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All Information About Olympic Stadium Munich

The Olympiastadion Munich is a multifunctional stadium in the Olympic Park in the Bavarian capital . It was planned for the 1972 Olympic Games by the architectural firm Behnisch & Partner and was the location for sporting events and the opening and closing ceremony. After the Olympic Games, the stadium was mainly used as the home of FC Bayern Munich from 1972 to 2005 and, with interruptions, by TSV 1860 Munich , the one between the previous home of the two clubs, the municipal stadium on Grünwalder Straße, and the Olympic Stadium commuted. In 2005 the clubs moved to the newly built Allianz Arena . In addition to the games of these football clubs, other professional games also took place in the Olympic Stadium. Among other things, the finals of the 1974 World Cup and the 1988 European Football Championship as well as several finals of the UEFA Champions League and its predecessor competition were played there.

The Olympic Stadium has been Munich’s largest stage since 1982 and is used for open-air concerts . In addition to public viewing events, concerts have mainly taken place in the stadium since the soccer clubs moved out. There were also numerous other events there, including the European Athletics Championships in 2002 and DTM show races in 2011 and 2012 .

Two thirds of the Olympic Stadium is an earth stadium and, in addition to a soccer field, also had an athletics track . Since 2017, the surface has been made up of natural grass again , after having been paved five years earlier . The arena was the first stadium in Germany to be equipped with underfloor heating and a VIP area , and it had the most modern stadium floodlights in the world with which daylight can be simulated. In addition to the stadium, the tent roof construction also spans the Olympic hall , the Olympic swimming pool as well as the paths in between. As a result, the stadium should symbolize lightness, transparency and openness. It is one of the most important buildings in West German post-war architecture and is a landmark of Munich. Like the other buildings under the tent roof, the Olympic Stadium has been a listed building since 1997.

Location and connection 

The Olympic Stadium is embedded in the Olympic Park , which was built on the Oberwiesenfeld in the Milbertshofen-Am Hart district of Munich . The three-square-kilometer park is four kilometers northwest of Munich city center . At the time of completion, it was the largest sports park in the Federal Republic of Germany , also because of the Olympic Stadium .Together with the neighboring Olympic Hall and the Olympic Swimming Hall , the stadium forms the heart of the Munich Olympic facilities belowTent roof construction . All three sports facilities border Coubertin Platz , the center of the Olympic facility . The Olympiasee is located on the southside of Coubertin Platz . It is located 20 meters below the central plateau of Coubertin Platz. The stadium is applied on the western slopes of the plateau. 

To the north of the stadium is the Olympic Village , which can only be reached directly from the arena via bridges due to the middle ring that runs between the two facilities. The Olympiahalle is located 200 meters northeast of the stadium. At its narrowest point, it is eight meters from the Olympic swimming pool, which is east of the Olympic Stadium. Olympic swimming pool, Olympic hall, Olympic stadium and Olympic lake form the outer boundaries of Coubertin Platz. The Olympic Tower is even further east of the swimming pool together with the facilities at Coubertinplatz, the area of ​​the character-defining features of the Olympic Park. The shapes of the entire site complement each other through structural structures to create an architectural landscape. 

The Olympiastadion has two parking spaces for individual traffic in the nearby park harp west of the stadium at Landshuter Allee or near the Olympiahalle. The arena is located a few meters south of the Georg-Brauchle-Ring . In addition to two entrances at Coubertinplatz, there are entrances at Spiridon-Louis-Ring, which forms a half-ring around the Olympic Stadium from the north, west and south. 

At the same time as the stadium was built, numerous connections to local public transport were set up: The Olympiazentrum underground station with the underground lines U3 and U8 , which is also served by a bus line, is located near the Olympic village .During the Olympic Games and then until 1988, the Munich Olympic Stadium in the west of Oberwiesenfeld was approached by the Munich S-Bahn with a special line at major events . Both stations are about one kilometer from the stadium and originally had an hourly capacity of 30,000 passengers.The stadium can also be reached by trams and buses through further stops at the Olympiapark.

History 

Early thoughts on a large stadium 

As early as after the First World War , there were initial considerations to build a large stadium in Munich, as football was growing in popularity. A stadium construction on Oberwiesenfeld failed in 1919 due to an objection from the Bavarian state. In 1921 the Teutonia-Platz was built there, which was the most modern sports field in Munich until the stadium on Grünwalder Straße was expanded in 1926. He was the club FC Teutonia opened and offered 12,000 spectators. In the month after the opening, around 20,000 guests came to a game, which exceeded the permitted capacity by two thirds. Bayern Used the Teutonia square for his home games from 1923 to 1925. The 1860 recorded the club’s stadium at that time on the road in Grünwalder from 1911 Giesing , which was since the expansion to a capacity of 40,000 spectators, the largest stadium in Munich.

Although the capacity was sufficient for the championship operation , the stadium reached its limits during international matches: The game between Germany and Switzerland in 1926 showed that there was much greater interest in major events than tickets could be sold. The arena on Dantestrasse , opened in 1928, also did not meet the expectations of a large stadium. For this reason, the construction of a large stadium on the outskirts of Munich, for example on Oberwiesenfeld, was discussed in the Weimar Republic , but without result.

At the beginning of National Socialism , local NSDAP politicians planned to build a 60,000 to 80,000-seat stadium west of Munich-Riem Airport . This should correspond to the Reichssportfeld in Berlin . However, the airport administration resisted the construction and the General Building Council of Munich did not set a large stadium as a goal. With the outbreak of World War II , the plans were finally discarded. 

After the end of the war, the crowds flocked to the stadiums again to chat with football games on weekends, as was the case in Munich. In 1948, when TSV 1860 played against 1. FC Nürnberg, around 58,200 spectators visited the 45,000-seat stadium on Grünwalder Straße. A year later, the semi-final match of the German championship between 1. FC Kaiserslautern and Borussia Dortmund in Munich attracted 57,000 spectators. The post-war period is now considered to be the “golden age” of football; Only since the 1990s have so many visitors come to the German stadiums again. 

After the renovation, the Grünwalder Stadium, which was destroyed in the war, offered space for 50,000 spectators, making it the largest stadium in Munich. The city sports committee found the capacity too low and aimed to expand it to a capacity of 75,000 spectators. The sports committee received headwinds from local media. In early 1951, for example, Münchner Merkur spoke out in favor of building a new stadium on Oberwiesenfeld after the expanded grandstand of the Grünwalder Stadium had made it more difficult to build the planned Mittlerer Ring as the main access road to Federal Motorway 8 . The large stadium project came to an end for the time being with the adoption of the so-called ten-year program on March 10, 1955, which promoted the construction of district sports facilities.

Another reason for this decision was the reduced attractiveness of football in Munich, as the formerly successful city clubs such as TSV 1860, FC Wacker and FC Bayern fell into the mediocre with their performances. Games of the German national team have not taken place in Munich since 1940 because of the low capacity of the Grünwald Stadium. With the exception of the local derbies , which sometimes saw more spectators than the stadium officially offered space, the capacity of the Grünwald stadium remained sufficient for the large city clubs.

In 1958 the Bavarian Party revived the theme of a large stadium. Both FC Bayern and TSV 1860 resisted the project because they feared that capacity would not be exhausted and the project could drive them to ruin. In 1963, in the last season before the introduction of the Bundesliga , the 1860 won the league – Championship , thus securing against local rivals FC Bayern starting grid for the first division in the following season. In the first Bundesliga season, TSV 1860 had an average of almost 32,000 spectators per game,  which was the average for previous years of around 20,000 far exceeded. Several league competitors who had larger stadiums, however, achieved a higher average attendance.  In 1964, TSV 1860 qualified for the 1964/65 European Cup Winners ‘ Cup by winning the DFB Cup , made it to the finals and usually had more than 30,000 spectators in the competition at home. In the same year, FC Bayern became champions of the Regionalliga Süd and qualified for the promotion to the Bundesliga. The capacity of the Grünwalder Stadium again proved to be too low. In the following season, TSV 1860 won the championship and FC Bayern the national cup competition. Although the average number of spectators was far lower than the maximum capacity of the Grünwalder Stadium, there were already numerous games in the mid-1960s where the demand for tickets was higher than the stadium’s capacity. 

Munich was the only German city with two Bundesliga clubs, which during this time always played for the top places in the table and were at times represented in international competitions. Therefore, the largest stadium in the city, with 45,000 seats again, of which only 3,800 seats were seated, was found to be too small. In order to maintain the high level of the Munich football clubs, a larger stadium was deemed necessary because the public was still the main source of income for the clubs at that time. 

As early as autumn 1963, Georg Brauchle , then Second Mayor, suggested that the Olympic Games be held in Munich in front of journalists after visiting the sports facilities for the 1964 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck . In October 1965, Lord Mayor Hans-Jochen Vogel and Willi Daume , President of the National Olympic Committee , decided to test the city for the suitability for the Games. After further discussions, among others with Federal Chancellor Ludwig Erhard and Bavaria’s Prime Minister Alfons Goppel , they came to the decision that an application for theXX. The Olympic Games to be hosted in 1972 could be worthwhile. For this, however, a new and modern stadium had to be finally planned for the city. 

Planning 

The three square kilometers large and largely undeveloped Oberwiesenfeld was intended as the centerpiece of the sports facilities for the Olympic Games. Because of the disagreement as to how it should be built on, the site had largely remained vacant and so only the Olympic Tower and the ice rink had been approved before the event was held .  Due to its proximity to the city center, Munich was able to advertise the games with the slogan “Olympia of short distances”, which contributed to the decision-making process for the award to the state capital. Because the Oberwiesenfeld used to be a parade ground for the Bavarian cavalry regiment and later served mainly military purposes, it was – with the exception of armaments works – free of buildings. From 1931 to 1939, Munich Airport was located on the Oberwiesenfeld. After the Second World War, the rubble caused by the bombing of the city was piled up there, from which the Olympiaberg emerged. This was deliberately designed to be oval so that it could be used as a grandstand foundation for a stadium for which performances had already been made. 

In 1964, Munich announced an architectural competition for the planning of a large stadium, which was won by Henschker from Braunschweig and Deiss from Munich. Your stadium design was integrated into an overall concept.  According to the planning of 1965, the stadium should hold around 100,000 spectators, later, the capacity has been reduced in view of the subsequent use. The plans were integrated into an overall concept, with a multi-purpose hall and a swimming pool being planned on a large, concrete area. Supply systems and parking spaces were to be built under the concrete slabs. On April 26, 1966, the IOC announced that Munich had prevailed against competitors Detroit , Madrid and Montreal. The stadium construction was thus decided. The original plans for the Olympic Park and the stadium came under criticism due to the lack of unity in urban planning . In addition, the Association of German Architects suggested avoiding any monumentality in the sports facilities because of the National Socialist past. The plans were eventually discarded. 

In February 1967 an architectural competition was again advertised, in which a total of 104 designs were submitted by the submission deadline on July 3, 1967 , of which one came from the architectural firm Behnisch & Partner . The architect Günter Behnisch and his employee Fritz Auer planned to build the stadium, the Olympic hall and the swimming pool close to each other to the west of the Olympic tower, of which the base already existed. When a model on a scale of 1: 1000 was created, employee Cord Wehrse came up with the idea of ​​placing a tent roof construction over the three buildings. He had become aware of Frei Otto’s tent roof construction at the world exhibition in Montreal through a newspaper article . Together with Carlo Weber and Heinz Isler the model was supplemented with wooden sticks and parts of a woman’s stocking. The architects thought of a circus tent for the Olympic roof.

Finally, the model was submitted by the deadline. It was ruled out by the jury after the first round because it was considered too daring. However, the juror Egon Eiermann intervened and promoted the model to Lord Mayor Hans-Jochen Vogel and NOK President Willi Daume, among others. Ultimately, the appraisers voted in favor of the Behnisch & Partner plan, which emerged as the winner of the competition. The decision was announced on October 13, 1967.  In addition to the designed 90,000 spectators stadium, which was then reduced to about 80,000, the model convinced with its surrounding landscape architecture and the tent roof construction. Thereby it fulfilled the leitmotif of the games: human dimension, lightness, bold elegance and unity of the landscape with nature. In addition, there was the possibility of re-use. The model also impressed the jury in terms of short distances.

Establishment 

In order to create space for the arena, the terminal building of the old airport had to be blown up beforehand. On June 9, 1969, work began on the stadium, the multi-purpose Olympic hall and the swimming pool. However, work was not officially started until July 14, 1969 with the laying of the foundation stone in a symbolic ceremony. In addition to the three buildings were erected on the Oberwiesenfeld same time, the Werner-von-Linde-Halle , a volleyball hall, the Radstadion , the Olympic Village and several other buildings such as stations for U- and S-Bahn .During the construction work there was a spirit of optimism in Munich. The city center was given a pedestrian zone between Marienplatz and Stachus and the U-Bahn visions were implemented. There were 60 construction sites on the Oberwiesenfeld alone. Of a total of 1.35 billion German marks in Olympic spending, 137 million went into the construction of the Olympic Stadium and 170.6 million into the tent roof. About 5000 construction workers were active on the construction site and worked a total of more than a million hours. Contrary to the custom of German reconstruction the Olympic Stadium was created largely without using prefabricated parts.

According to Behnisch, the stadium should become a “democratic sports facility” in accordance with the ideas of Munich Mayor Hans-Jochen Vogel and the requirements of Federal Chancellor Willy Brandt . There should be a contrast to the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin during the National Socialist era , the only Summer Olympic Games in Germany to date. Since the time of National Socialism, Munich also had its reputation as the “ capital of the movement“To have been. The Olympic Games should help improve Munich’s reputation. In the deed of the stadium foundation it was formulated that the planned games should “testify to the spirit of our people in the last third of the 20th century”.

Back of the main stand, over which the roof was realized

Behnisch signed on as partner architect Frei Otto , whose tent roof construction was the model for the Olympic tent roof at the 1967 World Exhibition in Montreal. Otto was already involved in numerous construction projects with hanging and membrane constructions and was the development consultant for the Olympic tent roof construction.  In addition to Behnisch and Otto, a team of architects was formed with Fritz Leonhardt and Wolf Andrä, among others, to realize the roof structure . Fritz Auer took over the planning management. Otto developed parts of the roof using theThe trial-and-error principle by making larger and larger models of the roof structure, while Andrä and Leonhardt developed the roof in other places using the CAD program. Under the direction of civil engineer Jörg Schlaich , the roof over the stadium was completed on April 21, 1972.

When the stadium was built, it was forgotten to include booths for soccer teams in the stadium interior. For this reason, from May 24, 1972 until the official opening of the stadium on May 26, 1972, two medical rooms were temporarily converted into changing rooms. There was also enough space to set up a room for paramedics and referees. Later the cabins were further equipped and were retained.

The shell structures were already in place in the summer of 1970 and the topping-out ceremony was celebrated on July 23, 1970. At the turn of the year 1971/1972 the main work was finished and at the end of June 1972 the finished buildings were handed over to the organizing committee. The planning, construction and financing of the buildings were managed by Olympia-Baugesellschaft mbH Munich, founded in 1967, which was brought into being by the Federal Republic of Germany, the Free State of Bavaria and the state capital Munich.The stadium is operated by Olympiapark München GmbH, which is 100 percent owned by the City of Munich. The Olympiapark München GmbH is located within the city administration to the Department of Labor and Economic Assumed

First events and Olympic Games 

The stadium was completed in spring 1972 and was immediately used for test competitions. On May 26, 1972, the international soccer match between Germany and the Soviet Union took place at the opening , which the hosts won 4-1 in front of around 80,000 spectators in the sold-out stadium. It was the first international match in Munich since 1940 and the fifth in the Bavarian capital at all.

On June 28, 1972, FC Bayern played in the season finale against FC Schalke 04 in the Olympic Stadium for the first time and became German champions with a 5-1 win. On August 2, 1972, TSV 1860 also played in a league cup game for the first time in the Olympic Stadium. 

24 days later, on August 26, 1972 , Federal President Gustav Heinemann officially opened the XX. Summer Olympics. After over 7100 athletes from 122 nations marched in, the youth athlete Günter Zahn lit the Olympic flame over the stands in the east stand. The main users of the stadium during the games were the athletes , followed by the footballers. The first Olympic football game took place on August 27, 1972, and the athletics competitions began four days later and were well received by the public. Some of the qualifying competitions in the morning were already sold out. 

Funeral service in the Olympic Stadium as a result of the hostage-taking of Munich

On September 5, 1972, after about two-thirds of the Games, the festive mood came to an abrupt end as a result of the hostage-taking in Munich , when Palestinian terrorists from the Black September group murdered two members of the Israeli Olympic team and took nine others hostage in the early morning . The competitions scheduled for this day were only gradually canceled in the afternoon. This also affected the game of the DFB amateur team against Hungary in the afternoon. The 30,000 visitors had to leave the Olympic Stadium, which happened without protest.  Eighteen hours after the hostage-taking, the terrorists moved the hostages to the Fürstenfeldbruck military airfield from. There was an unsuccessful rescue operation in which the hostages, five terrorists and one policeman were killed. On the following day, September 6, 1972, a spontaneous funeral service was held in the Olympic Stadium with the seats full, at which the Federal President also gave a speech. At this memorial service, IOC President Avery Brundage announced that the games had to go on. The competitions were postponed by one day each, so that the match between Germany and Hungary was rescheduled on the day of the funeral service in the Olympic Stadium . 

In the football tournament on September 8, 1972, the teams from the Federal Republic of Germany and the GDR met , which the East German team won 3-2 in front of 80,000 spectators. A total of eleven football games took place in the Olympic Stadium within 15 days. In those weeks, the stadium was used more often than ever since. The football tournament won on September 10, 1972 Poland , the team of Hungary in the finals with 2: defeated first .In athletics, numerous world records were set in the Olympic Stadium. In individual competitions, the athletes Lasse Virén , Rod Milburn ,John Akii-Bua , Mykola Awilow , Lyudmila Bragina , Nadeschda Tschischowa , Mary Peters , Annelie Ehrhardt and Ulrike Meyfarth new bests. Renate Stecher from the German Democratic Republic managed to break the world record in both the 100 and 200-meter races for women . The US men’s team also set a new world record in the 4 x 100 meter relay race while in the same discipline the German women’s team set the world record. The East German women’s team also achieved a global best in the 4 x 400 meter relay .

On September 11, 1972, shortly before the graduation ceremony, the German rider team won the Prize of Nations in the Olympic Stadium . At the closing ceremony, the originally planned program was thinned out because of the events of September 5th out of respect for the victims.  After the Olympic flame went out, the spectators stood up and remembered the victims of the hostage-taking. During the event there was an attack warning for the Olympic Stadium after a Douglas DC-8 aircraft had set course for Munich eleven miles northwest of Ulm with a failed radar system . Joachim Fuchsberger, Stadium announcer for this event, received the message in a letter: “Unidentified objects in flight approaching the Olympic Stadium – possibly bombing – say what you think is right”. In order to avoid a mass panic, Fuchsberger was silent, so the celebration continued. The stray DC-8 finally landed at Munich Airport

Post-Olympic use

After the Olympic Games, the stadium was mainly used for home games for FC Bayern, which celebrated numerous titles in the following seasons. Local rivals TSV 1860 Munich, who played second-rate until 1977, also used the Grünwalder Stadium in the early stages. At the home start of the 1973/74 season, TSV reached 1860 against FC Augsburgon August 15, 1973 a record attendance. According to the official capacity, only 73,000 guests came to the Olympic Stadium, but observers sometimes assumed around 100,000 spectators. When the stadium box office was still very crowded at the beginning of the game and TSV 1860 took the lead after three minutes, the spectators pushed their way in despite fences and barriers. 136 people were injured. The game is so far considered the second division game with the highest number of spectators worldwide.

The national soccer team also used Munich as a venue more often than in previous years. In 1973, she played two of eight home games in the Olympic Stadium. For the football World Cup in 1974 in the Federal Republic of Germany, other national teams also played games here. In order to increase the capacity, a grandstand for up to 5,000 spectators was built in the north curve, so that there were a total of 80,000 spectators.

The south curve established itself as the side of the stadium from which the fans of FC Bayern cheered their team on, while the north curve became the side of the supporters of TSV 1860. In the audience most years total came up to 1.8 million viewers per season in the Olympic Stadium. 

After the 1972 Olympic Games and the 1974 World Cup, in addition to the TSV 1860 and FC Bayern league games, numerous international finals with FC Bayern, national team games, athletics competitions  and cultural and religious events took place. The stadium has been used for concerts since 1982 and is the largest concert stage in Munich. 

In 2002 the European Athletics Championships were held in the Olympic Stadium: After the European Athletics Association signaled that Germany had a good chance of hosting the European Championships, Chemnitz and Munich showed interest. The state government of Saxony, however, refused funding, so that Chemnitz withdrew its candidacy in 1995 and the championships were awarded to Munich. The athletics facilities and the seating were renewed for the European Championships.

Architecture and equipment

Concept 

The architect Günter Behnisch wanted to build a “democratic sports facility” with the Olympic Stadium. Numerous architects and engineers were involved in the implementation of the Olympic Park, with Behnisch being in charge of realizing the entire site. In architecture, the impression should be created that weaker parts are supported by stronger parts. In contrast to the Olympic Games of 1936 and the Reichssportfeld in Berlin  neither pedestals or columns were erected. Efforts were made to avoid axial lines. Through the Olympic Tower towering over everything near the stadium, the monumentality of the sports facility could be put into perspective. Unlike the Berlin Olympic Stadium , which has a depressing effect on the viewer, the Olympic Stadium in Munich should stand for individualism, openness, transparency and for the “blossoming” democracy.  With the buildings for the Olympic Games, the Federal Republic of Germany wanted to show itself to the other countries as a humane and liberal country in which there is equal competition. Behnisch strove to avoid fences and walls as much as possible. In addition, he represented the ideal that the facilities without entry fees and controls as a sign of a classless society should be accessible. However, this could not be realized, as otherwise the financing of the systems would not have been possible. Behnisch later formulated his intention.

Because it was assumed that a pure building would have been perceived as too imposing compared to the rest of the area, about two thirds of the stadium looks like an earth stadium and only one third like a building. The Śląski Stadium in Chorzów and the Metalist Stadium in Kharkiv served as models . However, the playing field is only five meters below the original terrain level. The effect of an earth stadium arises from the fact that the stadium is embedded in the artificial hilly landscape of the Olympic Park, which is poured onto the stadium in the north, east and south. On the west side under the tent roof, the grandstand built as a concrete shell rises.

As with the other buildings in the Olympiapark, visitor traffic and functional traffic could be handled on different levels and without contact. Visitors enter the stadium via four entrances at the level of the upper edge of the tub. Suppliers, actors, VIPs and press representatives can access the built-in components of the main stand on the west side from the lower level of the park or enter the interior of the stadium through the marathon gate in the northwest.

In particular, the transparent, apparently floating Olympic tent roof was supposed to stand for “transparency and lightness” and was thus an essential part of the concept of the “cheerful games”. For this concept , strong colors were replaced by pastel colors according to plans in which Otl Aicher was significantly involved. The light blue tones were the official colors of the games, the light green spectator area and pictograms were used for orientation. The multifunctional stadium is symbolized with a sketched athlete and a soccer player. The tent roof, which connects the various sports facilities, was a symbol for the motto of the “games of short distances”.  Like the other sports facilities in the Olympic Park , the Olympic Stadium was not designed as a single structure but as part of the landscaped landscape . Together with the landscape architect Günther Grzimek , the stadium was embedded in a landscape park, which fulfilled the motto “Games in the open”. By planting up to the edge of the stadium, the stadium was supposed to blend in visually with the green landscape. The stadium, the hall and the swimming pool with the long side facing Coubertin Platz and in the direction of Olympiaberg, fit “quasi-naturally” into the landscape and appear like valleys in the Olympiapark. With their moving shape, they should be reminiscent of natural heap forms. 

Surface 

The Olympic Stadium is a multifunctional stadium, the field of which is surrounded by a circular running track that is 400 meters long and has eight lanes. The career originally consisted of Rekortan . The material was considered to be equivalent to the commonly used tartan , with Rekortan being a German and tartan being an American product. Like the jumping tracks, the running track was given plastic covers. She was ahead of the 2002 European Athletics Championships renewed. Furthermore, the Olympic Stadium has long and triple jump facilities as well as facilities for high jump , pole vault , discus , hammer , javelin and shot put .

The pitch measures 105 by 68 meters, making it the first Bundesliga soccer stadium in Germany with the dimensions of a soccer arena classified as an elite stadium. When the stadium was under construction, the sports federations did not recognize a plastic surface instead of natural grass on the field. The reason was that with the artificial turf developed up to that point there was a considerable risk of injury in the event of a fall. In contrast to natural turf, it contained no moisture and could quickly lead to burns. Natural grass was used for the playing field. When soccer was still regularly played in the Olympic Stadium, the playing surface consisted of the RSM 3.1 sports turf mixture. This consisted of 60 percent Lolium perenne and 40 percent Poa pratensis . For soccer games, the lawn was mowed to a height of 2.8 centimeters. The stadium was also the first German stadium to have underfloor heating thanks to the installation of a 19-kilometer plastic pipe system.The heating under the grass could extend the growth period of the natural turf and melt small amounts of snow.The lawn could be watered by an automatic sprinkler system . 

There was a ten centimeter thick base layer between the lawn and the heater. This covered a four centimeter thick, sandy leveling layer that lay over a seven centimeter thick filter layer. Inside it was the turf heating system, which, if necessary, could warm the playing surface with water at 27 degrees Celsius, which flowed through 16 centimeter thick pipes . If necessary, it was switched on days before a football game. To determine the temperature of the soil, four measuring points were installed at a depth of 6 and 15 centimeters. Between the filter layer and the gravel floor was a 70 centimeter thick drainage gravel layer that was supposed to protect against flooding. The players’ benches had heated seats.

So that the distances could be measured correctly in athletics throwing competitions, the lawn did not have the slight curve that is usual on soccer fields, but was completely flat. This turned out to be problematic for rainwater drainage before football matches. In a planned renovation in the 1990s, the pitch should be lowered by two and a half meters.

Between 2012 and 2017 the surface consisted entirely of artificial turf or asphalt for car races. After the women’s Champions League final in 2012, the turf and running track were covered with 9,000 cubic meters of asphalt for the DTM championships, similar to the previous year . The natural grass must always be covered with a wooden floor during concerts. Depending on the weather, the lawn will be affected. That is why Olympiapark München GmbH decided to lay the artificial turf on the asphalt. The underfloor heating was also removed and was not reinstalled when the natural turf was reinstalled.

The track currently consists of colored asphalt with painted lines, which is unsuitable for athletics. Thanks to this measure, trucks with a weight of up to 40 tons can be driven in the arena without complex conversion work.

Interior 

Thanks to the construction as an earth stadium, the visitor enters the stadium at the top and thus receives a quick overview of the room and what is happening in the arena. The functional rooms are located on the levels below, almost all of them inside the west stand. In the north, east and south only toilets are installed below the access level. They are connected by the so-called toilet ring , a 600 meter long and one meter wide tunnel. This begins under Block X in the southern part of the main stand, runs under the southern display board, past the back straight in the north curve to under Block C. The tunnel helps stadium staff to get from one place to another quickly. 

The interior of the west stand has four floors. The players’ cabins for team sports on level 4 have a separate massage room and an anti-fatigue pool. Between the players’ cabin and the grass surface there is a mixed zone for player interviews, which has proven to be too small in the last few years when football was played in the Olympic Stadium.

The technology rooms are located on level 3 above the players’ cabin. Originally, this was a data processing system and the control centers for heating, ventilation and electricity. The inner workings of the Olympic Stadium initially included workshops and football magazines, later a police station was added. The locker room for the security staff and the delivery zone for service and delivery vehicles for the catering industry are located on the same level.

On the second level there are changing rooms, a sports association office as well as radio and television rooms. The waiting and roll call room is connected by a tunnel to the Werner-von-Linde-Halle in the west , which was used to warm up the athletes during the Olympic Games. 

Level 1 corresponds to the level of the road access and the parking spaces. Here in the northwest is the Great Marathon Gate, which is also the central access to the inside of the stadium. He is allocated storage areas for TV production vehicles and the medical service in the grandstand. For a long time the stadium caretaker’s apartment was next to the marathon gate; today the headquarters of the Bavarian Olympic Training Center is housed there. This also includes the former “health park” with gymnastics rooms, a sauna , a steam bath , a lecture room and a cafeteria.

To the south is the VIP area, which also includes the rooms used as the press center. It has 1,610 m² and is divided into six individual rooms. They are accessed through a central entrance to the driveway, behind which there is a foyer. Straight ahead on the same level there is stepless access to the VIP block of the grandstand. To the right of the entrance is a lounge that was available to the sponsors of the so-called Classic and Premium categories during FC Bayern games . The rear rooms of this wing were used for press conferences and were found to be generous. These rooms are accessible by an elevator from the cabins reachable from the three levels below. However, the low transport weight of the elevator was criticized. Therefore it often got stuck and people, including athletes, were sometimes locked in it for several hours. To the left of the entrance is the general VIP area, equipped with air conditioning since it opened in 1972. The guest of honor area includes its own kitchen, four counter areas, several temporary offices and various side rooms.

Another complex follows south of the guest of honor area, which is rented to the production and event company of an annual major event in the stadium. This is followed by the second driveway to the stadium interior, which is also used as an entrance for wheelchair users who want to go to the lawn.

The lowest point of the Olympic Stadium is almost five meters below the playing field with a system for regulating the groundwater; otherwise the stadium has only a slight basement. 

The two-part director’s pulpit, assembled from steel girders, is located above Block Z in the center of the main grandstand 33 meters above the playing field. It can be reached via a ramp. The events were originally commented on from the southern director’s pulpit; later the commentators’ seats were moved to the upper VIP area; the pulpit remained largely unused. However, the police used the northern control room to monitor the spectator blocks during football matches. From there, employees of Olympiapark München GmbH also looked after the technical systems. The only lounge is located below the southern control room of the stadium, which offers a view of the field and is designed for a maximum of 25 people. At soccer games it was reserved exclusively for sponsors of Olympiapark München GmbH.

Grandstands and auditorium 

The outer sides of the stands have a longitudinal axis of 260 and a transverse axis of 250 meters. This means that the Olympic Stadium has an almost circular shape around the playing field. The maximum distance between the grandstand and the playing field is 195 meters. Due to the architecture, it can be up to two degrees Celsius cooler on the upper tiers than on the pitch. The up to 88 rows of stands are 0.8 meters wide. The sight lines of the seated audience are increased by 12.5 centimeters, those of the standing audience by 4 centimeters. Thus, the ranks rise relatively flat upwards. 

According to the original plans, the stadium should have over 80,870 seats, including 46,306 seats, 33,583 standing places and 981 separate seats for guests of honor, the media and the severely disabled.  According to official information, the capacity was limited to 77,839 places.  For the Olympic Games, the stadium could offer further 5,000 spectators by an additional grandstand in the North Stand. Also for the 1974 World Cup, an additional grandstand in the form of a tubular steel construction was provided behind the back straight.This has been supplemented in the North stand and the stadium capacity was thus increased to 80,000 seats. 

A total of 57,322 cubic meters of concrete and 5,942 tons of steel were used for the arena . Originally, 45,073 flat seat shells were installed in the ranks, in pastel green to emphasize the motto of the “Games in the Green”. In addition, the arena was supposed to blend in with the green landscape. For the European Athletics Championships in 2002, the seating was renewed and equipped with backrests. This complied with a new UEFA directive . About 43,000 places were initially covered.  The spectator blocks were made of plexiglass separated from each other, but removed before the 2002 European Athletics Championships. The division of the spectator blocks from A to Z in clockwise direction begins at the main stand. In addition, the main stand was numbered from 1 and 4, in block Y to 8, otherwise from 1 to 2. The standing room was originally located between E2 and J2 and between Q2 and V1;  below the ranks Z2 and Z3 is the VIP lounge. 

For the European Football Championship in 1988 , part of the standing room was converted into seats , reducing the capacity from 78,000 to 69,466 seats. In 1990 the uncovered standing room in blocks H2 to J2 in the north and Q2 to S1 in the south were replaced by seats, so that the capacity fell to 72,447 seats. By 1995 the remaining standing room was converted into seating; Another new guideline of the UEFA for football matches in international competition was implemented. The capacity fell again to 63,613 places. For the 1996/97 season, the Olympic Stadium had the largest number of seats in a German stadium with 58,066 seats. However, since the view was obstructed due to the perimeter advertising in the bottom rows, more than 64,000 tickets were generally never sold.  In the late years when football was played in the stadium, it was purely a seated stadium. After the standing room could no longer be sold at international games, the stadium tiers were completely seated. In the grandstands of the north and south bend, which are lowered at the upper end opposite the east and west grandstands, folding seats were installed on individual tiers, which were unfolded for international football matches. So they can be used as standing or seating, depending on the occasion. Today the stadium only has 69,250 seats. Of these, 57,450 are seated, 11,700 are standing and 100 are available for wheelchair users in the east of the stadium. 

The Munich Olympiastadion was the first stadium in Germany to have a VIP area. In this area, located inside the main stand, there are also various lounges. Radiant heaters are installed on the outside of the upper door frame on the door between the outside and inside area. In the middle of the main grandstand to the west there is a particularly comfortable area with better seats, carpeting and more legroom, which was intended for IOC members and statesmen at the Olympic Games. In the 1990s, part of the abandoned stadium modernization plan was to expand the seats in the VIP boxes to 600. In addition, the number of seats was to be increased to around 70,000 and the main grandstand was to be expanded by a three-story extension with a press center and restaurant. 

927 press workstations have been set up in the west stand, all of which are equipped with a table, sockets, television and telephone connection. The stadium press center, which includes a writing room, an interview room and an information area, measures 1200 square meters. On the opposite side, behind the east stand at Block M, the bowl for the Olympic flame was installed. Since May 2012 there have been 22 photo steles that give an overview of the idea of ​​the application and the implementation of the Olympic buildings up to the 1972 Olympic Games

Lights and display panels 

The Olympic Stadium has floodlights that are fed by eight transformers . For reasons of economy, it takes five minutes to develop its full luminosity. The floodlights are attached to two masts on the east stand and have a light intensity of 1875  lux . There are also two floodlight batteries on the edge of the stadium roof and six smaller ones on the west side of the stadium under the tent roof. The four batteries contain a total of about 550 headlights. These metal halide lamps each have a radius of 40 centimeters. The luminosity corresponds to the requirements of color television in that the light largely corresponds to the color temperature of daylight. The floodlight system, measured vertically, has a light color of 6000 Kelvin. This allows the cameramen to use daylight film at night events .Until the 1990s, the Olympic Stadium was the arena with the strongest floodlights. 

The Olympic Stadium is equipped with two scoreboards measuring 18.4 by 8 meters .  One is in the south curve,  the other on the north side of the stadium.  They each consist of 24,000 gas-filled incandescent lamps with an output of 25 watts each and are continuously adjustable. 240 light bulbs are arranged horizontally and 100 vertically. At events, up to four people are responsible for the stadium displays. The displays are preprogrammed and can be operated on screens in the control room. The display boards only allow capital letters too, whereby a row requires at least seven bulbs in height. By graphic programs the Munich professional clubs in the Olympic Stadium can fight out their football games, logos and animations are displayed on the panels for the past years in which. However, the scoreboards were already out of date in the last few years of football. In addition to the writing tablets, the displays have short-term and normal-time clocks. 

In addition to the scoreboard, a 75 square meter video wall was temporarily installed in the Olympic Stadium at the beginning of the 1998/99 Bundesliga season due to a long-term collaboration between FC Bayern and Sony with the “Jumbotron” .

Roof 

In the 1990s there were plans to completely roof the spectator stands under the existing tent roof. An alternative reconstruction plan from 1999 for the 2006 World Cup provided a transparent, sickle-shaped roof over the back straight. This project would have intervened significantly less in the listed substance of the stadium than the previous redesigning drafts since 1995.However, the plans were never implemented due to the doubts of the architectural office Günter Behnisch – the architect and owner of the copyright to the building.

Tent roof 

The tent roof spans next to the Olympic hall and the Olympic swimming pool, the main stand of the Olympic Stadium sunk into the hill and the paths in between in the Olympic Park, whereby the individual buildings unite into one large form. Above the stadium is 34,550 square meters, the 43,000 seats of the arena roof over, almost half of the total 74,800-square-foot roof. This part of the roof required greater constructive efforts, since the stands were free of supports and masts should be kept. Therefore, two 70 meter high and six smaller masts were erected, which carried the air support necessary due to the large area . Conventional anchors could be used for the low points behind the grandstand , while a 440-meter-long round rope was stretched over the grandstand , which now kept the roof floating. 4000 tons of concrete blocks the size of a single-family house, some of which were sunk 30 meters into the ground, acted as anchors. Due to the lack of experience with such a statics, one had ultimately gone far beyond what would actually have been necessary for anchoring. 

Natural structures such as spider webs , diatoms and soap bubbles served as models for the roof structure . A point-supported pre-tensioned cable network construction was carried out , the nodes of which lie in a 75-centimeter grid. The rope net was linked on the ground and then pulled up. 

The rope net is supported by tensioned, articulated main and secondary masts and has a “scale skin” made of blue-gray translucent acrylic glass panels . Original considerations to cover the roof with lightweight concrete or wood were discarded because an opaque roof would have cast shadows in daylight and prevented non-contrasting images during television broadcasts. In addition to acrylic glass, polyester and PVC films were also discussed. In the end, after months of research, the decision was made for acrylic glass that best met the requirements. The structure is supported by 58 steel masts and girders, which consist of twelve large, conically shaped pylons . Eight are located directly above the stadium. Since the durability of the construction was questioned, there were plans to dismantle the tent roof after the Olympic Games or to rebuild it as a reinforced concrete structure, which was not done due to the international echo

The architecture turned out to be a disadvantage at football matches: the construction meant that the sound was not thrown from the spectators onto the field, but back into the auditorium so that there was no real stadium atmosphere. The original roof panels from 1972 contained flame retardants for fire protection reasons. Before it was used, it was stored in uncoated metal drums and therefore contained iron compounds that accelerated the aging of the acrylic sheets. These originally translucent panels turned white, cloudy, and peeled off in layers in the first few years after construction. Therefore, the tent roof was completely renovated until 2002, in which a new plastic-glass mixture was used, which has both improved UV protection and no iron compounds.

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