1972 Munich Olympics' Massacre

Podcast Transcript

In 1972, the Olympics returned to Germany for the first time since being hosted in Berlin in 1936.

The Games were intended to present a new image of West Germany, one that would reject the image portrayed at the previous Nazi-hosted Games and showcase a modern, peaceful nation.

That didn’t happen.

Instead, it became known for a terrorist attack on the Israeli Olympic team, which led to the death of eleven athletes and coaches, and one German police officer.

Learn about the 1972 Olympics and the Munich Massacre on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

To understand the events that unfolded in Munich in 1972, it is important to understand why West Germany was selected to host the Games in the first place.

West Germany was determined to host the games, as it sought to present a more positive image of Germany following the events of World War II.

Before 1972, Germany had hosted the Games twice, for both the Summer and Winter Olympics in 1936.

Their previous games were hosted when the Nazi’s were in power and were plagued with propaganda for the party. By hosting the new Games, the government had hoped to change its country’s image on the World Stage.

The Olympic Committee eventually sided with the Munich Bid in 1966, with West Germany being chosen over Spain, Canada, and the United States.

After winning the bid, West Germany went to work adopting a positive brand to help showcase the new, peaceful country.

The Games’ official motto was “the cheerful Games,” and the logo was a bright blue solar figure known as “the bright sun.”

Additionally, the hostesses were dressed in bright blue, and the Games introduced a mascot of a dachshund named Waldi.

All of which was used to help symbolize the newfound peace within the country.

However, this peaceful image would prove costly.

Security during these Games was minimal as they wanted to avoid any military imagery.

They were more prepared to deal with drunkenness and ticket fraud instead of a real emergency.

Athletes during the games easily bypassed security measures and would sneak into other countries’ areas of the Olympic villgea without problem by climbing over fences.

The Israeli Olympic Committee expressed its concern to Munich Olympic officials before the games began.

The team was placed in an isolated region of the village on the ground floor of a smaller building located by the easily climbable gate.

Additionally, a very similar scenario to that of the Munich massacre was predicted when planning security for the event, though this fear was not reported to the West German authorities.

I say this to illustrate how this lack of security contributed to the events that unfolded. Because they were prioritizing the imagery of a carefree, safe games, they were left unprepared for what happened

The first week of the Games was normal. Athletes competed and won medals, and everything was going swimmingly until tragedy struck.

In the early morning of September 5th, eight members of a Palestinian militia organization known as Black September snuck into the Olympic Village.

The terrorists had been working in the Olympic Village for a few weeks, scoping out the area for the attack.

During the night of September 4th, the Israeli athletes returned to the village after watching a performance of Fiddler on the Roof.

At 4:10 am the next day, the terrorists scaled the fence with the help of unaware Canadian Athletes.

Each of the terrorists carried a duffel bag. Within the bags, there were assault rifles, pistols, and hand grenades.

They made their way into the building holding the Israeli, Uruguayan, and Hong Kong Olympic Delegations.

The front door was unlocked.

The attackers were first noticed by Israeli wrestling referee Yossef Gutfreund, who had heard a scratching noise. He saw the masked terrorists and weapons and shouted to warn the others in the apartment while throwing a 300-pound weight against the door.

As his roommate escaped, another member of the wrestling team, Moshe Weinberg, a coach, fought the intruders.

He was eventually overpowered and shot in the cheek before being forced to lead the terrorists to more potential victims.

The Israeli delegation was split into multiple apartment buildings.

Weinberg lied to the terrorists about the location of some of the Israeli athletes, directing them to a different building.

That building housed the weightlifters and wrestlers, whom Weinberg had hoped would be more equipped to overpower the terrorists.

Unfortunately, this did not work as they were asleep. The terrorists were able to take the six hostages from the apartment building back to where the initial attack occurred.

When they returned to the first building, Weinberg attempted to attack the terrorists again. As a result, one wrestler managed to escape by using a parking garage.

Weinberg was shot and killed for this attempt, but he did manage to knock one intruder unconscious and slash another with a knife.

Then, another athlete, weight lifter Yossef Romano, attempted to attack the terrorists and managed to wound one before being shot and killed.

This left the terrorists with nine hostages. Almost all of the delegation was placed into lines across two beds. They were bound and beaten, with the corpse of Romano placed on their feet.

The final hostage was significantly larger than the other eight. Gutfreund, who had been the initial person to notice the attacker was still alive and was bound to a chair in such a way that one of the hostages described him looking like a mummy.

At this point, members of the delegation in the second apartment building had been woken and warned. They then left the building and ran to the American building.

All those residing in the second building survived as they were able to flee before any potential future attacks could occur.

The terrorists then revealed their motivations for the attack.

They offered to release the hostages in exchange for the release of Palestinians and non-Arab prisoners who were being held by Israel. Their list consisted of 328 names.

Although the terrorists had made their threat clear by throwing Weinberg’s body out of the building, the Israeli Government had a policy to never negotiate with terrorists, so there was no deal to be had.

The hostage situation placed West Germany in a tough position. Germany was responsible for the Holocaust, which resulted in the deaths of millions of Jews.

To put it mildly, the optics of this were bad.

The German government initially considered an unlimited ransom to get the hostages back. This was rejected as the hostage takers claimed that they did not care for money or their own lives.

To make matters worse for the Germans, the International Olympic Committee refused to suspend the games, making the situation even more dire to resolve.

The Germans were not the only group to try to negotiate with the terrorists.

Egyptian advisors to the Arab League and members of the International Olympic Committee worked to try to make deals with the terrorists, but those too failed.

However, the attempts at negotiation did buy time for the hostages, as it convinced the militia members that their demands were being considered.

As the hostage situation continued, athletes from other countries appeared to be completely unaware.

The Games continued for 12 hours after the first murder when pressure on the Committee became too much.

The terrorists had given Israel a deadline of 9 am to meet their demands by releasing the prisoners. They also requested a plane for safe passage back to an Arab capital.

A crisis team was set up on-site to resolve the situation and was told by the German Federal Government to do whatever was necessary to rescue the hostages.

They were unable to reach an agreement by the 9:00 a.m. deadline, but did manage to get an extension.

Interestingly, the press exploded, but not about the hostage situation, but about American Swimmer Mark Spitz, who had won his seventh gold medal the day before, setting a record of most wins during a single Olympic Games. This record would not be beaten until 2008 by Michael Phelps.

Spitz was unaware of the hostage situation until he was told by the Press. He was expected to comment on it as he was Jewish. He ended up leaving Munich that day as he was concerned that, given the publicity surrounding him, he could become a target.

With the ultimatum extended until 3 pm, German officials attempted to offer themselves as replacements for the hostages but were turned down.

Later that day, the Israeli ambassador to Germany, Eliashiv Ben-Horin, publicly stated to the world that Israel would not to cooperate with the terrorists.

At this point, the press was at the scene and began to capture imagery of the hostages and terrorists and broadcast the situation across the world.

The ultimatum was then extended once more to 5 pm.

The terrorists worked to confuse the police, changing their appearances and clothes to look like there were more of them.

At this point, there was no one in Germany with training to handle a hostage situation. Additionally, post World War II, the German Constitution did not allow for internal military operations during times of peace, meaning the armed forces were not allowed to help in the crisis.

At 4:30 pm, thirteen police officers attempted to rescue the hostages.

Disguised in Olympic track suits over bulletproof vests and machine guns, the group attempted to scale the building.

The Germans had never cut off electricity to the building so the terrorists were able to hear about the incoming rescue operation before it happened.

The terrorists used this to their advantage and threatened to kill hostages if the police were not called back.

The police then had to end the operation, and the press were removed from the premises.

Just before the 5:00 pm deadline, the terrorists changed their demands, asking for passage to Cairo with the hostages so they could continue negotiations.

This was agreed to after a German minister and the Mayor of the Olympic village went inside the apartment to confirm the hostages were still alive.

When they returned, they reported five terrorists despite there actually being eight.

The Second Rescue attempt was to take place at the airbase where they terrorists were supposed to board the plane to Cairo.

The Germans wanted to have the terrorists and the hostages walk to the helicopters that would take them to the airfield through a basement garage in the Olympic Village and ambush them there.

This ended up not happening when the terrorist became suspicious that the route would not be secure and demanded to be transported by bus.

The Germans were forced to give in to this concession and attempted to buy more time, claiming that there were no planes available to fly to Cairo.

This worked, and the terrorists pushed the timeline back once more.

The terrorists and hostages were then flown to Fürstenfeldbruck airbase by helicopter. Five sharpshooters were placed around the airstrip, though none of them were trained. They were also improperly positioned, lacked the right weapons, and didn’t have raidos, and there were too few of them.

Around 10:30 pm, the helicopters landed and the terrorists, with their captives tied and bound inside, approached the jet. When two of the terrorists went to inspect the aircraft and found it deserted, they realized they had been tricked.

Almost immediately, the rescue attempt began: German snipers opened fire, killing two of the terrorists but failing to neutralize the rest. The shooting quickly descended into chaos as the surviving terrorists fired back with automatic weapons.

As more police arrived, they mistook one of the snipers and a helicopter pilot for terrorists and shot them, injuring them both.

The gun battle raged for over an hour, complicated by poor visibility and confusion about how many terrorists there actually were. Eventually, the cornered gunmen turned on the hostages.

They tossed grenades into one of the helicopters, igniting it and killing the Israelis trapped inside. In the other helicopter, terrorists sprayed the bound athletes with automatic gunfire, killing them as well.

The operation was a complete failure.

The total number of deaths at both the airfield and the Olympic village included 6 Israeli coaches, 5 Israeli athletes, and 1 West German police officer, as well as 5 of the 8 terrorists.

In retaliation for the murders, Israel began campaigns against those suspected to be involved in what is known as Operation Wrath of God.

The impact of the Munich Massacre on Germany cannot be understated.

The country faced significant criticism for its handling of the situation.

A counter terrorist unit of the German border guard was formed just under two weeks after the incident.

The Games were suspended for just 34 hours. On September 6th, a memorial was held at the stadium, with IOC President Avery Brundage delivering a speech.

This speech was controversial as he had a few references to the massacre and used the time to compare the murders to recent arguments about professionalism and Rhodesia’s participation in the Games.

There was controversy over the decision to continue the Games, but the Israeli government supported Brundage and the IOC in their decision to continue.

With the Games restarting, all Jewish athletes were given protection. Many teams and individual athletes, like Mark Spitz, simply left Munich.

In 2012, an investigative report from the German Magazine Der Spiegel was released.

They claimed that authorities in West Germany had been given a tip from an informant three weeks before the massacre about a potential “incident” that a Palestinian group was planning.

According to the report, the Federal Foreign Office allegedly instructed the State Secret Service to implement security measures that were never taken, and that this information had been concealed for 40 years.

The 1972 Munich Massacre remains the darkest moment in the history of the modern Olympic Games. It resulted not just in Germany, but in many other European countries, creating anti-terrorism measures to respond to such situations.

The Olympics were designed to be an event where the nations of the world could compete and come together, at least briefly, in peace. In 1972, the Olympic Games lost their innocence, and it has shaped every Olympics since.