The 1972 Summer Olympics opened in Munich on 26 August 1972 as the first Olympics held in Germany since the 1936 Berlin Games. The Federal Republic had committed to a deliberately low-security “Games of Peace and Joy” to project a post-Nazi German image. The Olympic Village had unarmed civilian security; the perimeter fence was approximately 2 metres.
Black September was a militant faction of the Palestinian Fatah organization founded in 1971. The Munich operation was planned across approximately three months. Two operatives reconnoitered the Olympic Village under press credentials; six others entered Germany separately through various European airports.
5 September 1972
At approximately 04:30 on 5 September 1972 eight Black September operatives in tracksuits climbed the perimeter fence near Gate 25A carrying duffel bags of AK-47 rifles, pistols, and grenades. Three groups of Munich athletes had returned late from a night out and assisted the climbers, mistaking them for fellow athletes returning past curfew.
The operatives entered the Israeli team apartment at 31 Connollystraße at approximately 04:45. Wrestling coach Moshe Weinberg attempted to block the door and was shot dead. Weightlifter Yossef Romano was shot and bled to death over the following hours. Nine Israelis were taken hostage.
The attackers demanded the release of 234 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli custody plus the German Red Army Faction leaders Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof. Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir refused.
The Fürstenfeldbruck shootout
German authorities pretended to agree to fly the attackers and hostages to Cairo. Two helicopters lifted off from the Olympic Village at 22:10 and landed at the NATO airfield Fürstenfeldbruck approximately 25 km west.
The German rescue plan deployed five police sharpshooters with hunting rifles and no night-vision equipment against eight attackers. The shootout began at approximately 22:35. The German command had no radio contact with the marksmen. After approximately 90 minutes of confused exchange of fire, three attackers were dead; the remainder threw grenades and machine-gunned both helicopters. All nine hostages and one German policeman died. Three attackers were captured.
ABC sportscaster Jim McKay announced live at 03:24 on 6 September: “They’re all gone.”
What followed
The IOC paused the Games for 24 hours. They resumed on 6 September 1972 and concluded as planned on 11 September.
The three surviving Black September operatives were released by West Germany on 29 October 1972 in exchange for a hijacked Lufthansa flight 615. Israel’s Mossad subsequently conducted Operation Wrath of God — assassinating approximately 12 individuals linked to the attack across the period 1972-1992.
The 1972 German official report on the rescue operation was sealed until 2012, when partial declassification revealed extensive command errors and the rejection of an offered German military commando intervention. A 2022 agreement provided €28 million compensation to the victims’ families.