The close Olympic final between Munich and Cologne-Rhine-Ruhr will also be a tough competition for the backroom diplomats. The late, frustrated withdrawal from Berlin shortly before the election of the German Summer Games candidate for 2036, 2040 or 2044 on Saturday in Baden-Baden gave the race new momentum in the final meters. Will Munich save its supposedly narrow lead among delegates or will the aggressive lobby workers from North Rhine-Westphalia prevail?
At the last chance in the election campaign before the extraordinary general meeting of the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB), the organizers did not want the public to be there. The evening event in the Kurhaus in Baden-Baden was supposed to take place behind closed doors. The duel between the two remaining candidates appeared unexpectedly open hours before the winner was announced by Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier (1:45 p.m./ARD).
Sport Minister of State Rauhe: Election with “a lot of responsibility”
The new Minister of State for Sports Ronald Rauhe, a supporter of Berlin's application until he took office, came to the vote with a clear message: "We have an international task to fulfill and must enter the race with the city or region with which Germany has the greatest international opportunities. The decision is made by the sport, and I assume that it will make it with a lot of responsibility," said the 44-year-old to the German Press Agency.
But who is the applicant with the better chance in the tricky selection process of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) if the capital is no longer available? After two failed attempts at the Winter Games in 2018 and 2022, Munich is promoting the Olympic legacy of 1972, the tried-and-tested motto of laptops and lederhosen, the football power FC Bayern and the Oktoberfest.
Söder and Wüst in the Olympic duel
“The Olympics, Paralympics and then the Oktoberfest, that’s the kind of summer you imagine in Bavaria,” summarized Prime Minister Markus Söder. Even seconds before the Oktoberfest tapping a week ago, the CSU boss sent an Olympic advertising message to the television camera.
His CDU rival Hendrik Wüst has been even more eager to fight for the votes of DOSB members in recent months. The NRW Prime Minister recently announced that 17.6 million tickets could be sold for the Cologne-Rhine-Ruhr games, more than ever before. When it comes to event potential, an important criterion for the IOC, the DOSB test report sees the NRW project ahead of Munich, also thanks to spectacle ideas such as swimming competitions in the Schalke Arena.
In view of weak points such as the overloaded transport system and possible image problems on the world stage, the campaign played one last trump card: the integration of the East German locations Rostock-Warnemünde for sailing and Markkleeberg for whitewater canoeing. Cologne-Rhine-Ruhr sends “a clear signal for a united Germany. It is the only application that brings together locations in East and West,” said Wüst.
Locations in the East as electoral trump cards?
Which Olympic narrative is better when the financing issues that are still unresolved for both applicants are a minor matter? «I think it's good when eastern Germany also plays an important role. In the end, it's also about creating games that are as compact as possible for the athletes. The IOC is also looking at that,” explained Sport Minister Rauhe, who has no voice in the vote.
The 42 leading Olympic associations are allowed to vote, each awarding three votes in a block. The ten executive board members of the DOSB and the eight personal members of the umbrella organization each have one vote, three of whom canceled their participation. Soccer star Leon Goretzka, former monoskier Anna Schaffelhuber and canoe polo player Elena Gilles cannot be there.
The state sports associations and the non-Olympic leading associations are not allowed to vote. The German Disabled Sports Association is also excluded from the vote, even though it also concerns the Paralympics application.
The criticism of the DOSB's selection process, which lasted around 16 months, increased with the knockout at the latest. Berlin's application is gaining momentum again. When evaluating the projects, the makers from the capital felt misunderstood and unfairly rated as significantly weaker than their two competitors. Here Munich is just ahead, Cologne-Rhine-Ruhr is almost at eye level. However, the test report is not binding for the voters.
Hamburg and Berlin failed prematurely
The fact that the professional associations with voting rights, unlike the DOSB, saw Munich as stronger in many categories could be a pointer for the election in Baden-Baden. Both candidates can point to the support of the population. Munich won a two-thirds majority for the plans in a citizen survey in October 2025. In the participating NRW municipalities, the result of a referendum in April was very similar.
Hamburg, on the other hand, clearly failed due to the will of the citizens at the end of May. For Berlin, the end was sealed at the latest with the result of the House of Representatives election on Sunday, in which the Olympic supporters were voted out in the Red Town Hall. "We couldn't offer them what the associations asked of us - namely political stability," admitted Olympic representative Kaweh Niroomand.
Despite the withdrawal, a Berlin delegation traveled to Baden-Baden to send a signal for a united German bid. The Berliners had with them the question that might be decisive for the election: which camp the supporters of the capital campaign would switch to at the last minute.
