Hamburg, official name: “Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg” (Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg) is the second largest city in Germany with over 1,7 million inhabitants. The city is situated on the river Elbe in the northern part of Germany.
The huge harbor is the largest in Germany, the second-busiest port in Europe and the 15th largest worldwide. Hamburg is called “Germany’s Gateway to the World” – and already welcomes every day many visitors from all over the world.
But the goal is to host the most prestigious and biggest sports event in the world: the 2024 Olympic Games. Today, the bid application was signed by the city officials and German Olympic leaders and sent to the International Olympic Committee.
The next step for the city is to convince the citizens to vote in the referendum on 29 November with “YES” for being the host of the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Today, the President of the DOSB (German Olympic Sports Confederation), Alfons Hörmann, said:”We want to show the World a new, colorful, vibrant Germany.”
When Germany hosted the 2006 FIFA World Cup (football), the world not only saw a well organized tournament, they also were surprised by Germans who staged a huge football party all over Germany and called it their “fairy-tale summer”. Hamburg also wants a dream come true – to welcome the sports world in 2024.
To show their enthusiasm and dedication, they created a logo which shows a wave of water turning in a flame – water is a significant characteristic of Hamburg. The city also bears the name “Venice of the north” because of its numerous waterways and bridges, and of course Hamburg has the international harbor.
The flame in the logo symbolizes the Olympic Fire. The slogan which is connected to the logo is: “Fire and Flame for the Games” which means “we are on fire for the Olympic Games” and should express the enthusiasm and dedication to welcome the athletes of the world in Hamburg.
The first priority of the organizers is at the moment to set the citizens under fire for the Olympic spirit – because they need the support in the referendum. In other parts of Germany, the “Hamburgers” (people from Hamburg) and the people who live in the northern part of Germany are often known as cool and introverted – they are the ones from the far north, where the weather is a little bit rough and so are the inhabitants.
But when it comes to sports, Hamburg’s citizens are very interested and they put in their heart and soul: A statistic says that 80,5 percent of women and men who live in Hamburg are regularly engaged in at least one sport.
After the 2012 Olympic Games, Hamburg’s contestants returned home from London by boat and many people were there to welcome the Olympians. This weekend, a children’s Olympics will take place for the tenth consecutive year in many sports clubs in which children compete in a special course to prove their speed, jumping power, reflexes and coordination – and also the logo and the slogan are present everywhere in Hamburg, at companies of all sizes and industries whose employees identify with the Olympic bid and support their city.
But Hamburg also has good surroundings to host Olympic Games: 90 percent of the venues would be within 10 kilometers of the Olympic Village. Only Kiel, where the sailing competitions could be held, is about 100 km far away – but Kiel already made Olympic experience in 1972 when Munich (which is about 900 km far away) was the Olympic host.
The citizens vote on November 29 will show whether Hamburgs citizens will agree with Alfons Hörmann, President of the German Olympic Sports Confederation as he said today:”The Olympic Games in 2024 are an opportunity to invite the world to a colorful and vivid country. The Olympic Games were, are and will be always a symbol of peace and coexistence.”
Game over