AT THE MUNICH GAMES

Fifty years ago, the world’s best athletes gathered in the Bavarian capital for what proved to be one of the most famous—and infamous—Olympics of the modern era. Reader Thomas Lower captured views of the city in its finest and saddest hour.

STORY BY MARY-LIZ SHAW

NEW FOCUS The memory of the 1972 Munich Olympics is forever tainted by the terrorist attack on Sept. 5 that ended in the deaths of 11 Israeli athletes and a German police officer. But the Games began in a spirit of optimism and positive change. Organizers sought a clean, joyful look that would show the then-West Germany as welcoming of all flags, left. It was a deliberate departure from the aggressive presentation Germany put on the last time it had the Games—in ’36, under the Nazis. Architect Gunter Behnisch designed an open concept sports center that included pleasing green spaces. Frei Paul Otto’s massive fabric-and-metal-net roof, an engineering marvel at the time, capped the structure. Behnisch’s and Otto’s creative successes in Munich led to greater use of computer models in structural design. Thomas Lower, top…

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Reminisce (Digital) - 1 Issue, October/November 2022

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