A Second Look: The Olympic Ensemble in Munich - Consummate Work of Architecture or Ongoing Development?
From the very beginning, the Olympic complex in Munich was acclaimed. In his history of architecture in the 19th and 20th centuries, Leonardo Benevolo describes the stadium as a space of overwhelming beauty and lightness. Even today, when one drives past the tent roof construction with its perspex sheeting glittering in the sun, it is difficult not to succumb to the magic of this architecture nearly 40 years after the Olympics of 1972. Architectural historians acclaim the ensemble as one of the most important works of the past century. That is attributable not just to the originality of the buildings, but to the fact that it was possible after the Olympics and the football World Cup of 1974 to use this development for a whole generation and to make it an integral part of the everyday lives of local residents (ills. C -E). What appeals to visitors even today is the synthesis of sporting structures and landscape park (ill. B). The ensemble as a whole was too powerful for individual elements to be given up, reworked or demolished after the Olympic Games.
