98-706: International incidents The Munich massacre was a terrorist attack during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany , carried out by eight members of the Palestinian militant organisation Black September . The militants infiltrated the Olympic Village , killed two members of the Israeli Olympic team , and took nine others hostage, who were later killed in a failed rescue attempt. Black September commander and negotiator Luttif Afif named
196-666: A critical juncture , prompting governments to recognise terrorism as a lasting security challenge and to address it with diverse resources. By 4:30 pm, a hastily improvised team of 13 West German police officers, who had signed a declaration to willingly participate in a bold and risky hostage rescue operation, could be seen scaling the building in the Olympic Village. Awkwardly disguised in Olympic training suits, wearing heavy bulletproof vests beneath, and carrying Walther MP submachine guns, they were thought to be members of
294-797: A 34-hour suspension. These are the top ten nations that won medals at the 1972 Games. * Host nation (West Germany) The report, titled "Doping in Germany from 1950 to today" , details how the West German government helped fund a wide-scale doping program. Doping of East German athletes also, by the GDR government, was systematic and prevalent at the Munich Games of 1972. Der Spiegel Der Spiegel ( German pronunciation: [deːɐ̯ ˈʃpiːɡl̩] , lit. ' The Mirror ' , stylized in all caps )
392-608: A Munich landmark after the Games. The competition sites, designed by architect Günther Behnisch , included the Olympic swimming hall , the Olympics Hall ( Olympiahalle , a multipurpose facility) and the Olympic Stadium ( Olympiastadion ), and an Olympic village very close to the park. The design of these stadia was considered revolutionary, with sweeping canopies of acrylic glass stabilized by metal ropes, used on such
490-634: A ceremony where the International Olympic Committee honoured the eleven Israelis and one German killed at Munich. During the 2020 Summer Olympics , a moment of silence was observed in the opening ceremony. Ahead of the 1972 Olympics, the West German Olympic Organizing Committee aimed to discard Germany's military image, wary of the propaganda portrayed by the 1936 Summer Olympics under Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler . The IOC President at
588-734: A former Der Spiegel journalist who said "some of the articles at issue appeared to confirm certain German stereotypes about Trump voters, asking "was this possible because of ideological bias?" An apology ensued from Der Spiegel for looking for a cliché of a Trump-voting town, and not finding it. Mathias Bröckers , former Die Tageszeitung editor, wrote: "the imaginative author simply delivered what his superiors demanded and fit into their spin". American journalist James Kirchick claimed in The Atlantic that " Der Spiegel has long peddled crude and sensational anti-Americanism." In
686-435: A grand scale". When Stefan Aust took over in 1994, the magazine's readers realized that his personality was different from his predecessor. In 2005, a documentary by Stephan Lamby quoted him as follows: "We stand at a very big cannon!" Politicians of all stripes who had to deal with the magazine's attention often voiced their disaffection for it. The outspoken conservative Franz Josef Strauss contended that Der Spiegel
784-621: A large scale for the first time. The event was overshadowed by the Munich massacre in the second week, in which 11 Israeli athletes and coaches and a West German police officer at the Olympic Village were killed by the Palestinian militant organisation Black September . Munich won its Olympic bid on 26 April 1966, at the 64th IOC Session in Rome , Italy , over bids presented by Detroit, Madrid, and Montréal. Montréal would eventually host
882-748: A tip-off from a Palestinian informant in Beirut three weeks before the massacre. The informant warned that Palestinians were planning an "incident" at the Olympic Games, and the Federal Foreign Office in Bonn took the tip-off seriously enough to pass it to the Bavarian State Secret Service in Munich, urging that "all possible security measures" be taken. According to Der Spiegel , the authorities failed to act on
980-502: A unit specialised in handling hostage crises. In West Germany, since there were no specialised units in the modern sense—only special military combat units, which could not be deployed internally during peacetime due to their " combatant " status according to the German constitution —all such duties fell under the remit of ordinary law enforcement , specifically the regional state and municipal police . The ensuing events in Munich would mark
1078-415: A while.' How long could you stand that?" Shortly before 5:00 am, the Munich police, the organising committee, and paramedics were alerted. Ambulances arrived, and the blood-soaked body of Weinberg, who had been thrown in front of the apartment building entrance (Connollystraße 31) by the terrorists and could not be saved, was recovered. The paramedics also tried in vain to negotiate with the attackers at
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#17327649849201176-636: Is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg . With a weekly circulation of about 724,000 copies in 2022, it is one of the largest such publications in Europe. It was founded in 1947 by John Seymour Chaloner , a British army officer, and Rudolf Augstein , a former Wehrmacht radio operator who was recognized in 2000 by the International Press Institute as one of the fifty World Press Freedom Heroes . Der Spiegel
1274-458: Is based on two pillars; firstly the moral authority established by investigative journalism since the early years and proven alive by several scoops during the 1980s; secondly the economic power of the prolific Spiegel publishing house. Since 1988, it has produced the TV program Spiegel TV , and further diversified during the 1990s. During the second quarter of 1992 the circulation of Der Spiegel
1372-632: Is known in German-speaking countries mostly for its investigative journalism . It has played a key role in uncovering many political scandals such as the Spiegel affair in 1962 and the Flick affair in the 1980s. According to The Economist , Der Spiegel is one of continental Europe 's most influential magazines. The news website by the same name was launched in 1994 under the name Spiegel Online with an independent editorial staff. Today,
1470-524: Is there anything I can do for you?" to which the terrorist replied, "No, thank you," and let them go. The hostage-takers demanded the release of a significant number of Palestinians and non-Arabs imprisoned in Israel, including Kōzō Okamoto of the Japanese Red Army , along with one West German insurgent held by the West German penitentiary system, Ulrike Meinhof , who was one of the founders of
1568-486: The Arab League , and Ahmed El Demerdash Touny, an Egyptian member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), also helped try to win concessions from the kidnappers but to no avail. However, the German negotiators were able to convince the terrorists that their demands were being considered, as "Issa" granted several deadline extensions. Elsewhere in the village, athletes carried on as normal, seemingly oblivious to
1666-568: The Games of the XX Olympiad ( German : Spiele der XX. Olympiade ) and officially branded as Munich 1972 ( German : München 1972 ; Bavarian : Minga 1972 ), were an international multi-sport event held in Munich , West Germany , from 26 August to 11 September 1972. It was the second Summer Olympics to be held in Germany, after the 1936 Games in Berlin , which had taken place under
1764-571: The German Federal Border Guard ; according to former Munich police officer Heinz Hohensinn, who was a lead officer ( Einsatzleiter ) and part of the police assault operation on the ground, they were regular Munich police officers from the Bavarian State Police , with no experience in counter-terrorism or hostage rescue. Quoting Hohensinn, they realised from the onset that the bulletproof vests would not withstand
1862-653: The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists , Paper Trail Media [ de ] and 69 media partners including Distributed Denial of Secrets and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and more than 270 journalists in 55 countries and territories to produce the ' Cyprus Confidential ' report on the financial network which supports the regime of Vladimir Putin , mostly with connections to Cyprus, and showed Cyprus to have strong links with high-up figures in
1960-517: The Mossad . Jamal Al-Gashey , who is believed to be the sole survivor, is still living today in hiding in an unspecified African country with his wife and two children. The Olympic events were suspended several hours after the initial attack for the first time in the modern Olympic Games history, but once the incident was concluded, Avery Brundage , the International Olympic Committee president, declared that "the Games must go on". A memorial ceremony
2058-695: The Nazi rule . Germany became only the second country at that point after the United States to have two different cities host the Summer Olympics. The West German government had been eager to have the Munich Olympics present a democratic and optimistic Germany to the world, as shown by the Games' official motto, "Die Heiteren Spiele" , or "the cheerful Games". The logo of the Games was a blue solar logo (the "Bright Sun") by Otl Aicher ,
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#17327649849202156-482: The Olympic Park in Munich . On the return trip in the team bus, Lalkin denied his 13-year-old son—who had befriended weightlifter Yossef Romano and wrestler Eliezer Halfin —permission to spend the night in their Olympic Village apartment at Connollystraße 31, a decision that may have saved the boy's life. The hostages were taken during the second week of the Games. At 4:10 am local time on 5 September, as
2254-568: The Red Army Faction , Ulrike Meinhof . The list included 328 detainees. West German police from the Bavarian State Police ambushed the terrorists, killing five of the eight Black September members, but the rescue attempt failed, resulting in the deaths of all the hostages. A West German police officer was also killed in the crossfire. The West German government faced criticism for the rescue attempt and its handling of
2352-630: The 1967 Six-Day War , also attacked and wounded one of the intruders before being shot and later succumbed to his wounds. According to a report by The New York Times on 1 December 2015, Romano, after he was shot, was slowly left to bleed to death and, at some point over many hours, was castrated. The gunmen were left with nine hostages: in addition to Gutfreund, they had shooting coach Kehat Shorr , track and field coach Amitzur Shapira , fencing master Andre Spitzer , weightlifting judge Yakov Springer , wrestlers Eliezer Halfin and Mark Slavin , and weightlifters David Berger and Ze'ev Friedman . Berger
2450-553: The 1972 Summer Games was withdrawn by the International Olympic Committee four days before the opening ceremony, in response to African countries' (such as Ethiopia and Kenya ) protests against the Rhodesian government. (Rhodesia did, however, compete in the 1972 Summer Paralympics , held a little earlier in Heidelberg .) The People's Republic of China last competed at the 1952 Summer Games but had since withdrawn from
2548-427: The 2 m (6 ft 7 in)-high chain-link fence surrounding the Olympic Village, rather than using the official entrances. The absence of armed personnel worried Israeli delegation head Shmuel Lalkin even before his team arrived in Munich. In later interviews with journalists Serge Groussard and Aaron J. Klein, Lalkin said he had expressed concerns to the relevant authorities about his team's lodgings. The team
2646-613: The British, the magazine was handed over to Rudolf Augstein as chief editor, and was renamed Der Spiegel . From the first edition in January 1947, Augstein held the position of editor-in-chief, which he retained until his death on 7 November 2002. After 1950, the magazine was owned by Rudolf Augstein and John Jahr; Jahr's share merged with Richard Gruner's in 1965 to form the publishing company Gruner + Jahr . In 1969, Augstein bought out Gruner + Jahr for DM 42 million and became
2744-720: The Games. The cost for Munich 1972 compares with costs of US$ 4.6 billion for Rio 2016, US$ 15 billion for London 2012 (the most costly Summer Olympics to date) and US$ 51 billion for Sochi 2014 — the most expensive Olympic Games in history. Average cost for Summer Games since 1960 is US$ 5.2 billion. The 1972 Summer Olympic programme featured 195 events in the following 21 sports: Eleven nations made their first Olympic appearance in Munich: Albania , Dahomey (now Benin ), Gabon , North Korea , Lesotho , Malawi , Saudi Arabia , Somalia , Swaziland , Togo , Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso ). Rhodesia 's invitation to take part in
2842-499: The German authorities had rejected his repeated offer to deploy the IDF 's Sayeret Matkal , insisting instead the Bavarian State Police would handle the crisis. The Bavarian interior minister , Bruno Merk, who headed the crisis centre jointly with Genscher and Munich's police chief Manfred Schreiber, denies that such an Israeli offer ever existed. Furthermore, such an offer of foreign military intervention could never be entertained due to
2940-620: The IOC due to a dispute with the Republic of China over the right to represent China. ‡ No medals were awarded on 5 September as all Olympic competitions were suspended during that day although events that were being held at the time of the suspension were allowed to finish to their conclusion. Note: The Memorial service was held in the Olympic Stadium on 6 September which was attended by 80,000 spectators and 3,000 athletes. Following this all Olympic competitions were then allowed to resume after
3038-679: The Japanese Red Army, one of the perpetrators of the massacre at Lod Airport on 30 May 1972. Various news reports and television documentaries had also claimed that the Red Army Faction founder Baader was listed along with Meinhof, but the original communiqué held in the Munich State Archives issued by the Black September group to the West German government only listed Meinhof, not Baader.. A copy of
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3136-565: The Kremlin, some of whom have been sanctioned. Government officials including Cyprus president Nikos Christodoulides and European lawmakers began responding to the investigation's findings in less than 24 hours, calling for reforms and launching probes. On 19 December 2018, Der Spiegel made public that reporter Claas Relotius had admitted that he had "falsified his articles on a grand scale", inventing facts, persons and quotations in at least 14 of his stories. The magazine uncovered
3234-762: The Munich Police President and the head of security for the Games of the XX Olympiad, Bavarian Minister of the Interior Bruno Merk, and Federal Minister of the Interior and Vice President of the German NOC, Hans-Dietrich Genscher, offered themselves to the terrorists as replacement hostages, but to no avail. The Israeli ambassador to Germany, Eliashiv Ben-Horin , announced around midday that the Israeli cabinet had decided not to accept
3332-568: The Olympic Village. However, the organizers did not forward the document to the West German authorities, as guarding the Games against such threats conflicted with their goal of hosting "Carefree Games" without heavy security. Despite having clear intelligence from multiple sources and technically considering the possibility of such an attack, the Bavarian State police were still taken by surprise. The German news magazine Der Spiegel reported in 2012 that West German authorities had received
3430-467: The Olympic team), and Minister of Defence Moshe Dayan . As the ultimatum neared its expiry, the crisis team resumed negotiations with the German-speaking leader of the terrorists, "Issa", who hid his face under a mask and wore a white hat. With the assistance of an envoy from the Arab League and the head of the Egyptian IOC delegation, they managed to extend the ultimatum. At 9:30 am, there
3528-586: The Oscar-winning documentary, One Day in September . An account of the aftermath is also dramatized in three films: the 1976 made-for-TV movie 21 Hours at Munich , the 1986 made-for-TV movie Sword of Gideon and Steven Spielberg 's 2005 film Munich . In her film 1972 , Artist Sarah Morris interviews Georg Sieber, a former police psychiatrist who advised the Olympics' security team, about
3626-469: The Russian ammunition the terrorists were using. The police officers were also informed and had signed a declaration that they had to return the Olympic training suits the next day, washed and cleaned, despite not knowing if they would survive or what was about to confront them. They planned to crawl down from the ventilation shafts and overpower the terrorists. The police officers took up positions awaiting
3724-570: The West German Red Army Faction . Evidence uncovered in later years from the Munich Public Prosecutor's Office, held in the Munich State Archives, revealed that the original typewritten English-language communiqués of Black September contained a list of 328 names. The hostage-takers threw the body of Weinberg out of the front door of the apartment building to demonstrate their resolve. Israel's response
3822-460: The airport, tonight. They're all gone." —After a series of conflicting reports and rumours, Jim McKay of ABC brought the news at 3:24 a.m. local time. All but three of the terrorists were killed as well. Although arrested and imprisoned pending trial, they were released by the West German government on 29 October 1972, in exchange for the hijacked Lufthansa Flight 615 . Two of those three were supposedly hunted down and assassinated later by
3920-404: The athletes from Apartment 3 were marched back to the coaches' apartment, the wounded Weinberg attacked the gunmen again, allowing one of his wrestlers, Gad Tsobari , to escape via the underground parking garage. Weinberg knocked one of the intruders unconscious and slashed at another with a fruit knife but failed to draw blood before being shot to death. Weightlifter Yossef Romano , a veteran of
4018-641: The athletes slept, eight tracksuit-clad members of the Black September faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization , carrying duffel bags loaded with AKM assault rifles, Tokarev pistols , and hand grenades , scaled a 2-metre ( 6 + 1 ⁄ 2 ft) chain-link fence with the assistance of unsuspecting athletes who were also sneaking into the Olympic Village. The athletes were originally identified as Americans but were later claimed to be Canadians. They entered
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4116-597: The attack. However, since Nazzal was recognized as a worker in the Village, nothing was thought of it at the time. The other members of the group entered Munich via train and plane in the days leading up to the attack. On Monday evening, 4 September, the Israeli athletes enjoyed a night out, watching a performance of Fiddler on the Roof and dining with the star of the play, Israeli actor Shmuel Rodensky , before returning to
4214-533: The author Simon Reeve , Afif (the son of a Jewish mother and Christian father), Nazzal, and one of their confidantes had all worked in various capacities in the Olympic Village and had spent a couple of weeks scouting for their potential target. A member of the Uruguay Olympic delegation , which shared housing with the Israelis, claimed that he found Nazzal inside 31 Connollystraße less than 24 hours before
4312-478: The building entrance to attend to the injured person inside, Romano. Despite their efforts, the attackers would not allow them to enter the building, and he eventually succumbed to his gunshot injuries. The terrorists demanded by 9 am, the release of Palestinians and non-Arabs held captive in Israel, as well as Meinhof, who was imprisoned in West Germany. They also requested safe passage for themselves and
4410-658: The cabinet met in Bonn . The crisis team was given full authorisation by Chancellor Willy Brandt and the German Federal Government to do whatever was needed to rescue the hostages. At 8:45 am, the Israeli Foreign Ministry received the initial news about the attack from the Israeli embassy in Bonn. This information was then forwarded to Prime Minister Golda Meir , Minister of Education and Culture Yigal Allon (who had responsibility for
4508-484: The codeword "Sunshine", which, upon hearing, they were to begin the assault. In the meantime, camera crews filmed the actions of the police officers from nearby apartments in the Olympic Village and broadcast the images live on television. This allowed the terrorists to watch the police prepare for the attack and hear it on the radio. A press image shows one of the terrorists peering from the balcony door—an image that became world-famous—while an armed police officer stood on
4606-553: The content is created by a shared editorial team and the website uses the same media brand as the printed magazine. The first edition of Der Spiegel was published in Hanover on Saturday, 4 January 1947. Its release was initiated and sponsored by the British occupational administration and preceded by a magazine titled Diese Woche (German: This Week ), which had first been published in November 1946. After disagreements with
4704-454: The course of this investigation, the editorial offices were raided by police while Rudolf Augstein and other Der Spiegel editors were arrested on charges of treason. Despite a lack of sufficient authority, Strauss even went after the article's author, Conrad Ahlers [ ar ; arz ; cs ; fr ; de ; no ; pl ] , who was consequently arrested in Spain where he was on holiday. When
4802-445: The demands of the hostage-takers. Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir rejected the blackmail in order not to risk the lives of its citizens abroad for all time. Ambassador Ben Horin underscored Israel's faith in the German authorities' ability to save the hostages and demanded that the sporting competitions be halted until the hostage-taking was concluded. At one point during the crisis, the German negotiators demanded direct contact with
4900-434: The designer and director of the visual conception commission. The hostesses wore sky-blue dirndls as a promotion of Bavarian cultural heritage. The Olympic mascot, the dachshund " Waldi ", was the first officially named Olympic mascot. The Olympic Fanfare was composed by Herbert Rehbein . The Soviet Union won the most gold and overall medals. The Olympic Park ( Olympiapark ) was based on Frei Otto 's plans and became
4998-500: The events and aftermath of Black September. The Oxford Olympics Study established the outturn cost of the Munich 1972 Summer Olympics at US$ 1.0 billion in 2015-dollars. This includes sports-related costs only, that is, (i) operational costs incurred by the organizing committee for the purpose of staging the Games, e.g., expenditures for technology, transportation, workforce, administration, security, catering, ceremonies, and medical services, and (ii) direct capital costs incurred by
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#17327649849205096-448: The events unfolding nearby. The Games continued until mounting pressure on the IOC forced a suspension 12 hours after the first athlete had been murdered. United States marathon runner Frank Shorter , observing the unfolding events from the balcony of his nearby lodging, was quoted as saying, "Imagine those poor guys over there. Every five minutes a psycho with a machine gun says, 'Let's kill 'em now,' and someone else says, 'No, let's wait
5194-503: The federal parliament launched an inquiry into Spiegel ' s accusations that bribed members of parliament had promoted Bonn over Frankfurt as the seat of West Germany's government. During the Spiegel scandal in 1962, which followed the release of a report about the possible low state of readiness of the German armed forces , minister of defense and conservative figurehead Franz Josef Strauss had Der Spiegel investigated. In
5292-428: The first moments of the break-in; the subsequent standoff in the Olympic Village lasted for almost 18 hours. Late in the evening of 5 September that same day, the terrorists and their nine remaining hostages were transferred by helicopter to the military airport of Fürstenfeldbruck , ostensibly to board a plane bound for an undetermined Arab country. The German authorities planned to ambush them there, but underestimated
5390-496: The following Olympic Games in 1976 . The Games were largely overshadowed by what has come to be known as the "Munich massacre". Just before dawn on 5 September, a group of eight members of the Palestinian Black September militant organization broke into the Olympic Village and took eleven Israeli athletes, coaches and officials hostage in their apartments. Two of the hostages who resisted were killed in
5488-426: The fraud after a co-author of one of Relotius's stories, Juan Moreno, became suspicious of the veracity of Relotius's contributions and gathered evidence against him. Relotius resigned, telling the magazine that he was "sick" and needed to get help. Der Spiegel left his articles accessible, but with a notice referring to the magazine's ongoing investigation into the fabrications. The Wall Street Journal cited
5586-673: The help of former NSA contractor Edward Snowden unveiled the systematic wiretapping of Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel 's private cell phone over a period of over 10 years at the hands of the National Security Agency 's Special Collection Service (SCS). According to a 2013 report by The New York Times , the magazine's leading role in German investigative journalism has diminished, since other German media outlets, including Süddeutsche Zeitung , Bild , ARD and ZDF , have become more involved in investigative reporting. In November 2023, Der Spiegel joined with
5684-424: The host city and country or private investors to build, e.g., the competition venues, the Olympic village, international broadcast center, and media and press center, which are required to host the Games. Indirect capital costs are not included, such as for road, rail, or airport infrastructure, or for hotel upgrades or other business investment incurred in preparation for the Games but not directly related to staging
5782-569: The hostages on a plane to Cairo , where they intended to continue negotiations for the prisoners' release. To verify the hostages were still alive, Minister Genscher and Walter Tröger, the mayor of the Olympic Village, were briefly allowed into the apartments to speak with the hostages. Clearly, in fear for their lives, they agreed to fly to the Egyptian capital with the terrorists. 1972 Summer Olympics The 1972 Summer Olympics ( German : Olympische Sommerspiele 1972 ), officially known as
5880-474: The hostages to an Arab capital, using a plane provided for this purpose, where the hostage exchange would take place. The terrorists warned that they would shoot the hostages immediately if their demands were not met. There are different reports about the exact number of people to be released and whether non-Arab terrorists were included. For a long time, there was talk of two hundred Palestinians. In non-fiction books by Simon Reeve, Luis Palme, and Kay Schiller, it
5978-410: The hostages to satisfy themselves the Israelis were still alive. Fencing coach Andre Spitzer , who spoke fluent German, and shooting coach Kehat Shorr , the senior member of the Israeli delegation, had a brief conversation with West German officials while standing at the second-floor window of the besieged building, with two kidnappers holding guns on them. When Spitzer attempted to answer a question, he
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#17327649849206076-430: The incident. The three surviving perpetrators were arrested but were released the following month in a hostage exchange after the hijacking of Lufthansa Flight 615 . By then the Israeli government had launched an assassination campaign , which authorised Mossad to track down and kill anyone who had played a role in the attack. Two days before the start of the 2016 Summer Olympics , Brazilian and Israeli officials led
6174-636: The initial communiqué shown in the movie One Day in September shows Meinhof, Baader and Okamoto listed. Between 5:40 am and 9 am, the crisis team was set up on-site and met with Federal Minister of the Interior Hans-Dietrich Genscher , Bavarian Minister of the Interior Bruno Merk, Munich Police President Manfred Schreiber, State Secretary Erich Kiesl, German National Olympic Committee President Willi Daume, and IOC President Avery Brundage , while
6272-460: The intruders past Apartment 2, Weinberg lied, telling them that the residents were not Israelis. Instead, he directed them to Apartment 3, where the gunmen corralled six wrestlers and weightlifters as additional hostages. Weinberg might have hoped that the stronger men would have a better chance of fighting off the attackers than those in Apartment 2, but they were all surprised in their sleep. As
6370-473: The legal case collapsed, the scandal led to a major shake-up in chancellor Konrad Adenauer 's cabinet, and Strauss had to stand down. The affair was generally received as an attack on the freedom of the press. Since then, Der Spiegel has repeatedly played a significant role in revealing political grievances and misdeeds, including the Flick Affair . The Spiegel scandal is now remembered for altering
6468-602: The magazine. In 2010 Der Spiegel was employing the equivalent of 80 full-time fact checkers , which the Columbia Journalism Review called "most likely the world's largest fact checking operation". The same year it was the third best-selling general interest magazine in Europe with a circulation of 1,016,373 copies. In 2018, Der Spiegel became involved in a journalistic scandal after it discovered and made public that one of its leading reporters, Claas Relotius , had "falsified his articles on
6566-515: The numbers of their opposition and were thus undermanned. During a botched rescue attempt, all of the Israeli hostages were killed. Four of them were shot, then incinerated when one of the terrorists detonated a grenade inside the helicopter in which the hostages were sitting. The 5 remaining hostages were then shot and killed with a machine gun. "Our worst fears have been realized tonight. They have now said that there were 11 hostages. Two were killed in their rooms, yesterday morning. Nine were killed at
6664-430: The old town part of Hamburg. Der Spiegel 's circulation rose quickly. From 15,000 copies in 1947, it grew to 65,000 in 1948 and 437,000 in 1961. It was nearly 500,000 copies in 1962. By the 1970s, it had reached a plateau at about 900,000 copies. When the German reunification in 1990 made it available to a new readership in former East Germany , the circulation exceeded one million. The magazine's influence
6762-426: The operation " Iqrit and Biram ", after two Palestinian Christian villages whose inhabitants were expelled by Israel during the 1948 Palestine war . West German neo-Nazis provided logistical assistance to the group. Shortly after the hostages were taken, Afif demanded the release of a significant number of Palestinians and non-Arab prisoners held in Israel, as well as one of the West German–imprisoned founders of
6860-482: The other side. Shouting a warning to his sleeping roommates, he threw his 135 kg (300 lb) weight against the door in an attempt to stop the intruders from forcing their way in. Gutfreund's actions gave his roommate, weightlifting coach Tuvia Sokolovsky, enough time to escape through a window. Meanwhile, wrestling coach Moshe Weinberg , known as "Muni", fought the intruders, who shot him through his cheek and then forced him to help them find more hostages. Leading
6958-433: The political culture of post-war Germany and—with the first mass demonstrations and public protests—being a turning point from the old Obrigkeitsstaat ( authoritarian state) to a modern democracy . In 2010, the magazine supported WikiLeaks in publishing leaked materials from the United States State Department , along with The Guardian , The New York Times , El País , and Le Monde and in October 2013 with
7056-550: The rear second-story balcony. He then ran to the American dormitory, woke up US track coach Bill Bowerman , and informed him of the attack. Ladany, a survivor of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp , was the first person to spread the alert. The remaining four residents of Apartment 2—shooters Henry Hershkowitz and Zelig Shtroch, and fencers Dan Alon and Yehuda Weisenstein —along with chef de mission Shmuel Lalkin and
7154-510: The reply was that "money means nothing to us; our lives mean nothing to us." The Germans also offered the Palestinians the substitution of high-ranking German officials. The kidnappers refused both offers. Meanwhile, the Olympic committee's refusal to suspend the games amid the emerging crisis intensified the pressure on the West German authorities and police to find a resolution. Magdi Gohary and Mohammad Khadif, both Egyptian advisers to
7252-412: The role of opinion leader in the German press. Der Spiegel has a distinctive reputation for revealing political misconduct and scandals. Online Encyclopædia Britannica emphasizes this quality of the magazine as follows: "The magazine is renowned for its aggressive, vigorous, and well-written exposés of government malpractice and scandals." It merited recognition for this as early as 1950 when
7350-426: The roof less than 12 m (40 ft) away. After "Issa" threatened to kill some of the hostages and the police cover had been blown by the television coverage, the police were forced to suspend the rescue operation to avoid a bloodbath and retreated from the premises. The press were also removed from the Olympic Village. Shortly before the 5 pm deadline, the terrorists demanded safe passage for themselves and
7448-484: The roof of the apartment building. In the desperate scramble, the judo and swimming coaches, due to their age and reduced physical capability, were unable to climb out and became stranded. Once Wong, Chan, and Mok had escaped, they did a headcount and realised that the judo and swimming coaches were missing. Sales, who was staying at a hotel, rushed to the scene. As the deadline given by the terrorists approached, Sales knew he had to act. He spoke to some German officials and
7546-434: The sole owner of Der Spiegel . In 1971, Gruner + Jahr bought back a 25% share in the magazine. In 1974, Augstein restructured the company to make the employees shareholders. All employees with more than three years seniority were offered the opportunity to become an associate and participate in the management of the company, as well as in the profits. Since 1952, Der Spiegel has been headquartered in its own building in
7644-533: The sovereignty of the Federal Republic of Germany. According to journalist John K. Cooley , the hostage situation presented an extremely difficult political situation for the Germans because the hostages were Jewish. Munich police chief Manfred Schreiber and Bruno Merk, the interior minister of Bavaria, negotiated directly with the kidnappers, repeatedly offering an unlimited ransom. According to Cooley,
7742-581: The summer of 2022, Der Spiegel published three articles and a podcast regarding the death of a refugee girl on an islet in the Evros river at the Greece–Turkey borders, accusing Greece of failing to aid the refugees which caused the girl's death. But at the end of December 2022, the magazine retracted the articles and the podcast. In 2023, the Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ) wrote that this story
7840-408: The terrorists learned from radio and television broadcasts that the police were approaching and had planned a rescue operation. The authorities had failed to cut off the terrorists' electricity and remove the press from the Olympic Village. In the early 1970s, counter-terrorism and tactical policing were still relatively unheard-of methods for combating terrorism , and no military in the world had
7938-468: The time were dominated by a pacifist approach imposed after World War II. This led to the creation of the elite counter-terrorist unit GSG 9 , similar to the British SAS . It also led Israel to launch the Mossad assassinations following the Munich massacre , in which those suspected of involvement were systematically tracked down and assassinated. The events of the Munich massacre were chronicled in
8036-441: The time, Avery Brundage , had been involved in the 1936 Olympics and had lived through the experience of those games. Security personnel, known as OLYs, were inconspicuous and primarily prepared to handle ticket fraud and drunkenness. The documentary film One Day in September claims that security in the athletes' Village was inadequate for the Games. Athletes could bypass security and enter other countries' rooms by climbing over
8134-806: The tip and never acknowledged it in the following 40 years. The magazine claimed this was part of a 40-year cover-up by German authorities regarding their mishandling of the response to the massacre. The attackers were reported to be Palestinian terrorists from refugee camps in Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan. They were identified as Luttif Afif ( code name Issa), the leader (three of Issa's brothers were also reportedly members of Black September, with two in Israeli jails), his deputy Yusuf Nazzal ("Tony"), and junior members Afif Ahmed Hamid ("Paolo"), Khalid Jawad ("Salah"), Ahmed Chic Thaa ("Abu Halla"), Mohammed Safady ("Badran"), Adnan Al-Gashey ("Denawi"), and Al-Gashey's cousin, Jamal Al-Gashey ("Samir"). According to
8232-443: The two team doctors, were also able to flee the besieged building. The two female members of Israel's Olympic team, sprinter and hurdler Esther Shahamorov and swimmer Shlomit Nir, were housed in a separate part of the Olympic Village. Hong Kong Olympic swimmer Ronnie Wong Man-chiu recalled the courage of Hong Kong NOC president Arnaldo de Oliveira Sales , who helped bring two stranded Hong Kong coaches to safety. The Hong Kong team
8330-405: The two-story apartment building at Connollystraße 31, which housed the Israeli , Hong Kong , and Uruguay Olympic delegations , through an unlocked front door. Yossef Gutfreund , a wrestling referee, was awakened by a faint scratching noise at the door of Apartment 1, which housed the Israeli coaches and officials. Investigating the noise, he saw the door begin to open and masked men with guns on
8428-486: The wrists and ankles, and then to each other. Romano's bullet-riddled corpse was left at his bound comrades' feet as a warning. Several of the hostages were beaten during the standoff, with some suffering broken bones as a result. Of the other members of the Israeli team in Apartment 2, racewalker Shaul Ladany was abruptly awakened by sports shooter Zelig Shtroch , who said something like, "Arabs have shot Muni," referring to Moshe Weinberg. Ladany escaped by jumping from
8526-830: Was "one of the largest fake news breakdowns since Claas Relotius." In January 1978 the office of Der Spiegel in East Berlin was closed by the East German government following the publication of critical articles against the conditions in the country. A special 25 March 2008 edition of the magazine on Islam was banned in Egypt in April 2008 for publishing material deemed by authorities to be insulting Islam and Muhammed . Der Spiegel began moving into its current head office in HafenCity in September 2011. The facility
8624-529: Was "the Gestapo of our time". He referred to journalists in general as "rats". The Social Democrat Willy Brandt called it "Scheißblatt" (i.e., a "shit paper") during his term in office as Chancellor . Der Spiegel often produces feature-length articles on problems affecting Germany (like demographic trends, the federal system's gridlock or the issues of its education system) and describes optional strategies and their risks in depth. The magazine plays
8722-490: Was 1.1 million copies. In 1994, Spiegel Online was launched. It had separate and independent editorial staff from Der Spiegel . In 1999, the circulation of Der Spiegel was 1,061,000 copies. Der Spiegel had an average circulation of 1,076,000 copies in 2003. In 2007 the magazine started a new regional supplement in Switzerland . A 50-page study of Switzerland, it was the first regional supplement of
8820-458: Was a mass rush in the press centre, but the press conference focused on the successes of swimming star Mark Spitz . Spitz, himself of Jewish origin, requested an escort and left Munich the same day. A quarter of an hour before the noon ultimatum expired, an extension of three hours, until 3 pm, was negotiated with the terrorists. During the negotiations, the mayor of the Olympic Village, Walther Tröger, along with Willi Daume, Manfred Schreiber,
8918-534: Was an expatriate American with dual citizenship, while Slavin, the youngest of the hostages at 18, had only arrived in Israel from the Soviet Union four months before the Olympic Games began. Gutfreund, physically the largest of the hostages, was bound to a chair (Groussard describes him as being tied up like a mummy); the rest were lined up four apiece on the two beds in Springer and Shapira's room, and bound at
9016-413: Was clubbed with the butt of an AK-47 in full view of international television cameras and pulled away from the window. At 3:25 pm, the ultimatum was postponed to 5 pm. By 3:38 pm, the Olympic Games were suspended, after allowing ongoing competitions to be completed. The terrorists repeatedly changed their clothes and appeared on the balcony, with their number estimated at five. Meanwhile,
9114-458: Was escorted to the apartment building, where he was allowed inside. In several reports, Sales said he encountered the leader of the Black September group, who told him that he thought the entire Hong Kong delegation had already left the building. Led by one of the terrorists to the Hong Kong room, Sales brought the two Hong Kong coaches out. On the way out, Sales said to the terrorist, "Thank you,
9212-640: Was housed in a relatively isolated part of the Olympic Village, on the ground floor of a small building close to a gate, which Lalkin felt made them particularly vulnerable to an outside assault. The West German authorities assured Lalkin that extra security would be provided for the Israeli team, but Lalkin doubts that any additional measures were taken. Olympic organisers asked West German forensic psychologist Georg Sieber [ de ] to present some threat scenarios to aid in planning security, and he presented 26 scenarios. His "Situation 21" scenario accurately predicted an incursion of Palestinian elements into
9310-479: Was housed one floor above the Israeli team. Wong, along with fencer Matthew Chan and judo athlete Mok Cheuk-wing , came face-to-face with the terrorists, who were pointing weapons at them. They told the terrorists they were Chinese from Hong Kong and wanted to leave. Chan recalls, "He spoke good English and was polite. He told us to come out of the room and we can leave. Once he said that, we felt that we were safe." Wong, Chan, and Mok managed to escape by climbing onto
9408-414: Was immediate and absolute: there would be no negotiation. Israel's official policy at the time was to refuse to negotiate with terrorists under any circumstances, as according to the Israeli government such negotiations would give an incentive to future attacks. Under Chancellor Willy Brandt and Federal Interior Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher , Zvi Zamir , the head of Israel's Mossad , later reported
9506-620: Was stated from 2006 onwards, without further source evidence, that the hostage-takers had demanded the release of 234 Palestinians from Israeli custody, as well as the German Red Army Faction terrorists Meinhof and Andreas Baader . According to historians Anna Greithanner, Dominik Aufleger, and Robert Wolff, who found the original list of the hostage-takers in the Staatsarchiv München (Munich State Archives), it contains 328 names, including Meinhof and Okamoto of
9604-418: Was then held in the Olympic stadium, and the competitions resumed after a stoppage of 34 hours. Due to the suspension, the Games that were originally to close on 10 September were rescheduled to 11 September. The attack prompted heightened security at subsequent Olympics beginning with the 1976 Winter Olympics . The massacre led the German federal government to re-examine its anti-terrorism policies, which at
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