Reading on Olympic terror gets under your skin

Created: 09/08/2022, 12:19 p.m

Spellbound and at times deeply moved, the audience followed the testimonies of contemporary witnesses about September 5, 1972. These were presented during a reading in the old tower at the air base.

© Metzler

With a special reading to commemorate the victims of the Olympic attack, the historical association invited to the site of the event.

In the old tower on the air base, citizens of Brucker slipped into the role of contemporary witnesses and presented their testimonies about the terrible events.

The visitors to the memorial event were deeply moved.

Fürstenfeldbruck – Brucker citizens and interested parties who had registered in advance were able to come to the event organized by the Historical Association of Fürstenfeldbruck (HVF).

This was the only way they could gain access to the place on the air base where the Olympic assassination came to an abrupt end.

A total of 60 guests took a seat at the beginning of the reading on the ground floor of the old tower.

Anna Ulrike Bergheim, Chairwoman of the HVF, was delighted with the great response to her commemoration.

"With the event here at the historic site, we want to give people the opportunity to deal with their memories," said Bergheim.

Consul General as guest of honor in the tower

However, the HVF chairwoman was particularly pleased about one participant: As the guest of honor at the Olympia reading, she welcomed Carmela Shamir, the Israeli Consul General from Munich, to the rooms of the old tower.

Bergheim emphasized that everyone who helped back then - police officers, firefighters and members of the Bundeswehr - were brave and courageous people who had risked their lives.

"None of them made a mistake that could be blamed in any way."

According to the HVF chairman Bergheim, the mistakes were made elsewhere.

She is ashamed that it took until Monday's memorial service for a state official to have the courage to apologize to the victims' families.

The reading is "our way as a historical association," said Bergheim, to apologize to the victims.

"We hope that the memories of this terrible act will be cherished and that together we will find a solution to preserve this building so that the lessons of this act can be passed on to future generations."

eyewitnesses

Before the reading began, the members of the association and other participants slipped into the role of eyewitnesses to the Olympic assassination attempt: Bergheim, Angela Libal, Alfred Beheim, Gabriele Triebel, Sebastian Allertseder, Wolfgang Seufert and Alfons Strähhuber alternately carried statements from police officers, fire brigade and Bundeswehr people.

The transcripts all came from the trial files of the Munich police chief Manfred Schreiber.

Only one did not have to change roles to report on the tragic events of the night of September 5, 1972: Hans Völkl reported on his own experiences.

At that time he was a soldier at the air base himself.

In between, Annemarie Strähhuber read poems by Walter von der Vogelweide, Selma Meerbaum, Chaim Nachman Bialik and Nelly Sachs.

In addition, the Munich musician Simon Japha played Israeli songs with the accordion.

"Very touching," said Brucker BBV city councilor Karin Geißler briefly, but aptly, after the Bergheim event.

And the member of the state parliament, Benjamin Miskowitsch, was visibly depressed after the almost two-hour memorial event: "You leave the reading with a lump in your throat."

Julia Ziegelmeier, who worked for many years as spokeswoman for the “FFB Memorial Working Group”, said that by reading out the minutes she could better imagine what was going on in this building, in which she later worked for 15 years.

Visitor Lisbeth Hainzinger from Aufkirchen said: "A very moving event."

"The readers presented the minutes very well, so that I could visualize everything," said Hainzinger.

Above all, the final sentence, with which Chairwoman Bergheim ended the reading, moved her deeply.

“5.38 a.m., the sun is rising over the Amper.

The Brucker Land awakens in mourning.

We mourn the victims of the Olympic attack on September 5, 1972,” said Bergheim.

Even the chairman of the HVF almost lost his voice at this moving sentence, the words were so close to her.

The event ended with a minute's silence to commemorate the victims of the Olympic attack.

Simon Japha sang and accompanied himself on the accordion to the popular Israeli song "Jerusalem of Gold" by Naomi Schemer. (

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