Berlin, September 23rd, 2026 (The Berlin Spectator) – Berlin is preparing to withdraw its bid to host the Olympic Summer Games, according to an exclusive report by the “Tagesspiegel” daily. The move comes just ahead of Saturday’s vote in Baden-Baden, where the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) will choose the country’s candidate city.
According to the report, Berlin’s Olympics commissioner Kaweh Niroomand met on Wednesday with outgoing Governing Mayor Kai Wegner and Sports Senator Iris Spranger to discuss an immediate withdrawal. A press conference is scheduled for Thursday, where the reasons are expected to be explained in detail.
Insufficient Backing
The reasons behind the expected withdrawal have been apparent for some time. From the start, those behind Berlin’s concept lacked verified public support in the capital. While the city’s House of Representatives passed a resolution backing the bid, and an advisory board with representatives from politics, business, culture and even the church championed it, none of that could match the roughly 66 percent voter approval Munich and North Rhine-Westphalia each secured in their own Olympic referendums.
Berlin’s constitution does not provide for such a referendum, a factor that weakened its chances from the outset, even as Wegner, Spranger and Niroomand consistently downplayed the significance of that gap in public legitimacy.
Wegner will soon be out of office, much like the Olympic bid itself. Hopes for a future Berlin government that would continue supporting the bid collapsed after the most recent state election. The Left party, led by top candidate Elif Eralp, won decisively, and Eralp dashed Niroomand’s remaining hopes just a day later, saying, “I think this decision has already been made for us.”
Evaluation Report
A day after the election, the DOSB added to the bid’s troubles by releasing its evaluation commission’s report. The commission had spent recent months assessing the concepts submitted by the three remaining candidates, after Hamburg withdrew its bid in late May following a negative referendum, and scored them against a range of criteria.
Berlin came in a distant third overall. Trailing Munich, which scored 87 out of 100 points, and the Rhine-Ruhr region, which scored 85, Berlin’s “Berlin+” concept still received a rating of “good” with 75 points.
Niroomand criticized the scoring sharply, noting that even in the category of international appeal focused strictly on sport, Berlin trailed the Rhine-Ruhr region. “According to the DOSB, a marathon is not a mega event, but football matches between Dortmund and Leverkusen apparently are”, he stated.
A press conference by the Berlin-based initiative NOlympia, which opposes the city’s Olympic bid, is also planned for Thursday. Spokeswoman Gabriele Hiller declined to say in advance what would be announced, though it is considered likely the group will report having cleared the first hurdle for a referendum against Olympic Games in Berlin by collecting the 20,000 signatures required.
Should Berlin formally withdraw, the decision would cap a bid in which the risks were ultimately weighed more heavily than the potential rewards by those in charge. Whether Munich, or Rhine-Ruhr together with Cologne, can present a more convincing case internationally than Berlin might have is a question Niroomand and his team may find themselves revisiting in 2029, when the International Olympic Committee is expected to announce hosts for several future Games at once. The DOSB is said to be approaching that race with confidence, this time without Berlin in the running.
