Olympic Park Munich

The Olympic Park marked a major turning point in Munich garden design. The leading landscape architect from Kassel, Günther Grzimek, placed the Olympic Park in the context of the social upheaval of the 1960s. The motto of "taking possession of the lawn" expresses the appropriation by the population as an emancipatory process. The park becomes a place of social freedom. Günther Grzimek thus also orientates himself towards the ideal of democracy.

More than four decades have passed since the 1972 Games and the Munich Olympic Park is still a unique place full of life. Most of the Olympic venues are now history, but in Munich a world-renowned leisure and event centre has been established to this day.

The unique thing about the Olympic Park Munich is undoubtedly the outstanding architecture and the embedding in a wonderful landscape. The architects of the Olympic Park followed three principles when planning the site: 1. it was to be games of short distances, 2. the venues were to symbolize democracy and freedom in the form of open and bright buildings with large glass surfaces in contrast to the 1936 games in Berlin, and 3. the 1972 Olympics were to be held in the middle of greenery. Finally, the Olympic facilities were embedded in an 850,000 square meter park with raised hills and a very beautiful, artificially curved lake. In order not to disturb the impression of a natural environment, the sports arenas such as the Olympic Stadium, the Olympic Hall and the Olympic Swimming Hall were built into the ground so that only one third of the buildings protruded from the ground. Thus, to this day, the characteristic tent roof that connects the three main buildings unfolds its unique effect.

The Olympic Park Munich is not only a magnet for tourists or for lovers of unique architecture, but also for the people of Munich, who spend their free time here. Munich residents attend concerts or sporting events here or do sports themselves in the Olympic swimming hall or the Olympic ice sports center. All in all, the Olympic Park Munich is a uniquely diverse place and more lively than any other Olympic Park in the world.