In 1972, West Germany presented itself as a cosmopolitan host country of the Munich Olympic Games. Then the unthinkable happened: On September 5th, Palestinian terrorists invaded the Olympic Village and ultimately murdered eleven Israeli athletes. The images remain vivid to this day; the wounds refuse to heal.
From: Israelnetz, Christoph Irion
It's the night from Monday to Tuesday, 4 a.m. A balmy late summer night in the Olympic Village in Munich, September 5, 1972. "No incidents to report," notes the night shift security. Canadian swimmer Karen James (19) shares this impression as she and three teammates approach the fence of the Olympic Village from the west. The official entrance is several hundred meters away, so the Olympians decide to simply climb over. Then Karen James sees four men. They don't look like athletes; they appear rather slight. They, too, climb over the fence, and no one says a word.
The men in tracksuits without country markings weren't staying in the Olympic Village; they were staying at the historic Hotel Eden Wolff near the main train station. Their Olympic bags contained not sports clothes, but Kalashnikovs and hand grenades. Half an hour later, the "cheerful Games" would be "irrevocably a thing of the past," as Munich's former mayor, Hans-Jochen Vogel, would later put it. A cleaning woman had heard gunshots shortly after 5:00 a.m. at the building at Connollystrasse 31, where the Israeli men's team was staying. A total of eight members of the Palestinian terrorist organization "Black September" had broken into the building.
Josef Gutfreund (40), a 142-kilogram wrestling referee, hears a creaking at the apartment door. Suddenly, he sees armed men wearing ski masks. The Israeli immediately realizes what's happening. "Run, boys!" he yells, throwing himself against the blue door with his full weight. The attackers have jammed a rifle barrel into the crack and pry the door open in a matter of seconds. One Israeli manages to escape under gunfire—ten minutes later, another volley riddles the torso of 32-year-old wrestler Moshe Weinberg. He had tried to overpower an attacker; the terrorists throw his body in front of the building. The Palestinians now hold ten Israeli hostages. But weightlifter Josef Romano (32) also resists; the terrorists leave him to bleed to death in front of his friends.
Immediately afterwards, the terrorists handed over their demands: They demanded the release of more than 200 Arabs imprisoned in Israel, as well as the RAF terrorists Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof, who were imprisoned in Germany.
Walther Tröger (43), mayor of the Olympic Village, is woken up. On this day, he will be the only person, besides the then Federal Minister of the Interior Hans-Dietrich Genscher, to speak with both the terrorists and the hostages. "These impressions and these images are always there, latently," Tröger (1929–2020) told the author in a conversation before his death: "I can never completely forget them." The leader, who called himself "Issa" (Arabic for Jesus) and wore a white sun hat, was "by no means unsympathetic: He spoke fluent German. He seemed very focused, but you could also tell that he was under pressure."
The terrorists threatened to shoot the hostages. Genscher, Tröger, along with Bavaria's Interior Minister Bruno Merk and Munich Police Chief Manfred Schreiber, repeatedly managed to extend the ultimatums. They formed an improvised crisis team. Months earlier, Schreiber, as head of security for the Games, had reprimanded an employee who had demanded a simulation of an attack by Arab militants on the Olympic Village – now Schreiber found himself in precisely that situation and was completely overwhelmed. While reporters, camera crews, photographers, and onlookers milled behind the barriers, many hadn't even realized what had happened – several competitions continued for the time being.
Failed deception maneuver
At 11:15 a.m., the mood in the crisis center shifted from tension to despondency: Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir officially announced that her government "does not do business with terrorists." Her good relationship with Chancellor Willy Brandt was important to her, and so she expressed her "confidence in West Germany." She stated that she understood "when terrorists are promised freedom, as long as this contributes to freeing the hostages.".
But in Munich, many things go wrong. Police officers armed with submachine guns, wearing brightly colored tracksuits as a supposed disguise, try to secure the building complex. At this point, no one knows the number of attackers. But the rescue attempt is exposed before it even begins: Television stations around the world broadcast the events live – unfortunately, also to Connollystrasse 31. When Tröger visits the hostages on the first floor, he is "deeply shaken." Four hostages at a time, "completely intimidated and terrified," sat in the narrow room, "tied together on two beds facing each other." The ninth hostage sat on a chair at the foot of the bed, and Romano's body lay on the floor: "Please do everything you can to help us!" they pleaded. A flight with the terrorists to an Arab country seemed more promising to them than a rescue operation on site.
At 10:06 p.m., a bus transported the attackers and hostages from the underground parking garage to two helicopters. At 10:35 p.m., they landed at Fürstenfeldbruck Air Base. A Boeing 727 was supposedly waiting there, ready for takeoff to Cairo. A deception that the terrorists quickly saw through. Five inadequately trained snipers, some without radio contact, faced eight determined terrorists. Gunfire ripped through the night, hand grenades detonated. In the end, all nine Israeli hostages and five attackers were dead. A German police officer also died. "The games must go on"—these are words for the history books, spoken by IOC President Avery Brundage to the large crowd in the Olympic Stadium at the hastily organized memorial service the following morning. Many found it inappropriate. But Israel, too, had spoken in favor of it. Under no circumstances could there be a capitulation to terrorism.
