Overview
- The campaign was presented at Cologne’s Lanxess-Arena by Minister-President Hendrik Wüst and Mayor Torsten Burmester with new branding and a promotional film.
- Seventeen municipalities will hold Ratsbürgerentscheide on 19 April by mail, inviting about four million eligible voters and requiring turnout quorums of 10–20 percent.
- Cologne is designated as the leading city with plans for an Olympic Village, a temporary 50,000-seat athletics stadium, and a media center in the city’s north.
- Environmental group BUND has launched a Nolympia campaign that warns of high public costs and environmental harm to farmland and biodiversity at the proposed Cologne sites.
- Even if local approvals are secured, NRW still competes with Munich, Berlin, and Hamburg, with the DOSB scheduled to choose Germany’s candidate on 26 September 2026.