The Olympic Park and its venues

Five decades on from the Olympic Games Munich 1972, Munich Olympic Park has received approximately 230.4 million people. A world-renowned complex, it is famed for the distinctive architecture of its venues, which are partly sunken into the ground and at one with their surroundings.

The park’s construction responded to three main principles. The first was that Munich 1972 was a Games of short distances, hence the decision to locate seven competition venues and the Olympic Village in the park. Secondly, these venues symbolise democracy and freedom in the form of both open designs (the Olympic Stadium) and light-filled buildings with expansive glass surfaces (the Olympic Hall, for example). Thirdly, the Olympic Park provided a green setting for Munich 1972, with its venues being integrated into an area of 850,000 square metres, complete with hillocks and an aesthetically pleasing, curving artificial lake. 

Welcoming, bucolic and liveable, the Olympic Park plays host to a wide range of sports, music and cultural events all year round, from open-air summertime events at the Olympic Stadium and concerts in the Olympic Hall to exhibitions at the Small Olympic Hall and outdoor festivals.

The Olympic Park is a major driver of the Bavarian capital’s economy, and generated a financial benefit of several billion euros for the city in the first three decades after the Olympic Games. It continues to bolster Munich’s retail, hotel and catering sectors, while the many sporting events it stages also have a major part to play in promoting the city and its tourism industry. Over the years, it has hosted no fewer than 34 world championships, 21 European championships and over 100 German championships, not to mention the 2002 European Athletics Championships, the 2012 UEFA Champions League Festival, which included the women’s final, the 2013 X Games Munich and, most recently, the multi-sport 2022 European Championships.

Olympic Stadium and Werner von Linde Hall

Notable for its groundbreaking roof structure, which imbues a sense of lightness and transparency, the Olympic Stadium epitomised the cosmopolitan and democratic guiding principle of Munich 1972 venue design. It was here that the world’s track and field athletes competed for Olympic gold, silver and bronze, and it was here that the Federal Republic of Germany’s footballers were crowned world champions two years later.

Bayern Munich played under its eye-catching tented roof for 33 seasons, during which time they won 17 German league titles and four European Cup/Champions League crowns. The setting for a host of major sporting events, such as the 1988 European Football Championship and the 2002 and 2022 European Athletics Championships, the Olympic Stadium has also welcomed some of the biggest acts from the world of pop and rock, from the Rolling Stones and Bruce Springsteen to Prince and Pink Floyd. Pope John Paul II also led mass here in 1987.

Situated next to the Olympic Stadium and named after a sports administrator who played a key role in the bid for the Games of the XX Olympiad, Werner von Linde Hall was used as a warm-up venue at Munich 1972, the 2002 European Athletics Championships and the 2022 European Championships. It still provides a training venue for Bavarian and German athletes, and regularly hosts regional indoor championships.

Olympic Hall (previously known as Sports hall) and Small Olympic Hall

The Olympic Hall is located in the Olympic Park and was its most visited venue in 2019, attracting over 970,000 visitors across 158 event days. Designed as a multi-purpose building, it has staged many international competitions and cultural events since the 1972 Olympic Games, including the World Figure Skating Championships on two occasions, the 1993 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championships finals, the Handball World Championships 2019, the Gymnastics venue for the 2022 European Championships and the 2024 Handball European Championships. It is also a popular venue for shows and music concerts. It underwent renovations between 2007 and 2019 while continuing to operate.

The Small Olympic Hall, which stands adjacent to the Olympic Hall and is connected to it by a tunnel, opened in 2011 and is a venue for concerts, musicals, shows, exhibitions, conferences and business events.

Olympic Ice Sports Centre

The first of the Munich 1972 competition venues to be built, in 1967, the Olympic Ice Sports Centre staged the boxing tournament and has been the home arena for several professional ice hockey clubs since then. Its training hall is also open to the public and lays on a wide range of leisure activities in conjunction with the neighbouring SoccArena, including ice skating sessions. All ice-skating activities were discontinued in April 2024, however. The Olympic Park’s new venue for ice sports will be the SAP Garden, which will host programmes and training sessions, with the Ice Sports Centre and training hall continuing to be used in the meantime.

Olympic Swimming Hall

The setting for USA swimming star Mark Spitz’s remarkable seven-gold-medal haul (each won in world-record times) at Munich 1972, the Olympic Swimming Hall opened to the public the following year and is the city’s only public 50-metre indoor pool. One of Munich’s most popular swimming venues, it has hosted six German championships over the years and provides several sports clubs and recreational and high-performance swimmers with first-class training facilities.

Hans-Jochen-Vogel-Platz (formerly the Coubertinplatz)

Regarded as the centrepiece of the Olympic Park, Hans-Jochen-Vogel-Platz was built to stage cultural events, concerts and festivals and attracts around one million visitors a year.

An atmospheric venue, the square is the setting for the annual Midsummer Night’s Dream, an evening of live concerts and firework displays, and Munich’s Summer in the City festival, when it plays host to stalls, market stands, carousels and restaurants. It has also staged the X-Games, the MASH Action Sports Festival and the Roofs Festival – part of the European Championships Munich 2022. It was also home to fan zones during the 2006 FIFA World Cup and UEFA EURO 2024. The square is named after a former mayor of Munich who was the driving force behind the city’s bid for the Games of the XX Olympiad.

The Theatron

An amphitheatre situated below the Olympic Swimming Pool, the Theatron was a key venue for the Spielstraße (“Games Avenue”) during the Olympic Games Munich 1972 and a setting for events held as part of its cultural programme. It remains an integral part of the city’s cultural scene and regularly hosts open-air concerts in the summer months. The Theatron earned a place in the Guinness Book of Records in 2002, when it staged the world’s longest music festival, an event that ran for 32 consecutive days. Many well-known bands have played their first major concerts here, including The Scorpions.

Olympic Tower

Soaring above Munich’s Olympic venues is the Olympic Tower, which stands 291.28 metres high and was one of the major landmarks of Munich 1972. In the more than five decades since its opening in 1969, tens of millions of visitors have taken the 30-second lift ride to the tower’s viewing platform. There, from a height of 186 metres, visitors enjoy picturesque views of Munich and beyond.