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Ten Years of No to the Olympics: Hamburg Senate is resistant to learning

Election documents and ballot papers for the 2015 Citizenship Referendum. The "No" option is ticked.

Saturday marks the tenth anniversary of the referendum on Hamburg's Olympic bid for the 2024 Summer Games. Despite one Nearly 22 million At the time, 51.6 percent of Hamburgers voted against the Olympics. Ten years later, the Hamburg Senate no longer sees itself bound by this decision and plans again 18 million for his Olympic campaign. The campaign kicked off with so-called citizen participation in November 2025.

To this end: Eckart Maudrich, Spokesperson of NOlympia Hamburg: “In 2015, the Hamburgers put a stop to the megalomaniacal plans of the Senate. Actually, the Hamburg Senate would have to thank the opponents of the games. Between 2015 and 2024, construction was underway as a result of the coronavirus pandemic and the war in Ukraine.[1]– and security costs[2] exploded. A gigantic billion-dollar hole in the budget would have been the result. But the Hamburg Senate is resistant to learning and is already wasting huge sums for a new Hamburg Olympic bid.’

"Olympia makes 76 million profits"[3] claimed Steffen Rülke, head of the Hamburg Olympic Project Group at the kick-off event of the ‘Citizens’ Dialogues’ and concealed the 6.3 billion losses for the public sector. The IOC is reformed, the treaties are transparent and the organizing committee pays national taxes, according to the Senate. It is not mentioned that the Senate itself signed the Host City Treaty.[4] the Olympic Charter[5] The IOC's billion-dollar revenue[6] It flows directly to Switzerland. The Hamburg Senate claims that the federal government stands behind the application and conceals that it does not transfer a cent to Hamburg at the current application costs.[7]. Asked about the average €1,333 that a ticket cost at the opening ceremony in Paris,[8] Rülke cynically states (annual salary 250,000 euros) that all Hamburgers could stand on the track at the long-distance events.

Maudrich:

“Olympia is a project for the elites – few benefit from it, enormous financial, social and environmental follow-up costs are the flip side of the coin. Rents in Hamburg are already drifting off into ever more blatant dimensions. Poverty[9] More and more people are feeling the effects of climate change. Ten years ago, Hamburg took over responsibility. This year's future decision, too. We hope that they will do the same at the Olympic Games in May 2026.”

About NOlympia Hamburg

NOlympia Hamburg has formed on the occasion of Hamburg's Olympic bid 2015 to critically inform about the risks and side effects of games in Hamburg. In mid-2025, work had to be resumed because the Senate again had massive tax funds approved in order to enforce its truth across all votes and voting results and thus a balanced information is acutely endangered.

[1] Cours de Compt: Les Jeux Olympiques et Paralympiques de Paris 2024.Rapport au Parlement. S.36 The public construction subsidy mute around 175% Increased to just under $500 million

[2] Ibid.: S32 and 34: The security budget increased from 200 million to over 1,700 million.

[3] S. Endnote 1. The budget quoted concerns only the event organiser perspective of the implementation. The result is achieved because a) the public sector has already raised a good 200 million (S 18 in conjunction with S26) and b) the security costs of 1,700 million have been passed on to the public sector (see FN 2).

[4] “…necessary for the Host city, the Host NOC and the OCOG to coordinate with competent Host Country Authorities so that the Tax legislation of the Host Country is implemented and applied in a manner that guarantees the achievement of the objectives and results described in §22.2-22.5.” HCC Principles 22.1ff. Same as well LA28 and Brisbane32

[5] 1. Olympic Charter = lex superior. The nat’l gov ´t of the country … must submit to the IOC a legally binding instrument by which the said government … guarantees that the country …will comply with & respect the Olympic Charter’; OCR 33 III. 2. The Organizing Committee (also Hamburg) is IOC bound by instructions,OCR 35, BLR 35. 3. Financial and organisational responsibility lies with the organiser: Immediately upon the election …, the IOC enters into an agreement with the elected host and the NOC …’;OCR 36 I 1. The IOC shall have no financial responsibility in respect of the organisation, financing and staging of the Olympic Games other than the contribution determined in the Olympic Host Contract …; OCR 36 II 2

[6] IOC. Annual Report 2024. Games of a New Era. p.197

[7] BDrs .23-02040

[8] See endnote 1, S128

[9] 497 tsd people fall under the housing-adjusted poverty rate in Hamburg. The 2024 Joint: Living is poor. 2024. 38 tsd people are homeless in Hamburg. Nagel 2024. Overcoming homelessness by 2030.