Berlin officials Tuesday unveiled plans to host the Olympic Games as soon a 2036, on the 100th anniversary year of the notorious Nazi Games and opening in the same stadium where Hitler was saluted by the world’s athletes just ahead of World War II.
Rebuking claims that staging the event that year would be a bad look for his city, Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner claimed, according to AFP, “No matter where they take place, the 2036 Games will bring the Nazi Olympic Games from 1936 back into focus.”
Further defending the bid, Wegner said the Games would instead demonstrate “a city which has changed in the past 100 years.”
“No longer do we stand for exclusion and hate, but we instead are a colorful, diverse metropolis which is open to the world.”
The capital is also open to hosting in 2040 and 2044, a decision that will ultimately be made by the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) when it nominates a candidate for the international stage in the fall of 2026.
Berlin has entered Germany’s domestic bid process among Munich, Hamburg and North Rhine-Westphalia, all expected to submit documents to the DOSB by May 31. Leipzig, having lost a bid to host in 2012, had also expressed interest in hosting.
Germany’s most recent Summer Games were staged in Munich in 1972, an event also marred by a terror attack and the murder of 11 members of the Israeli team.
Berlin officials haven’t planned for a referendum but opposition groups are already working a petition to force a vote. Referendums are accommodated in the DOSB bid process but are considered optional for the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Already having lost a referendum during a run at the 2022 Winter Olympic, Munich has scheduled an October vote for a future Summer Games.
Hamburg narrowly lost a referendum when it bid to host the 2024 Olympics.
The nominated German bid will face even stronger international competition. Several regions are lining up to bid for 2036 including Qatar, Saudi Arabia, India, Hungary, Nusantara in Indonesia, Santiago in Chile, South Africa, Egypt and North Jeolla, South Korea, and any that are unsuccessful could spill into a 2040 run.
Other European bids could come from Istanbul, Budapest, Barcelona or Madrid.
The next Olympics will be staged in Los Angeles in 2028.
