape concept, was to merge the park and the architecture of the sports facilities into a harmonious whole. It was also intended to demonstrate a complete departure from the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. While at that time it was a demonstration of the totalitarian state, in Munich, the former capital of the movement, the aim was to manifest democratic attitudes.
The Stuttgart architectural firm Behnisch & Partner realized its design on the three-square-kilometre site. Landscape architect Günther Grzimek was responsible for the green planning for the Schuttberg and the sports facility area. The Stuttgart landscape architects Wolfgang Miller and Hans Lutz were responsible for the area of the Central University Sports Complex (ZHS) with the open spaces between the Olympic Village and the Olympic Park.
The assassination attempt in the Olympic Park
The 1972 Summer Olympics could have gone down in history as a “cheerful” event. The attack on the Israeli athletes on September 5 and the headless reaction of politicians and police to it ruined this. “The games must go on” was the slogan of IOC President Avery Brundage. And indeed, the Olympic idea survived, albeit under high-security conditions.
Taking stock of the TU
This year we are celebrating 40 years of the Munich Olympic Park. An occasion for the architecture faculty at the Technical University of Munich to take stock. After all, Munich’s Olympic Park is regarded worldwide as a perfect ensemble of architecture and landscape. Experts met on October 25 and 26 to discuss this special case of democratic greenery. What could easily have been a navel-gazing session then developed into a multi-faceted and future-oriented stocktaking. The future of Olympic sports facilities, which are intended for a few days and often face an uncertain subsequent use, requires good planning.
Today, as in the example of London, we speak of “legacy”, of what remains and what the population can take possession of. In Munich, the park has proved to be a bestseller. Even during the Games, citizens embraced it and it is still popular today. It is the diversified park of a new generation that was encouraged to walk on the grass. Although this is taken for granted today, it was new 40 years ago. Even in 1983, when Grzimek’s exhibition and book “Die Besitzergreifung des Rasens” (The Grasp of the Lawn) attracted a great deal of attention.
A total work of art – the Olympic Park
In the Olympic Park, the question of sustainable use arose when FC Bayern Munich, spoiled by success, moved into its own stadium and the Olympic Stadium and the other sports facilities disappeared somewhat from the spotlight. Over time, the sophisticated design concept of the architects and landscape architects was watered down to the point where the original stadium seating shells were sold. For a long time, the sense of the Olympic Park as a work of art was underdeveloped. So it took a long time before a park maintenance project was tackled – it is expected to be completed soon and explained to the public.
A team of designers led by Otl Aicher created a binding color scheme that was intended to evoke fresh and positive emotions among visitors and athletes. The consistently stylized pictograms were also an attempt to make international communication possible without language. Red, a color often misused by totalitarian states and also dominant at the 1936 Games in Berlin, was taboo for Aicher’s graphic designers.
Who owns the Olympic Park?
Who owns the Olympic Park? This question from the panel discussion at the TU event “Democratic Green – 40 Years of the Munich Olympic Park” is easy to answer if you review the statements made by the panelists: It belongs to the people of Munich and their guests and it is the duty of the city, or even the Free State of Bavaria, to preserve this heritage. City Planning Councillor Elisabeth Merk was not alone in her view that Munich’s Olympic Park has what it takes to be recognized by Unesco as a World Heritage Site. An idea that should definitely be taken further, even if the list of signatures in the foyer was very reminiscent of student spontaneous actions.
Photos: Lukáš Hron/Wikipdedia.org, Archive Günther Grzimek/TU Munich
