Munich wants another shot at hosting the Summer Olympics, and voters turned out in record numbers to approve the city making a bid for 2036, 2040 or 2044, but the bid faces stiff competition, including from other German cities.
The Bavarian city last hosted the Olympics in 1972, an event unfortunately most memorable because of a terrorist attack.
The referendum turnout was over 42% of eligible voters, the highest ever for a referendum in the city, and over 66% of the votes cast were in favor. Sports draws voters, apparently: the previous high participation rate was for a vote in 2001 that approved a new football stadium. However, Munich’s last Olympic referendum, in 2013, turned down a bid for the 2022 winter games.
Berlin, Hamburg and the Ruhr region are also developing bids; the German candidate will be selected by the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) late in 2026 before being submitted to the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
