Olympic bid: The future has never looked as old as in Berlin

Aon Tuesday, he writes Daily Mirror“Berlin’s Olympic planners went on the offensive.” The concept for Berlin’s application for the Summer Olympics from 2036 was published. What is meant is the “secret Olympic plan”, which was made possible thanks to the betrayal of secrets by the Bildnewspaper from Sunday is no longer so secret.

However, for aesthetic reasons alone, one would not have objected if the offensive and the secret of Berlin had remained defensive and secret. On the other hand, there is little reason for cheerfulness and cheerfulness right now: Trump, Iran, German domestic policy, German foreign policy, gas stations – and where is Timmy, the whale? And thus to the “capital that plays with the rings”.

Actually, one hardly understands that there are still nations struggling to humbly petition the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The IOC is accompanied by allegations of corruption, non-transparent procurement procedures, gerontocratic structures and sympathy for autocracies. The Olympic idea has long been denounced. What remains is a gigantic image washing machine, abused athletes, littered cities and the IOC’s money storage facility.

Olympia: a pretty crazy ambition given the crumbling bridges, broken rails and ailing social systems

But even if almost every promise of “sustainable games” has turned out to be fairy dust that trickles down between national participation slogans and IOC abysses: Doesn’t Germany have other problems in allowing four cities (Munich, Berlin, Hamburg and CologneRheinRuhr) to develop four concepts at enormous cost? So that we can agree on a region across Germany in the fall? In view of crumbling bridges, broken rails, delirious energy costs, ailing social systems and a general fatigue with reform, this is a pretty crazy ambition. Or as you can find on the homepage of “Olympia in Germany”: “Our country. Fit for the future.”

Perhaps – in any case, there is no other way to explain the concept of Berlin – you will be fit for the future if you crown an absurd city competition with a result that would be suitable for an AI painting competition among daycare centers. The result is a design for public spaces that couldn’t be more childish and unimaginative. The future has never looked as past as it did in Berlin.

A television tower is planned, the reinforced concrete shaft of which is decorated with the Olympic rings and therefore looks like the plastic throwing ring game on the website Mein-kleines-baby.de: “Turn playtime into educational moments”. To stay with the game: The 30 meter high “Molecule Men”, which the sculptor Jonathan Borofsky designed for the Spree, wear Olympic rings around their hips according to the same legendary vision of Berlin: Hula hooping in the Berlin bouncy castle. Rings also adorn the bridge in front of the Berlin Cathedral and BER Airport, which, even without colorful squiggles, is a reminder of its existence as the world’s architectural laughingstock. It’s crazy.

Whichever agency may have come up with the streamer concept: Anyone who had to think for longer than five seconds to short-circuit a city’s Olympic application with the quote of the Olympic rings as the AI ​​cipher of simplicity should at least not be allowed to charge a single second of it for any form of design work. After the brilliant aesthetics that were seen in Olympic Paris as a unique celebration of architectural and urban beauty, Berlin is apparently determined to do the opposite – and is degrading the capital to a party cellar with a cardboard nose look and confetti.

The Olympic emblem goes back to Pierre de Coubertin. On the one hand, the colored rings are intended to represent the five continents – but also refer to the laurel wreath of antiquity in modern times. Cherry laurel, speaking of laurel, is considered poisonous, invasive, ecologically worthless and lifeless in hedge form. It rots badly and is classified as hazardous waste. The design idea of ​​the capital that plays with the rings, in one word? Hazardous waste.