{"title":"Besucher aus der DDR bei den Olympischen Spielen 1972 in München","authors":"Karsten Lippmann","doi":"10.5771/0172-4029-2022-2-259","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Despite the possibility to watch the Olympic Games on TV, millions of people want to attend the Games live on site. Experience shows that this desire increases when the Games are held within the vicinity of where you reside. This was also the case in 1972 in Munich. However, the inner German division led to a particular situation: People in the German Democratic Republic (Deutsche Demokratische Republik, DDR) often only lived a few hundred kilometres from the venue of the Games. They spoke the language of the hosts, and many loved sports. The hosts repeatedly indicated how welcome the guests were, particularly those from the “other Germany”. Yet, here was a substantial political issue: Germany had been separated since 1949, and the division was cemented in 1961. The GDR citizens were hardly able to enter the Federal Republic of Germany (Bundesrepublik Deutschland, BRD). The GDR’s ruling party (Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands, SED) opted for dissociation, which means that, according to their doctrine, there should be “no special relationships”. – Since the beginning of the New Eastern Policy (Neue Ostpolitik) in Bonn, the relationships should not be inferior either. Thus, the GDR was, so to speak, compelled to send tourists to the Munich Games, although the GDR leaders enormously struggled with that decision. The study describes the process leading to two groups of 1,000 GDR citizens being hand-picked and representing their state at the Games. Furthermore, it depicts the misunderstandings between the two sides during the negotiations and how the delegation was prepared and monitored. It also describes the objectives of both sides connected to the sending and receiving of the visitors. In all of that, including the haggling over a few dozen tickets for a volleyball match, it becomes apparent that not only the Olympic competitions can be of extreme political importance but also Olympic tourism.","PeriodicalId":82798,"journal":{"name":"Stadion","volume":"24 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Stadion","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.5771/0172-4029-2022-2-259","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Despite the possibility to watch the Olympic Games on TV, millions of people want to attend the Games live on site. Experience shows that this desire increases when the Games are held within the vicinity of where you reside. This was also the case in 1972 in Munich. However, the inner German division led to a particular situation: People in the German Democratic Republic (Deutsche Demokratische Republik, DDR) often only lived a few hundred kilometres from the venue of the Games. They spoke the language of the hosts, and many loved sports. The hosts repeatedly indicated how welcome the guests were, particularly those from the “other Germany”. Yet, here was a substantial political issue: Germany had been separated since 1949, and the division was cemented in 1961. The GDR citizens were hardly able to enter the Federal Republic of Germany (Bundesrepublik Deutschland, BRD). The GDR’s ruling party (Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands, SED) opted for dissociation, which means that, according to their doctrine, there should be “no special relationships”. – Since the beginning of the New Eastern Policy (Neue Ostpolitik) in Bonn, the relationships should not be inferior either. Thus, the GDR was, so to speak, compelled to send tourists to the Munich Games, although the GDR leaders enormously struggled with that decision. The study describes the process leading to two groups of 1,000 GDR citizens being hand-picked and representing their state at the Games. Furthermore, it depicts the misunderstandings between the two sides during the negotiations and how the delegation was prepared and monitored. It also describes the objectives of both sides connected to the sending and receiving of the visitors. In all of that, including the haggling over a few dozen tickets for a volleyball match, it becomes apparent that not only the Olympic competitions can be of extreme political importance but also Olympic tourism.