I read that Steven Spielberg is planning on doing a movie about the 1972 Olympics in Munich. I was in Munich then, and for no particular reason, I just thought it might be interesting to hear my story.
It was my first trip to Europe, and as happens, I was running out of money. I knew my visit to Innsbruck in Austria would be the end of my tour unless I got a job. I wasn’t ready to head home yet. So off I went to Munich. The Olympics were around the corner and I figured I might be able to find work there. I took the train to Munich and checked into a small hotel near Sendlinger Tur Platz. I got a room on the 4th floor and trudged up and when I got to my clean, nice room, all was fine except I didn’t see a blanket. I called to the desk, they sent a housekeeper up and she looked at me, and then the bed, and assumed I was insane. I had never seen a down comforter before and assumed you slept on it (it was so huge and thick) and it never dawned on me that I would sleep under it. I apologized and felt like an idiot.
Considering my lack of hotel experience, it was all the more amazing when I went downstairs to the front desk to ask where I could find an inexpensive restaurant in the area. The portly woman behind the desk spoke English quite well and we started to talk. Within ten minutes she found out I was traveling, running out of money, looking for work in Munich for the Olympics and she offered me a job on the spot…as the night desk clerk. I was honest and told her I knew nothing about hotels, as my request for a blanket clearly showed, but she insisted I would be perfect. I would get free room and board, plus a salary that would allow me to save a bit and stay longer in Europe.
Not bad. Check into a hotel and get a job within an hour.
The night shift was from 11:00 PM until 7:00 AM. Mostly just to be there in case of…whatever. No one was allowed to check in during that time, so I was basically a babysitter. Pretty boring. My major task was to stay awake, buzz in latecomers and then prepare the tables for breakfast.
However, because it was the Olympics, some interesting guests started to show up. I remember one Italian couple with a daughter about 8 years old. The parents spoke no German or English, but the little girl spoke 5 languages. She actually booked them into the hotel and she would translate for them. I thought that was pretty cool for an 8 year old. Another was the mother of an Israeli Olympian Another was the mother of a member of the USA Women’s Swim Team. She had had to work double shifts to afford to come to Germany to see her daughter swim, and she was touched when her co-workers surprised her with a farewell party and some extra cash for the trip. She and I hit it off well, and one night I went out with her, her daughter and several members of the American Women’s Olympic swim team for dinner.
Very enlightening.
They all hated Mark Spitz.
They freely admitted he was a phenomenal swimmer and most of them predicted he would win every Gold Medal he could get, but according to them, he was the most arrogant asshole they had met in a long time.
We had a great time that night, and I was offered free tickets to go see one of their early heats in the games. I went and it was fun to be on the Olympic site, wandering through the fantastic grounds and seeing a few events. Munich had gone all out for the Olympics. They had people on almost every street corner wearing pins that identified which languages they spoke, just so they could help tourists find their way around. However, most locals in Munich had long since hit the road. The prices for everything went up during the Olympics. An ice cream bar that normally cost about 50 cents suddenly cost triple that amount. Condos were being rented for obscene amounts of money and the traffic and congestion was horrible.
Then there was “that day” in Munich.
This is where the story gets odd.
Most people around the world were glued to the television as terrorists took over parts of the Olympic village and held the Israeli athletes hostage.
They watched it in Berlin. They watched it in Hamburg.
But there was absolutely no news in Munich. Total blackout. But the strange thing was, nobody in Munich even noticed there was a blackout of this worldwide, horrific news event. Even today, when you see footage of the terrorists in the windows, you will see people down on the Olympic site happily walking around eating ice cream and taking photos. We didn’t know anything that was happening. Apparently they wanted to keep the news off the air in Munich for fear other terrorists would see it and do something else.
My first clue was when the mother of the Israeli Olympic team member came to the desk, with two strange men, and asked to check out.
She seemed nervous and said to me, “I want to check out of my room now.”
I was surprised. She was so excited about the Games when I first met her.
“Why? The Olympics aren’t over yet and you have a room for another week.”
One of the strange men almost barked at me and said, “Didn’t you hear her. She wants to check out!”
I got the hint, gave her the final bill which one of the men paid and off they went.
I thought that a bit odd.
Then the American mother came into the hotel and was all chipper. She had just been to the events and her daughter was making it into the finals. She obviously had not picked up on anything either.
Then, a few hours later, I got a call from my mother in Illinois asking if I was alright. She told me all phone lines to Munich had been busy for the past half day and she sounded very upset.
“What’s wrong? Did somebody die?” I asked.
“Nobody knows how many died yet.”
Now I was confused. It took ten minutes for my mother to explain what had been happening in Munich, and then suddenly all hell broke lose. People were running through the hotel and everybody was coming to the desk. People were bombarding me with questions. It was as if a dam had broken and everyone was getting phone calls, and suddenly the news was on television and word was out. The events of the day were over and we were getting all our news in the past tense. The American mother came tearing down the stairs and I saw her heading off to the Olympic Village. When she came back, she told me all was well with her daughter and her friends, and she heard they slipped Mark Spitz off in a private plane as he was Jewish and they didn’t know if he was a target. I remember feeling bad about what we had all said about him earlier in the week.
The rest of the Olympics were a blur to me.
I still find it hard to believe nobody knew anything while it was happening. Granted, this was long before cell phones, internet and cable television. But still, to this day, I look at footage of the events of that day and am amazed to think I was there – and I, like most of the people in Munich, didn’t have a clue what was happening.
And even today, when I see a report on the 1972 Olympics, I watch to see what I missed.
I am looking forward to Spielberg’s as-yet-untitled film.
Once again it will be odd for me – to see it how it all happened, despite the fact that I was there.
Wow! I had no idea there had been a news blackout in Munich. When you said “This is where the story gets odd,” my thoughts were “of course it gets odd; it must have been horrible.” It didn’t even occur to me that you wouldn’t immediately know about the events. Thanks for sharing your experiences.
GT
What a facinating story. I wonder if that part will be accurately portrayed in the film.
Haj
Thanks for the story DMark. A friend of mine was in Paris at the time of the general insurrection in May '68. She was only 12 and her mother (of course) made her stay in the hotel. I imagine she watches the archive footoage with the same fascination.
Absolutely fascinating story! I’m going to make it a point to save it.
Thanks DMark. That was really interesting. Firsthand viewpoints of extraordinary events can be fascinating. It certainly was in this case.
DMark you’re story is terrific. Thanks for sharing it with us. Yours is an account we’d never get to hear. That’s why I enjoy reading oral histories so much.
FWIW, *One Day in September * by Simon Reeve is a pretty well-written account of that terrible time.
Very interesting story DMark. Do you know if the Israeli woman’s son made it (I admit I know almost nothing about what happened)
Watching the 1972 Olympics on TV is one of my early memories. A few years ago, I had the chance to travel to Munich, and I went out to the Olympic grounds and walked around a bit. I didn’t go looking for any specific balconies, but it was still pretty eerie.
And I saw One Day in September not long after that. There’s one shot that shows the restaurant (just off the train station) where the terrorists met just before the attack. I recognized it from my trip. Also eerie.
There’s one thing from the end of the movie that gets mentioned very briefly. A few months after the Olympics, there was a plane hijacking in Germany. The hijackers demanded the release of the surviving terrorists and transportation out of the country, which they got. The movie alleges that this was done with the collusion of the German authorities. I’ve never been able to find out any more about this. Is it common knowledge that it happened that way? I can somewhat understand how the germans might want to extricate themselves from the whole damn issue, but it seems something so absolutely scandalous wouldn’t be so utterly unknown today. Anybody know anything more about this?
It was the summer between 2nd and 3rd grade for me.
This was the event that introduced me to ‘news’.
I watched sports on TV quite a bit. Mostly ABC’s Wide World of Sports. Daaan Daaan da dun dun daa dun…
So I was just hooked to the tv watching it.
About 5 or six years ago I saw Jim McCay (sp) in an airport and I went up and shook his hand. He really did a great job covering something that wasn’t sports. I told how even though I was pretty young I felt I knew what was going on and how he guided me through it.
God, can you imaging Costas and Couric if this happend today?
No, her son was one of those who was killed. We saw that in the paper a few days later.
I do not remember her name or the name of her son.
I think I remember he was a wrestler, but it was a long time ago and I am not sure.
Too bad we can’t post tunes here. What you typed ‘sounds’ like The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau to me.
I don’t remember much of the Munich Olympics. I remember that everyone was excited about Mark Spitz. (Joke at the time: How do they fill the pool at the Olympics? Mark Spitz!’) I remember some grainy images of masked terrorists on balconies. That’s about it.
I remember watching the first week avidly, because a classmate of mine was swimming against Spitz in the 200 Butterfly (he took the bronze). Then the rest of it happened, and we were all glad that Robin had left the country the day before.
Wow DMark, what an experience. IIRC, one of the Jewish athletes who died was a wrestler.
I was a child safely ensconced in the US for the 72 Olympics. I remember Mark Spitz, Frank Shorter (and an imposter) finishing the marathon, Shirley Babashof and the East German “women” athletes, the 100m sham, but not much about the hostage crises. I don’t know why. I don’t know if my parents screened my news, or what. I certainly knew it happened, and I remember the ending. 
Interesting that Mark Spitz was so arrogant. My kids have met Michael Phelps and he didn’t come across that way. Of course, it is not like they spent any time together. On the whole, elite swimmers are very nice. I assume because it is not exactly a big time sport, and they are stunned when someone recognizes them.
HIjack, but I’ll tell you why I started being interested in Olympic swimming. There was a German swimmer several Summer Games ago name Michael Gross, nicknamed “The Albatross” He was tall for a swimmer, and had really long arms, hence his nickname. Boy, I noticed that tight body, those teeny weeny swim trunks, and thought “Day-um!”
I know it is frowned upon, but thought considering the Olympics are on, and Munich is nominated for an Oscar, I would bump this thread back to life…forgive me, but I might do it again in two years.
I was not alive at the time of the Munich games in '72, but after watching Munich (bootleg copy here in Iraq) I felt like I was there. It is a great movie and I recommend it to everyone.
My sole memory (I was 5) is of the voice of Jim McKay announcing the Kenyan runner Kip Keino and seeing the name on the screen in those Futura Oblique letters ABC used to use: KIP KEINO
Do any of the names listed in this Wikipedia article nudge your memory Dmark?
I was 5 also. I remember seening the hooded terrorists on the balcony. I know my parents were watching it. I guess I got some impressions about what was happening but I didn’t understand it. It wasn’t until many years later I heard what really happened.