Press release: Digital place of remembrance now online

With its own website and an interactive app, the Fürstenfeldbruck district has created a digital place of remembrance that reappraises and illuminates the events of September 5, 1972 in detail.

The digital place of remembrance focuses on the memory of the twelve victims and at the same time offers the possibility to get an overview of the events and the place where the assassination came to its tragic end.

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The end of the cheerful games of Munich

The dream of the cheerful 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich came to an abrupt end on September 5, 1972, when the Palestinian commando "Black September" took eleven athletes of the Israeli Olympic team hostage. After many hours of negotiations in the Olympic Village, the hostages and terrorists were flown to the air base in Fürstenfeldbruck.

The rescue attempt there failed. All Israeli hostages and one German policeman died. Their names are: Moshe Weinberg, Yossef Romano, David Berger, Eliezer Halfin, Ze'ev Friedman, Yossef Gutfreund, Amitzur Shapira, Kehat Shor, Mark Slavin, Andrei Spitzer, Yakov Springer and Anton Fliegerbauer.

Fürstenfeldbruck Air Base will forever be inextricably linked with the tragedy of September 5, 1972. For 25 years, the district of Fürstenfeldbruck has made it its task to commemorate the victims and remember what happened.

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Remembrance work in the Fürstenfeldbruck district
2022 marks the 50th anniversary of the Olympic assassination. For 25 years, the district of Fürstenfeldbruck has kept the memories alive. The first commemorative event took place in 1997, and in 1999 a memorial was erected at the gates of the air base, giving remembrance a place in the district. Every year on September 5, Fürstenfeldbruck commemorates the victims, their relatives and the survivors.

In 2012, on the occasion of the 40th anniversary, the district hosted a large commemoration ceremony in the presence of the Israeli relatives. In 2013, the Forum for Remembrance Work was founded, which deals with the solution of a dignified permanent place of remembrance. In 2018, the possibility of a "digital place of remembrance" was discussed, in 2019 the idea was decided in the county committees, in 2020 a concept was created and since 2021 work has been done on the implementation.

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The digital place of remembrance

Since the site of the event, the former tarmac in front of the Old Tower, is expected to remain a military security area until 2026, the initiative was taken to find a creative solution and design a digital place of remembrance. This has been online since today in the form of a website and an app.

Under the project management of Silke Seiz, the historian Anna Greithanner and the historian Dominik Aufleger - both LMU Munich, currently working on their doctorates at the Chair of Contemporary History at LMU Munich in the project "Political Violence in the Federal Republic" - worked out a detailed concept for the digital place of remembrance on behalf of the district. This concept was implemented with the companies Augmented Minds, Munich, and Le4f Agency, Berlin. The team of historians was supplemented for the implementation by the historian Robert Wolff, formerly of Goethe University Frankfurt, as well as in the district office by the project assistant Sandra Moser. The concept idea ensures that the virtual memorial is not a temporary transitional solution that becomes superfluous when the authentic site is opened or is replaced by a conventional exhibition. Rather, this implementation offers the possibility of initially making the Old Tower and the tarmac at the Fliegerhorst in Fürstenfeldbruck digitally accessible; from the first day of an opening as a memorial, the website and app can be used for museum purposes.

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The digital memorial website

The result is a website that provides information about the assassination and the events of September 5, 1972, commemorates the twelve victims, and allows contemporary witnesses and relatives to have their say. The website is dedicated to the various tasks of remembrance work with different thematic blocks: remembering, commemorating, looking back and reminding. The eyewitness interviews conducted by the district form an important part of the digital place of remembrance. In addition, the website provides information about the district's current commitment to remembrance, events and much more. It is aimed at a broad audience inside and outside the district and will be accessible in four languages in the future.

The website publishes historical documents such as the communiqués of the hostage-takers and the lists of prisoners whom "Black September" wanted to free. In addition, video interviews with, among others, the former mayor of Munich, Dr. Hans-Jochen Vogel, and the mayor of the Olympic Village, Dr. Walther Tröger, provide insight into the decision-making process of those responsible. In further eyewitness accounts, paramedics, police officers and BGS officials involved on site describe their memories of the evening of September 5, 1972.

The website can be found at: www.erinnerungsort-fuerstenfeldbruck1972.de

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The app for the digital place of remembrance

Parallel to the website, an interactive app was developed with a focus on the authentic site of the Fliegerhorst in Fürstenfeldbruck. The app offers the chance to make the Old Tower and the tarmac tangible as part of the place of remembrance while it is still closed to the public, because it can also be used regardless of location in the so-called "home mode". A mobile device provides information about the events, photos from 1972 are superimposed on the current recordings, while the events are retold via audio. The innovative, digital access to the site makes the topic accessible to a younger target group in particular.

The app can be downloaded from 05.09.2022 in the Google Play Store as well as in the Apple Store under the name "Place of Remembrance 72".

District Administrator Thomas Karmasin is very pleased with the result of the work of recent years, which can now be seen online: "We do not want to forget the dead. The digital place of remembrance is a very good way of keeping the memory alive and also transmitting it to young people. The Olympic assassination affects the whole world. A place of remembrance that can be visited worldwide fits in with that."

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Outlook

After the publication, from now on the educational aspect of the digital place of remembrance comes to the fore. One main focus is on the target group of young people. The various elements of the digital place of remembrance can be optimally integrated into school lessons, for example in the subjects of politics and history. Due to the thematic range and topicality of the topics, project work with interested people from all age groups is also possible beyond the school.

The project team at the Fürstenfeldbruck district office is also planning events and collaborations with (extra)curricular educational institutions and cultural facilities. The digital solution offers the chance to permanently reach a regional, national and international audience, to build a bridge to the present for younger generations and thus to do justice to the continuing historical significance of the event.

The digital place of remembrance helps to maintain the district's remembrance work in the future and to enable innovative, location-independent communication of the events of September 5, 1972, until the air base is opened and beyond.

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The "digital place of remembrance Olympic assassination 1972 in Fürstenfeldbruck" is a project of the district Fürstenfeldbruck, represented by Mr. District Administrator Thomas Karmasin.

Project management: Silke Seiz

Project assistance: Sandra Moser

Content conception: Dominik Aufleger, Anna Greithanner and Robert Wolff

Technical implementation: Augmented Minds Ambrus & Lonau GbR, Munich (app), Le4f Agency, Berlin (website)

Contact: erinnerungsort@lra-ffb.de

The project is sponsored by the Free State of Bavaria, represented by the Bavarian State Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs, the BMW Group, the International Olympic Committee and the German Olympic Sports Confederation.

We would like to thank all our sponsors for their generous support.

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Source: LRA FFB