The 1972 Olympic Games, held in Munich, are widely remembered but for often contrasting reasons. On one side you have the remarkable performance of legendary Mark Spitz who won 7 gold medals in the pool. On the other you have the sad events when terrorists invaded the athlete's village and subsequently killed 11 Israeli athletes and coaches. However, alongside these events, there is still today a very real reminder of the Olympic Games when you visit the vast Olympiapark in Munich, venue to the 1972 games.
Munich were awarded the Olympic games in 1966 and within 2 years they had started work on the central location for most of the events. The chosen location was Oberwiesenfeld, an unused WWII airfield about 4km north of the city centre. Under the Nazi regime this area had been due to be massively redeveloped as part of Munich being 'Capital of the Movement' but these plans had fallen by the wayside and in 1966 the site was home to an enormous pile of rubble left over from the war. The organising committee decided that they wanted somewhere green to hold the games so a German landscaper named Günther Grzimek was tasked with using the rubble to create a very pleasant environment whilst the architectural firm Günther Behnisch set about designing the buildings in a new and modern design. Whilst the Olympics have been and gone, that park and the Olympic structures still stand today and are a great place to visit.
The Olympic park is easily accessible from Munich city centre with regular trains on both U1 and U3 lines running to the Olympiapark metro station and I believe there are also plenty of buses if that form of transport is your preference.
When you arrive at the Olympic park the central focus point is the 291m tall Olympic Tower. Not only is this your focus, it is also the first place that you should head. For just 4.50€ you will be rushed to the viewing platform at about 180m at a speed of 7m/s. From here you get some amazing views across both the city and the rest of the Olympic Park. Transfers on the window help you identify the different buildings, from the Olympic stadium right in front of you, to the new Allianz arena on the horizon and the rest of the landscaped park. In addition to the views there is also a revolving restaurant that takes about 53mins to complete one circuit. I'm unsure of the prices as I didn't eat there, and when I visited the restaurant wasn't revolving as there had been extremely low temperatures the night before. For this same reason the external viewing terrace was shut but in the summer this will probably be even better for viewing and photography as there is not the glare off of the windows! Also at the top of the tower is a rock museum. To me this seemed hugely out of place but there was some historic memorabilia if you are in to that kind of thing. At the bottom of the tower there is a second restaurant which was very reasonable in cost and a shop if you want to buy any gifts.
In addition to the tower, the park is also home to the Olympic Stadium. With its tensile roof this was a revolutionary designed building and was in regular use until 2006 when the new Allianz arena opened on the outskirts of the city and the cities two teams Bayern Munich and 1860 Munich. It has held many events over time including the 1974 World Cup and 1988 European Championships. Today it is in less regular use but still stands as an impressive reminder.
Between the two lies the Olympic Hall and Swimming arena. When we were there what appeared to be the German version of Crufts was taking place in the hall that during the games held events such as Badminton and Gymnastics. From my understanding this is the usual use for this building whilst the pool is still in use as a public baths as well as for some competitions. Just off the site, close to the U-Bahn station you will also find the BMW museum although this isn't quite part of Olympiapark.
For me the eeriest part of the Olympiapark was the athlete's village that sits just across the road from the main park. I'm unsure of the use today but it bought back memories of the images that I have seen in films (such as Munich that I have reviewed previously) and also in many TV documentaries. I may not have been born when the 1972 games took place but the village didn't appear to have changed one bit from those TV pictures of the terrorists outside the Israeli apartments.
All in all I really enjoyed my trip to the Olympic park and I have to agree with the comments of one of my friends that we hope that London can maybe design an Olympic Park that will have a legacy in 30 years time. If you are visiting the city then I would say it should be high on your list of things to do and see and part of me hopes that I may visit Munich again on a slightly nicer day to make better use of what was a wonderful array of facilities.
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