Munich or Cologne/Rhine-Ruhr: German Olympic bidder to be elected

Germany's next Olympic candidate will be chosen on Saturday between Munich and a Cologne-led bid by the Rhine-Ruhr region.

The German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) assembly will elect the city at the end of a process which gained late new momentum when the nation's capital of Berlin withdrew on Thursday.

Munich is believed to carry a narrow lead among the delegates but the combative lobbyists from North Rhine-Westphalia could yet prevail after all.

Also chosen is the year, either 2036, 2040 or 2044.

Sports State Minister: Vote with 'a great deal of responsibility'

New Sports State Minister Ronald Rauhe, who had supported Berlin's bid until taking office, travelled to Baden-Baden the vote with a clear message.

"We have an international task to fulfill and must enter the race with the city or region that gives Germany the greatest chances internationally. The decision on that is made by sport, and I assume that it will make it with a great deal of responsibility», Rauhe told dpa.

Munich is campaigning after two failed bids for the 2018 and 2022 Winter Games with the Olympic legacy of 1972, the tried-and-tested motto of laptops and lederhosen, football powerhouse Bayern Munich and Oktoberfest.

Söder and Wüst in Olympic duel

"Olympics, Paralympics and then off to the Wiesn (Oktoberfest), that's a summer as one imagines it in Bavaria," Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder has said. 

Even seconds before the tapping of the first Oktoberfest keg a week ago, Söder sent another Olympic promotional message into the television cameras.

His rival Hendrik Wüst threw himself into the battle for the votes of DOSB members almost even more energetically in recent months. 

As many as 17.6 million tickets could be sold for the Games in Cologne-Rhine-Ruhr, more than ever before at a Games, the prime minister of North Rhine-Westphalia said recently. 

In terms of event potential, an important criterion for the International Olympic Committee, the DOSB evaluation report places the Rhine-Ruhr project ahead of Munich, also thanks to spectacular ideas such as swimming competitions in the 60,000-seat Schalke Arena.

Venues in the East as an election trump card?

In view of weaknesses such as the overloaded transport system and possible image problems on the world stage, the campaign played one final trump card: the inclusion of the eastern German venues of Rostock-Warnemünde for sailing and Markkleeberg for whitewater canoeing. 

Cologne-Rhine-Ruhr sends "a clear signal for a united Germany. It is the only bid that brings together venues in East and West," Wüst said.

Rauhe said: "I think it's good if Eastern Germany also plays an important role. But ultimately it is also about creating Games that are as compact as possible for the athletes. The IOC looks at that too." 

While downplaying the East-West issue, he also said he would favour a bid for 2040 to mark the 50th anniversary of German reunification.

The vote

The 42 Olympic national governing bodies are entitled to vote, each casting three votes as a bloc. 

The 10 members of the DOSB executive board and the eight individual members of the umbrella organization each have one vote, although three of the latter, including German football international Leon Goretzka, cancelled their participation. 

The state sports federations and the non-Olympic national governing bodies are not allowed to vote. The German Paralympic body is also excluded from the vote, even though the Paralympics bid is also at stake.

Criticism of the DOSB's selection process, which lasted around 16 months, gained renewed momentum at the latest with the knockout of Berlin's bid.

The organizers from the capital felt misunderstood in the evaluation of the projects and unfairly rated significantly weaker than the two competitors. Here Munich has a narrow lead, while Cologne-Rhine-Ruhr is almost on an equal footing. However, the evaluation report is not binding on the voters.

Public support

The fact that the voting sports federations, unlike the DOSB, rated Munich more highly in many categories could be a sign of things to come for the vote in Baden-Baden. 

Both candidates can point to public support. Munich already secured a two-thirds majority for the plans in a public consultation in October 2025. In the participating NRW municipalities, the result of a referendum in April was almost identical.

Hamburg, by contrast, clearly failed to win public support in May. For Berlin, the end was sealed at the latest by the result of Sunday's state election, in which the Olympic supporters were voted out.