Puma History; The Olympic Games in Munich, 1972

At the 1972 Olympia Massacre in Munich, the german police failed 

miserably to free Israeli hostages from the Palestinian terrorists group 

„Black September", partly because they did not ban the press from 

the olympic village and therefore the eight terrorists were able to 

watch the police approach the building on TV. 

Maybe you have seen pictures of those Olympics, maybe you are even 

old enough to have seen it live on TV. Apart from all the atrocities and 

failures that the worlds witnessed that day, a certain detail always 

made me wonder; why did the police team wear Puma tracksuits 

during their deployment on the olympic campus? 

Officially, the attack of the 'Black September' in is considered to be the 

birth of the GSG 9th Infantry Division in the Federal Republic of 

Germany. The truth however is, that this elite reaction force already 

existed in Germany in 1972, but was not used in Munich because it was 

to remain secret during the Cold War. (german source)

Part of the police team that conducted the mission in Munich, was the 

then 24 year old border patrol official Helmut Fischer from Herzogen-

aurach. When they arrived at the olympic village, they wanted to blend 

in to not instantly alarm the terrorists, so Fischer (who had good contacts 

to Puma being from the same town as the renowned sports brand) ran 

down to the Puma Shop and asked employee and friend Irmgard Hacker 

to equip the team with some tracksuits. (german source)

Fischer later became head of advertisement at Puma, celebrated his 40th 

anniversary as an employee of the company in 2018 and is senior advisor 

and in charge of the archive today.