Freising's sports experts Weinzierl and Wanzke remember the Olympia 72: "Everyone wanted to be there"

Created: 08/31/2022Updated: 08/30/2022 2:19 p.m

By: Manuel Eser

"Water polo in perfection" offered the Australian national team in the combat pool of the Freisinger outdoor pool.

The pool was closed for weeks especially for the Olympic participants.

© Repro: Lehmann

A number of Olympic athletes also came to the cathedral city to train.

The newspapers of that time provide information about this - and two prominent Freisingers.

Freising

– A new train that causes a sensation, Australian giants plundering the fridge and a whistle from the sea wolf himself: some Olympic scenes also took place in Freising during the Munich Games.

With the games came the S-Bahn

Already three months before the start of the 1972 Olympics in Munich, Freising was a big winner of the Games: On May 28th at 5.42 a.m. the first S-Bahn set off from Freising station in the direction of Munich.

Olympic memories: Siegfried Wanzke reports how his Freising volleyball players once fought bravely against the Greek national team.

© Lehmann

The first passengers

Helmut Weinzierl, who had just been elected to the city council and later became a sports officer, can still well remember the start of the S-Bahn era, which was closely linked to the hosting of the Olympic Games.

"I couldn't quite believe it.

I thought the S-Bahn and U-Bahn were only for huge cities,” he reports.

“The fact that Freising was suddenly connected to the big city of Munich was one of the major advances that the Olympic Games in Munich brought to the surrounding area.

That really gave us a big boost.” To this day, Weinzierl almost always takes the S-Bahn to Munich.

The first Freising passengers were, by the way, in addition to the district administrator at the time, Ludwig Trittloher, and Freising's mayor, Adolf Schäfer, as well as 25 children from the Paul Gerhardt School.

They were allowed to sit on the first unofficial ride on the then blue and white S-Bahn and mingle with the huge army of guests who had gathered at Munich's Marienplatz for the opening of the S-Bahn.

According to the Freisinger Tagblatt, the children received white sausages and a souvenir.

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Everyone wanted to be there against the Greeks

A few days before the start of the Olympic Games, athletes in Freising did the honors again and again.

For example, the Greek national volleyball team was a guest.

"Our first team was even allowed to play a training game against the national team under competitive conditions," remembers Siegfried Wanzke, the then department head of the Freising volleyball team.

The hurray was so great that more Freisinger players than usual found their way into the Luitpoldhalle.

"Everyone wanted to be there, but there were too many to be able to use them all," reports Wanzke.

Cinematic kick-off: The actor Raimund Harmstorf alias "Der Seewolf" gave the starting signal for the TSV Au game against the Moroccan national team.

© Repro: Lehmann

In the Olympic League

At that time, the Freising team was involved in the so-called Olympic League, which included the six best West German teams.

Here the players should be scouted who would have come into question for a West German national volleyball team.

"A few Freisingers would have had a good chance of being nominated," says Wanzke.

But then the Olympic Committee decided that only one German team, the East German team, was allowed to compete in the tournament.

The Freisingers showed their skills again in three tight sets against the Greeks, reports Wanzke.

"We didn't win a set, but we played well." Wanzke still has the pennant that the Greeks presented to Freising when they met.

Water polo players do the honors in the outdoor pool

Despite all the conversion measures and restructuring that were carried out a few years ago during the realization of the Fresch adventure pool: the combat pool has retained its location.

Although the pool has undergone major renovations, it is still in the same location as it was in 1972.

"One of the great advances" brought by Olympia Freising was the S-Bahn, says former city councilor Helmut Weinzierl.

It started for the first time in May 1972. © Repro: Lehmann

At that time, the battle pool lived up to its name: it was the training facility for the twelve teams that had qualified for the Olympic water polo tournament, including Eastern Bloc countries such as the Soviet Union and Hungary - nations that Freisinger rarely saw during the Cold War got to see.

The first water polo players to arrive at the Freising swimming pool were the "giants from Australia", as the Freisinger Tagblatt newspaper headlined on August 16, 1972, ten days before the Olympic flame was lit.

"The Australians turned out to be a laid-back bunch who first raided the fridge." However, the report left open whether the athletes from Down Under were so keen on drinking or the athletes' stomachs were growling.

But the FT certified "water polo in perfection".

Hundreds of spectators gathered in the stands to watch the Australians.

The Olympic enthusiasm also consoled most Freisingers about the fact that the pool and the surrounding areas were demarcated at the request of the Eastern Bloc countries, with the FT noting: "However, on Sunday the numerous bathers looked a little enviously at the closed pool, which was lonely and deserted was, while in the remaining pools there was more standing than swimming.”

Au experiences the "game of the century"

The Freisinger Tagblatt titled what happened on August 19th on the green lawn of the TSV as the “game of the century” – at least from the point of view of the market town of Au.

There, the Moroccan national football team played a training game against the home club.

"Around 1,500 spectators saw a great game in which the motto of the hosts was: just don't lose by double digits," reports the FT.

The concern of the TSV kickers was unfounded.

At half time they defied the Olympic team with a 1:1, in the end they pulled out of the affair with 2:5.

The opening of the game was cinematic: none other than Raimund Harmstorf.

The actor, who was extremely popular at the time and who delighted television viewers above all as “Sea Wolf”, was anchored in Au at the time.

Harmstorf lived in Au Castle for around five years.

And when his presence on the film set in Munich was not required, the sea wolf took time for "some local club celebrations", as the Freisinger Tagblatt reports.

For his landlady, Baroness Edith Beck von Peccoz, this time with Harmstorf, who died young, is very important: "I only have good memories of him."

You can find more current news from the district of Freising at Merkur.de/Freising.