Lecture Munich 1972Lecture Munich 1972

Within the framework of the exhibition Munich 1972: The Design of a Democratic Body at Het Nieuwe Instituut, the Goethe-Institut organised a lecture by cultural historian Kay Schiller. After the lecture, the curator of the exhibition Marten Kuijpers (Het Nieuwe Instituut) had a conversation with Schiller.

The 1972 Olympic Games offered host country West Germany an unrivalled opportunity to portray itself to the world as a modern, democratic and culturally aware nation. Various design disciplines played a central role in the preparations for the Games. Architecture, design and landscape architecture were integrated in a total design intended to exude openness and inclusivity.

In his lecture Kay Schiller situates the 1972 Olympic Games in the context of West Germany in the 1960s and 70s. He pays particular attention to the planning and staging of these Games by elite members of the "1945ers", a political generation of Germans that rose to prominence in politics, society and culture in the run up to the Games. It discusses the ideas and influence of figures like Munich's mayor Hans-Jochen Vogel and other members of that generation, and their optimistic belief in technocratic planning before the first oil price shock of 1973. The lecture sheds light on the reasons why many Germans at the time saw the Games as a success, despite the Black September attack, while nowadays the 1972 Games are primarily remembered for this incident.

German-British cultural historian Kay Schiller lectures at Durham University in England. He specializes in contemporary German history, and in particular on the role of sport in twentieth-century German society. He and Christopher Young co-authored _The 1972 Munich Olympics and the Making of Modern Germany _(University of California Press, 2010).