Summer Games | Olympic Games: Nothing will happen

Berlin's Olympic Commissioner Kaweh Niroomand (l.) and Bundestag member Dietmar Bartsch (left) in the Red City Hall Photo: dpa/Sebastian Gollnow Berlin is trying to be allowed to host the Summer Olympic Games in 2036, 2040 or 2044. Munich and the Rhine-Ruhr region are currently also applying for the major event. The population there is in favor of it. Hamburg is out because the residents spoke out against the summer games in their city. As far as Berlin is concerned, nobody knows for sure. There was no vote on this issue here. You would have to rely on opinion polls with very different results or on your personal gut feeling.

On September 26th, the German Olympic Sports Confederation will decide who should apply for the games for the Federal Republic. “The tension is slowly rising,” says outgoing mayor Kai Wegner (CDU). He is the head of the town hall on call because the Berlin House of Representatives will be elected on September 20th and the CDU has swapped Kai Wegner as the top candidate for Finance Senator Stefan Evers.

Wegner is of course familiar with the Berlin Olympic concept. But he also read the one from Munich and the Rhine-Ruhr region. Wegner admitted on Monday afternoon that he had “no doubt” that all three could host the games. But Berlin has “the greatest appeal” and therefore the best chance of winning the contract in international competition with other applicants.

For the national competition, which is now in the home stretch, Berlin had an advisory board of trustees that met for the fifth and perhaps final time on Monday. However, Wegner's Olympic representative Kaweh Niroomand hopes that the people who have been involved so far can be called together again after September 26th because Berlin is allowed to enter the race for Germany and the board of trustees can then continue its work. Susanne Buss, who served on the board of trustees as chairwoman of the Berliner Volkssolidarität, is convinced that this will happen.

"It's not a party political question."

Politician Dietmar Bartsch (left) joined the board of trustees because he sits in the Bundestag for Rostock and wants to sail there on the Baltic Sea if Berlin wins the bid for the games. “We want the sailing competitions,” explains Bartsch. The people of Rostock and Mayor Eva-Maria Kröger (Left Party) are also in favor. “But it’s not a party political question,” assures Bartsch. He is very happy to ensure that Berlin is allowed to host the Summer Games and especially the Paralympic Games in 2036, 2040 or 2044.

Bartsch's actions are met with incomprehension and rejection by his comrades in the capital. Like the Greens, the Berlin Left is involved in the NOlympia alliance, which wants to stop the application. An ongoing referendum requires at least 20,000 valid signatures from residents of the city who are eligible to vote. This first hurdle on the way to a referendum does not seem to be big. Signatures can still be collected until mid-October and more than 2,000 were submitted last weekend alone. »We want to get well over 20,000. We can do that,” says Gabriele Hiller, who was a member of the left-wing faction in the Berlin House of Representatives from 2001 to 2016.

Before the board of trustees met on Monday in the Red Town Hall, MP Claudia Engelmann (Left) expressed a wish that did not come true. “The board of trustees meeting will hopefully end with Berlin giving up its bid for the Olympics,” she explained. Because the project has long since fallen through with the population of the capital. The Senate should accept its defeat and stop wasting time and taxpayer money on this dream, said Engelmann.

Berliners want “their city to finally function again,” added MP Klara Schedlich (Greens). »Instead of a hopeless bid for the Olympics, Berlin needs renovated sports facilities, swimming pools that reopen and affordable housing. That’s exactly why we’re continuing to collect signatures.”

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