BERLIN: The German government said on Wednesday it wanted the country to host the 2040 Summer Olympics, picking a date that avoids a centennial reference to the edition held in Nazi Germany.

Berlin and several other German states had previously mulled a bid for the 2036 Games, 100 years after the capital hosted the 1936 edition, which became known as the Nazi Games.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government is eyeing another date.

“The federal government favours the year 2040 for the Games in Germany — 50 years after German reunification (in 1990),” said the government, which has signed a memorandum of understanding with the German Olympic Sports Federation and interested regions and cities.

The anniversary year was a chance to show “what values our liberal democracy stands for”, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said in the statement.

Germany, which recently staged the men’s European football championships, was a “great host for international sporting events”, Faeser said.

Germany’s bid would “use existing sports facilities in various cities — without building new stadiums for a lot of money”, Faeser added.

Among the memo’s signatories were Berlin, Dusseldorf, Hamburg, Leipzig and Munich, as well as the regions of North Rhine-Westphalia and Bavaria.

The government said it would back the bid with almost seven million euros ($7.6 million) of funding between 2024 and 2027.

Germany’s previous experience with hosting the Summer Olympics ended badly.

Germany last hosted the event in Munich in 1972, which was overshadowed by a hostage crisis and a subsequent massacre of Israeli athletes.

Published in Dawn, July 25th, 2024