Geretsrieder Feuer travels through Europe
Created: 09/03/2022, 09:00
By: Susanne Weiss
Honor hold: The torch relay reaches Geretsried on August 25, 1972, with the Tyczka company in the background.
© Archive
Tyczka shone out into the world with this invention: the company designed the stadium and hand torches for the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich.
Geretsried – 50 years after the Olympic Games, many of the torch bearers of the time still have their hand torches, some of which are kept in museums or other collections.
also dr
Hans-Wolfgang Tyczka has such a memento at home in Icking - and after all this time it is fully functional.
His Geretsried-based company developed the stadium and hand flares for the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich.
It's a success story.
Success story begins in the living room
It begins with Tyczka and his radio.
On April 26, 1966, in the living room of his villa in Icking, he heard the sensational news from Georg Brauchle, then Second Mayor of Munich, that the Olympics were to come to Germany for the first time since the Second World War.
"In general, it is a great honor for any country to be able to host the Olympic Games, and the fire is a symbol of the values that the Games stand for," says Tyczka, who is now 96 years old.
For him there was no question that his group of companies would contribute to the Olympic Games and that the flame would have to be delivered from Tyczka.
He should be right.
Tyczka developed the technology: On August 26, 1972, long-distance runner Günter Zahn lit the Olympic flame in Munich.
© dpa
"Munich has the Olympics - but Geretsried kindled the fire," said district administrator Otmar Huber (†2021) at the time.
Tyczka took over the industrial gas company from his father in the late 1950s and relocated the company headquarters from the Upper Palatinate to Oberland in the early 1960s, where a new plant had been built.
For the XX
After the Olympic Games he founded his own company, Olympiagas GmbH, in a merger with Gloria-Gas Munich.
The engineers and technicians could concentrate purely on the development of the stadium and hand flares, their later maintenance and the continuous supply of liquid gas.
Twelve tanker loads of liquid gas were required to operate the large torch in the Munich Olympic Stadium alone.
Torches had to meet certain requirements
"Both flares, both those for the stadiums in Munich, Augsburg and Kiel and the hand flares, had to meet a number of requirements for which our technicians first had to find solutions," explains Tyczka.
Using liquid gas for the Olympic flame was a completely new way of thinking.
"The gas burns blue, a color that TV cameras couldn't pick up at the time," recalls the 96-year-old.
With the help of tinkering and the use of pyrotechnics, a yellow flame was finally created.
Also read: This is how Dr.
Gabriele Stauner her time as a hostess
On July 28, 1972, the fire in front of the Temple of Hera on Mount Olympus in Greece was lit - with a concave mirror.
From then on only Tyczka's technique was used.
Women and men brought the Olympic flame to the venue in a torch relay race.
The 5776 runners carried torches in their hands, which were extremely easy to carry, attractively designed and ignited safely and quickly.
A total of 6,000 pieces were ready so that the fire could be passed about every 1,000 meters over a distance of 5,500 kilometers through eight countries.
Test in the wind tunnel of the Technical University
The experts from Olympiagas had previously subjected the flares to several endurance tests.
The flame even survived a hurricane simulated in the wind tunnel of the Technical University of Munich at 136 kilometers per hour.
To be on the safe side, the real torch relay through Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Austria and Germany was accompanied by two vehicles carrying an "eternal light" in the form of Bundesbahn signal lights.
If there were any mishaps over the 29 days, at least they didn't make the headlines.
In Geretsried, those involved made an honorary stop.
The enthusiasm was immeasurable.
"We were proud that the company that made the torch was with us in Geretsried," said the mayor at the time, Heinz Schneider (†2003).
Thousands of people along the streets cheered for the Olympic entourage.
Great honor: Dr.
Hans-Wolfgang Tyczka presents one of the hand torches in Munich.
© Tyczka
In the middle was Dr.
Hans Wolfgang Tyczka.
He met the runners at the Austro-Hungarian border and accompanied them the rest of the way to Munich.
The Ickinger also experienced how long-distance runner Günter Zahn lit the Olympic flame in Munich on August 26, 1972 with the last hand torch.
"The atmosphere in the stadium itself can hardly be put into words," says the 96-year-old.
He was proud that the games were taking place in Germany again and that his company was involved.
"It was a truly unique experience that I always think back to fondly."
Incidentally, the torches were a donation to Willi Daume, who died in 1996 and was President of the National Olympic Committee for Germany in the 1970s.
In return, Hans-Wolfgang Tyczka revealed a few years ago that he received a “very nice tie with the Olympic rings”.
With brass band music and fanfares, Geretsried bids farewell to the accompanying crew, who leave for Greece on July 23, 1972, where the torch relay will start later.
© Archive
Read the latest news from Geretsried here.
The fact that the Geretsried engineers did a good job is also shown by the fact that the torches were still in demand decades after the Munich Games.
For example in 1983 at the relay of lights on the occasion of the Pope's visit to Austria or in 2004 at the Summer Olympics in Athens.
Nevertheless, Tyczka would no longer use liquid gas today - but hydrogen.
While LNG is a key pillar of the group, it is also important to invest in more sustainable energies and stay innovative.
"Hydrogen is the most common element in the universe and is already an emission-free energy source and an essential building block for an energy transition," explains the 96-year-old.
Thus, a hydrogen-powered Olympic torch would well meet today's requirements.
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