Munich Olympic Massacre

The Munich Olympic Massacre took place on September 5-6, 1972, during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany. Members of the Palestinian organization Black September seized eleven Israeli Olympic team members as hostages at the Olympic Village in the early morning hours of September 5. Two Israeli athletes were killed during the initial seizure; nine were taken hostage. A failed rescue attempt by West German police at Fürstenfeldbruck airbase ended with all nine hostages killed, five of eight attackers killed, and one West German police officer dead. Three Black September members were captured and later released.¹

The Attack

At approximately 4:30 a.m. on September 5, eight members of Black September scaled the fence of the Olympic Village and forced their way into the Israeli athletes' building at 31 Connollystrasse. Weightlifting coach Yossef Romano and wrestling referee Moshe Weinberg were killed during or immediately after the initial assault. Nine other Israeli athletes, coaches, and officials were taken hostage.

Black September's demands included the release of 234 Palestinian and other prisoners held in Israel and West Germany, including Red Army Faction founders Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof, plus safe passage for the attackers and hostages. The Israeli government under Prime Minister Golda Meir refused to negotiate with the terrorists or release prisoners.¹

Failed Rescue and Disaster at Fürstenfeldbruck

West German authorities - who had relied primarily on Munich city police for Olympic security, with no specialized counterterrorism capability - spent the day in negotiations while attempting to plan a rescue. Interior Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher was directly involved in the negotiations.

West German authorities gave the attackers an aircraft, and the hostages and Black September members were transported by helicopter to Fürstenfeldbruck military airbase, where a Lufthansa aircraft was waiting. The rescue plan at Fürstenfeldbruck involved police officers disguised as Lufthansa crew on the aircraft and snipers positioned at the airbase. The plan failed on multiple levels: the disguised officers on the aircraft learned the extent of the attackers' armament and abandoned their positions without authorization; the sniper team was inadequately sized and lacked night-vision equipment; and communications between police commanders broke down.

In the ensuing gunfight, all nine hostages were killed (five by gunfire, four in a grenade explosion inside one of the helicopters), five of eight Black September members were killed, and one West German police officer was killed. Three Black September members were captured.¹

Aftermath: Operation Wrath of God

The Israeli government's response was Operation Wrath of God (also known as Operation Bayonet), a covert Mossad campaign targeting Black September members and others responsible for planning or facilitating the Munich massacre. Over the following years, Mossad assassination teams tracked and killed a series of targets across Europe and beyond. The campaign was only partially successful and included at least one major error - the Lillehammer affair of July 1973, in which Mossad officers killed Ahmed Bouchiki, a Moroccan waiter in Norway wrongly identified as Ali Hassan Salameh, the Black September operations chief.

The three captured Black September members were released by West Germany in October 1972 in exchange for hostages on a hijacked Lufthansa aircraft - an exchange that reinforced the perception that West Germany lacked both the will and the capability to confront Palestinian terrorism.¹

Creation of GSG 9

The Munich massacre's most direct institutional consequence in West Germany was the creation of GSG 9 (Grenzschutzgruppe 9) on April 17, 1973, a specialized federal counterterrorism unit formed within the Bundesgrenzschutz (Federal Border Guard). GSG 9's founding represented West Germany's recognition that improvised use of available police forces was inadequate for hostage rescue operations against armed terrorists. Under its founding commander Ulrich Wegener, GSG 9 went on to execute the successful Mogadishu hostage rescue in 1977.¹