Markus Söder's Olympic push for Munich: A pan-German project

Was that another transparent trick or cultural appropriation? In any case, Markus Söder proved to be an eccentric in the truest sense of the word when he drew an imaginary line through the center of Germany, only to find that Bavaria was then largely - where? – is in the east.

Söder's Olympic stretching exercise after Munich was chosen as the national candidate for the 2036, 2040 or 2044 Games nevertheless touched on a central point: how this candidacy, which with the familiar sailing partner from 1972, Kiel, could at first be considered a retro variant from a distant, simpler time, can become a pan-German project for the complicated present. One that will unite Germany and possibly even save it.

At least that's how high the rhetorical bar was set on Saturday in Baden-Baden, a place that is in every respect as far away from central Germany as the Federal Republic of the 1970s is from the present.

Söder, one can say, took a courageous approach. He doesn't just want games for north and south, for west and east, but above all for the center, regardless of what type. He said that in such a statesmanlike manner that you couldn't help but think of Friedrich Merz, who didn't get through with his congratulatory call - Söder was sitting on the podium.

And because Söder, the Prime Minister of the CSU, was not sitting there alone, but together with Dominik Krause, the 36-year-old mayor of Munich from the Greens, it resulted in a pretty exciting double that is now running together for Germany, even though - there has to be so much political distance, even if you do the Olympic loop together at the Oktoberfest - they are still 7th.

Söder, the experienced politician (and occasional populist), and Krause, the matter-of-fact, likeable political newcomer from next door: If they approach it correctly, they can perhaps turn the second-best German candidacy into the best one. Because they have something in common that Berlin, despite all its history and stories that would have stood unrivaled for Germany internationally, could not offer: a political force that one can at least hope will get something moving.

To do this, Söder now has to prove that he really has higher interests at heart and not just his own, and for this to happen, the Olympic message, which shimmered so colorfully and optimistically in the Baden-Baden bubble, must also reach people outside. How this doesn't work, the people of Munich were able to study in the capital itself, albeit under very special conditions.

In any case, the road to the games is still long and it will require enormous efforts, not least of a financial nature. In Berlin, meanwhile, some people are probably still angry after the Left and the Greens prematurely expropriated their city from what was probably a unique opportunity for development.

For the successful applicants and for German sport, the political and social charge that the Federal President also carried out in Baden-Baden is useful in another place: as an argumentative aid to the federal government. He can't help but play for the win now.