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1972 – Technology for the Olympics
Title page of a brochure
Following the decision in April 1966 to hold the XXth Olympic Games in the Federal Republic of Germany, preparations for this major event immediately got underway in Munich, Kiel, Nuremberg and Augsburg. In the Bavarian capital it was decided to build subway line U3 to the Olympic park at Oberwiesenfeld first, departing from the original plans. The building of the suburban rail network (S-Bahn) was also expedited and the Olympic Park projects including a new stadium and apartments were begun.
With its many infrastructure solutions in Munich, Siemens achieved numerous milestones, including the power supply for the construction work in the Olympic Park, the subway and suburban railway, the Olympic computer center, the color TV transmissions and the medical center.
Overview of the most important projects
Siemens not only supplied the large building site in the Olympic Park with electricity via thousands of meters of high voltage cable and dozens of transformer stations, but was also responsible for the power supply for the Olympic stadium and the television broadcasting center.
In order to bring the millions of visitors rapidly and reliably to the sports locations, the public transport facilities in Munich had to be massively expanded: here Siemens was involved with equipping the suburban railway and the subway, providing the signal and emergency call systems and extending the traffic monitoring system. An investment from which the city’s infrastructure is still profiting today.
Five computers were installed in the Olympic computer center which evaluated the results from the various competitions round the clock in a matter of seconds. At the same time an “electronic super encyclopedia” provided information about the results, athletes and other facts concerning the Olympic Games since 1896. More than 15,000 kilometers of cable were laid to connect the computers with 400 teleprinters, 50 printers and 100 display panels in the stadiums, press centers and information offices.
For the global communications, Siemens equipped a special TV station for the simultaneous transmission of 12 TV broadcasts and 60 commentaries in 45 languages. In addition, an internal transmission system was installed with up to 15 programs and 3,000 receivers. To transmit the live colored TV images reliably throughout Europe and all over the world, the Deutsche Post commissioned Siemens to build a third satellite antenna at the Raisting Satellite Earth Station and a number of transmission paths from the Munich television tower to Frankfurt. The telephone network was also massively expanded.
In the Olympic stadium, Siemens installed a pneumatic dispatch system and the loudspeaker and lighting systems. The latter in particular was a major challenge, because the newly introduced color television required daylight quality. The stadium finally blazed with light from 550 floodlights so that color TV transmissions were possible at any time of day.
Siemens also scored with the medical care of the athletes, functionaries and press representatives, equipping the medical center of the Olympic Village with X-ray systems and equipment for physiotherapy, nuclear medicine and laboratory diagnosis.
This summary of the most important projects shows the extent to which Siemens contributed to the success of the Olympics in Munich with its comprehensive portfolio, thereby impressively demonstrating its competence.
In spite of the major success, also from a technological point of view, of the XXth Olympic Games, the “Happy Games” of Munich will forever be overshadowed by a tragic event: on September 5, 1972, Palestinian terrorists launched an attack on the Israeli Olympic team, which ended in a massacre. The games were continued after a day of mourning.
August 23, 2012 – Dr. Franz Hebestreit