Olympic Stadium (Munich)

Olympiastadion is a stadium located in Munich, Germany. Situated at the heart of the Olympiapark München in northern Munich, the stadium was built as the main venue for the 1972 Summer Olympics.

With an original capacity of 80,000, the stadium also hosted many major football matches including the 1974 World Cup Final and the Euro '88 Final. It hosted the European Cup Finals of 1979, 1993 and 1997.

Until the construction of the Allianz Arena for the 2006 World Cup, the stadium was home to Bayern Munich and TSV 1860 Munich. Today, the Olympiastadion holds 69,250.^[1]

Design

Designed by the German architect Günther Behnisch and the engineer Frei Otto, the Olympiastadion was considered revolutionary for its time. This included large sweeping canopies of acrylic glass stabilized by steel cables that were used for the first time in a large scale. The idea was to imitate the Alps and to set a counterpart to the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, held during the Nazi-Regime. The sweeping and transparent canopy was to symbolize the new, democratic and optimistic Germany. This is reflected in the official motto: "The Happy Games" ("Die Heiteren Spiele").

Construction

The stadium was built by Bilfinger Berger between 1968 to 1972 in a pit made by bombings Munich suffered during World War II that made construction easy.^[2][3]

Post Olympic legacy

Following the Olympics, the stadium became the home of FC Bayern Munich, with their rival TSV 1860 Munich moving in during the 1990s. These two teams coexisted in the Olympiastadion until 2005, when both clubs moved to the purpose built Allianz Arena.

Since 2005, it is the host of the yearly air and style snowboard event.

On December 31, 2006, the stadium made history as being the first venue to host the Tour de Ski cross country skiing competition. The individual sprint events, held at 1100 m, were won by Norway's Marit Bjørgen (women) and Switzerland's Christoph Eigenmann (men). The snow was made in the stadium by combining the hot air with the cold refrigerated water that causes the snow to act like the icy type you would see in the Alps.

It went unused in the 2006 FIFA World Cup due to the Allianz Arena being the host stadium in Munich.

On June 23 to June 24, 2007, the stadium played host to the Spar European Cup 2007, a yearly athletics event featuring the top 8 countries from around Europe.

In 2010, it was announced that a round of the DTM touring car series will hold a stadium event in 2011. The Race of Champions-style event will be a non-championship scoring round, but the entire 2011 grid will take part over a two-day period.

1974 FIFA World Cup

The stadium was one of the venues for the 1974 FIFA World Cup.

The following games were played at the stadium during the World Cup of 1974:

UEFA Euro 1988

The stadium was one of the venues for the UEFA Euro 1988.

The following games were played at the stadium during the Euro 1988:

German and West German national football team matches held at the stadium ^[4]

• 26 May 1972 West Germany – USSR 4–1 (Friendly, stadium opener)
• 9 May 1973 West Germany – Yugoslavia 0–1 (Friendly)
• 7 July 1974 West Germany – Netherlands 2–1 (1974 World Cup Final)
• 22 May 1976 West Germany Spain 2–0 (Euro 1976 Qualifier)
• 22 February 1978 West Germany – England 2–1 (Friendly)
• 2 April 1980 West Germany – Austria 1–0 Friendly)
• 22 September 1982 West Germany – Belgium 0–0 (Friendly)
• 17 November 1985 West Germany – Czechoslovakia 2–2 (1986 World Cup qualifier)
• 17 June 1988 West Germany – Spain 2–0 (Euro 1988 Group match)
• 19 October 1988 West Germany – Netherlands 0–0 (1990 World Cup qualifier)
• 26 March 1996 Germany – Denmark 2–0 (Friendly)
• 9 October 1999 Germany – Turkey 0–0 (Euro 2000 qualifier)
• 1 September 2001 Germany – England 1–5 (2002 World Cup qualifier)

Other uses

In addition to being a sports venue, the stadium have played host to many open-air concerts.

The American megasuperstar Michael Jackson performed at the stadium in five times, all sold out and with a maximum capacity of the stadium for musical concerts. The first was on July 8, 1988, during his Bad World Tour, more than 72,000 fans. The second sell out concert, on June 27, 1992, started his Dangerous World Tour, Jackson's subsequent tour, to other 72,000 fans. The next two were on July 4 & 6, 1996, during his HIStory World Tour for a total audience of 145,000 people (the first of which was filmed and marketed worldwide). The fifth and last, on June 27, 1999, to others 72,000 fans, was during the special "Michael Jackson and His Friends", in which the star joined several other artists to raise funds to help needy and underprivileged children around the world.

Guns N' Roses filmed parts of their Estranged video there when they visited Munich in June 1993. Depeche Mode recorded their show at the stadium on June 13, 2009 for their live albums project Recording the Universe.

Parts of the 1975 film Rollerball were shot on the (then) futuristic site surrounding the stadium.

The Olympic Stadium also hosted Motorcycle speedway when it held the 1989 World Final on September 2, 1989. Denmark's Hans Nielsen won his second World Championship with a 15 point maximum from his five rides. The late Simon Wigg of England finished in second place after defeating countryman Jeremy Doncaster in a run-off to decide the final podium places after both had finished with 12 points from their five rides. Three time champion Erik Gundersen of Denmark finished in fourth place with 11 points.

See also

• Tensile and membrane structures

References

External links

• Official site
• Olympic Stadium review by a+t architecture publishers