How Munich rebuilt its transport network for the 1972 Olympics

According to tz München, Munich's preparations for the 1972 Summer Olympics reshaped the city's transport and public spaces in a very short time. The idea of bidding came only in late 1965, when Willi Daume, then president of the National Olympic Committee for Germany, asked Mayor Hans-Jochen Vogel whether Munich would like to apply. The city was awarded the Games in April 1966.

Planning that predated the Games

The publisher notes that the city's plans were not created because of the Olympics. Munich had passed the one-million inhabitant mark in the late 1950s, and its infrastructure was no longer keeping up. In 1963 the city council adopted an urban development plan that was originally designed to run for 27 years. After the Olympic award, large parts of it were carried out within six years.

From tram tunnel to U-Bahn

According to tz München, the first idea was to put existing tram lines underground, and a full U-Bahn was not expected before 1990. In 1964 the city decided to build line 6 as a proper underground railway. The first section, between Kieferngarten and Goetheplatz, opened in October 1971. In 1972, shortly before the Games, line U3 opened, with Olympiazentrum as its terminus at the time.

Construction and car traffic

The publisher describes the city as a large construction site during these years. The north-south U-Bahn route ran under Leopoldstraße and Ludwigstraße, while the S-Bahn trunk line was to be built under Neuhauser Straße. Detours and closures affected drivers, who could not yet switch to rail as they can today. To ease traffic, the city planned the Altstadtring, a ring road around the old town.

The Neuhauser Straße pedestrian zone

The pedestrian zone on Neuhauser Straße was a contested project. The council decided on it in 1968, and it was opened on 30 June 1972, the last day in office for Vogel. According to tz München, the newspaper at the time called it a lasting monument to the Vogel era.

The Olympic Park

The Olympic Park in the northwest of the city was designed by the landscape architect Günther Grzimek from Kassel. The site had previously been a former military and airfield area covering 280 hectares of gravel. Its central feature is the stadium with the tent roof designed by Günter Behnisch, which the publisher says is still one of the city's landmarks. The publisher's report is based on a podcast featuring its local Olympics expert.