Overview
- The binding referendum on Sunday produced a clear rejection: about 54.9% voted No, 45.1% voted Yes, and turnout was roughly 49.5%, with some 652,000 ballots counted, according to the state election authority.
- Mayor Peter Tschentscher told the DOSB he would withdraw Hamburg’s application after the result, formally removing the city from the national selection process.
- Opposition coalesced around concerns over uncertain public costs, housing pressure, environmental and mobility impacts, unresolved security and infrastructure budget items, and the need to build an athletics stadium that Hamburg currently lacks.
- With Hamburg out, the Deutscher Olympischer Sportbund must now choose between Munich, the Rhein‑Ruhr/Cologne bid and Berlin at an extraordinary meeting on 26 September, a decision that raises political risk for Berlin because opponents there seek a citizen initiative that could force a later referendum.
- The outcome repeats Hamburg’s 2015 rejection, drew disappointment from local business groups that had argued the Games could boost investment, and strengthens the NOlympia movement while reshaping which German proposal is most likely to advance internationally.