The 1972 Munich Olympics and the Making of Modern Germany (Hardcover)

From the Publisher: The 1972 Munich Olympics-remembered almost exclusively for the devastating terrorist attack on the Israeli team-were intended to showcase the New Germany and replace lingering memories of the Third Reich with images of a thriving and prosperous Federal Republic. That hope was all but obliterated in the early hours of September 5, when gun-wielding Palestinians murdered 11 members of the Israeli team. In the first cultural and political history of the Munich Olympics, Kay Schiller and Christopher Young set these Games into both the context of 1972 and the history of the modern Olympiad. Delving into newly available documents, Schiller and Young chronicle the impact of the Munich Games on West German society. They examine the 1972 Games' social, diplomatic, and political history-including the international context and terrorism-while exploring the sports culture and what was happening in architecture, design, and urban planning. The most detailed treatment of any Olympics to date, this book tells the story of Munich from the German perspective and delivers the first full account of one of the most significant moments in post-war German history.