President Frank-Walter Steinmeier announced the decision on Saturday at an extraordinary assembly of the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB). Berlin withdrew on Thursday and Hamburg pulled out in May, leaving two finalists.
Bavarian premier Markus Söder said the contest with Cologne had been tight until the end. “I want that we work jointly to bring the games to Germany. It is a chance at something historic, and we want to give everything to present ourselves as a united country – from north to south and from east to west.”
Chancellor Friedrich Merz congratulated Munich and Bavaria. “Germany is ready for the Olympics.”
The bid is built around the Olympic Park in the north of the city, constructed for 1972 and renovated in recent years. A late-2025 referendum in Munich backed hosting by 66.4 per cent on a 44 per cent turnout. Earlier votes on a 2022 Winter Games bid in Munich and a 2024 Summer bid in Hamburg failed.
The DOSB will enter “continuous dialogue” with the IOC before a shortlist in March 2027. The IOC is due to name preferred hosts in late 2028 and choose in mid-2029.
Germany has made seven unsuccessful bids since last staging the Summer Games in 1972. A successful Munich bid would be Germany’s third Summer Olympics after Berlin 1936, held under Nazi rule, and Munich 1972 in then West Germany. Those Games were marked by the attack on the Israeli team in the Olympic Village, in which 11 members of the Israeli delegation were killed. The 1936 Winter Games were held in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
Munich now carries Germany’s hopes into the IOC process.