Overview
- Berlin officials announced on Thursday that the city is pulling its 'Berlin+' bid for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, leaving only Munich and the Köln‑Rhein‑Ruhr region in the running for the national nomination.
- The city’s bid lost ground after the DOSB evaluators gave Berlin about 74.6 points compared with roughly 87 for Munich and 85 for Köln‑Rhein‑Ruhr, and Berlin lacked a binding citizen referendum that the evaluators treated as a major legitimacy shortfall.
- Local politics tipped the balance: the Linke’s election victory and public rejection of the bid by Elif Eralp undermined the political stability that sport federations require, a development Berlin’s campaign leaders say made continued candidacy untenable.
- The Deutscher Olympischer Sportbund will decide the German candidate at an extraordinary member meeting in Baden‑Baden on Saturday, where 42 Olympic federations cast block votes alongside the DOSB presidium and personal members.
- Berlin had budgeted up to about €6 million for the campaign through 2027 and now says it will back whichever German project the DOSB selects; the withdrawal ends a third recent Berlin attempt and shifts potential infrastructure and funding plans to the remaining bidders.