Next week as many as five regions across Germany will present Olympic bid projects for as soon as 2036 to the national sports confederation, DOSB. The pitches, that will include important plans and documents, must be received by the end of May to meet a deadline set for those interested in hosting a future Olympic Games.
Regions that that have been organizing bids include the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Hamburg, Leipzig, Berlin and Munich.
The DOSB formalized a domestic bid process for Germany in 2023 after Brisbane, Australia was awarded the 2032 Olympics. The next available Games is now 2036 and falls on the unfortunate 100th anniversary of the Berlin 1936 edition that was leveraged for Nazi propaganda ahead of World War II. To deal with the sensitive issue, the DOSB is considering projects for 2036, 2040 or even 2044.
Germany last hosted in 1972 in Munich, a Games that was also marred when Palestinian terrorists murdered 11 members of the Israeli team.
Berlin’s plans include co-hosting with the states of Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein. According to the DPA Berlin officials will present May 27 at the Olympic Stadium. It is not yet clear whether Berlin is aiming to host in 2036, 2040 or perhaps leaving it to DOSB officials to decide.
Berlin’s bid to host the 2000 Olympics that were eventually awarded to Sydney.
Leipzig also has plans to present its project to host the 2040 Games next Tuesday (May 27). The city was previously chosen from among several other German sites to vie for the 2012 Olympic Games that were later won by London.
North Rhine-Westphalia centered around Düsseldorf is also planning to present its project ahead of the deadline. The region had been preparing a bid to host in 2032 before the International Olympic Committee (IOC) unexpectedly moved to select Brisbane as the sole candidate leaving other interested nations out of the race.
Munich, recent bidder to host the Winter Games, will pivot to represent Bavaria for a possible Summer Games. Its 1972 Olympic Park legacy will be used to bolster plans in a new era where the IOC prefers bids that don’t build new facilities or infrastructure. Munich city council is expected to green light the project in a May 28 vote.
Winning public support might be Munich’s biggest challenge. After losing out to PyeongChang for the 2018 Winter Games, a run for 2022 was derailed when plans were overturned by a referendum. A new vote for the Summer Games is already scheduled for October 26 this year.
The IOC and DOSB do not require referendums to elect potential bidders but the German process will give interested regions until June 2026to poll their residents.
Hamburg too will need to rally its population to back plans after that city’s application to host in 2024 was withdrawn when a referendum was lost.
The DOSB has split the bid process into three parts. Once it has received bids meeting the May deadline the DOSB will assess the feasibility of the projects focusing mostly on sports facilities and preliminary designs for an Olympic or Paralympic Village. The assessment will be complete by the end of September and results will be presented at the organization’s General Assembly in Frankfurt December 6, 2025.
That will kick off stage 2 where regions will have until June 2026 to promote their projects and hold any referendums deemed necessary to move forward.
During the third stage the best plan will be selected through a detailed analysis and cooperation with the federal government. The “International competitiveness” and the “cost-effectiveness of the submitted proposals” will be important factors in the final decision that is expected to be made by fall 2026.
Internationally, the nominated German bid will face even stronger 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.
