Towards a ‘Solar Olympics’ in 2036 or later
This coming Saturday, a decision will be made in Baden-Baden regarding Germany’s bid to host one of the Olympic Games. Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier will announce the decision on Saturday from 1.45 pm, alongside DOSB President Thomas Weikert, at the Kurhaus Baden-Baden.
The immense fascination surrounding the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris has shown that the magic of major Olympic events is clearly timeless. The magnificent opening ceremony, which impressed the whole world, and the wonderful closing ceremony gave me this idea: a sunny appeal for a solar-powered 2036 Olympics in Germany – 100 years after the terrible 1936 Nazi Olympics in Berlin, which horrified humanity.
With its environmentally friendly 2024 Olympics – all competition venues for the Olympic and Paralympic Games were powered by renewable energy and some stadiums were used for multiple purposes – France has presented itself to the world as a colourful, modern, progressive and likeable country. The 2024 Olympics in Paris were a sublime event. At the closing ceremony, mythological figures symbolised the much-vaunted Olympic spirit: peace for the whole world.
The five Olympic rings symbolise the five peaceful continents. The world needs this Olympic ideal as a dream. Without a dream of peace, there will be no peace. Geopolitical conflicts can be overcome. The then President of the Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach, at the close of the Games in Paris: “The Olympics celebrate a culture of peace.” The Olympic Games in Paris celebrated the unity of humanity in all its diversity. For the first time, there were equal numbers of women and men competing. The Olympics as a symbol of gender equality and the inviolability of the dignity of all people. The Games in Paris were simply fantastic – that is the unanimous verdict of the global audience. It would be an important and significant sign of successful change if Germany were to achieve something similar in 2036 and, by then, the whole of Germany were to be supplied with renewable energy. This vision is achievable and would be good for Germany.
The Olympic Games are a high-profile celebration of humanity’s joy in movement and transformation. The message from Germany in 2036 could be: ‘Germany is renewable, Europe is renewable, the world is renewable.’ At the same time, the history of the Nazi propaganda Games exactly 100 years earlier could be re-examined: the sun instead of the swastika – international solidarity and global cooperation instead of ‘Deutschland über alles’. The year 2024 was a fateful year for democracy, but at least there was one wonderful ray of hope: the Olympics in Paris!
The national pride that is resurging everywhere today is more bearable in sports shirts than in military uniforms. Twenty-six years after Germany’s Renewable Energy Sources Act in the year 2000, this is yet another clear signal from Germany heralding a new beginning – into the solar, democratic age and towards the global solar revolution. Germany in 2036: a country experiencing a green economic miracle. A new and renewable Germany. The signal of a new beginning for the global solar revolution
Sport makes people happy. Sunny, sporting Olympic greetings from Germany to the whole world. Perhaps a new, sunny summer fairy tale. The world needs this peaceful Olympic Games, held every four years. As a symbol of the one human family. Olympics forever! Sun forever!
And once again: the motto of the first Solar Olympics could be: ‘Solar enthusiasts of all nations – unite!’ or, somewhat more conservatively: ‘Citizens, to the sun, to freedom.’
And in the future too: plenty of sunshine in the Olympic sky! The sun is the greatest and brightest symbol of energy, a symbol of fertility and creativity, a symbol of the divine, a symbol of transformation and change, a symbol of a bright and radiant future.
A solar energy economy is the prerequisite for a peace treaty between humanity and nature. Climate policy is economic policy. With the help of a global solar policy, life on Earth can flourish once more.
Every child born today should be able to say in 20 years’ time:
- I came into the world at the dawn of the global solar revolution
- I have witnessed the dawn of the solar age, and
- I know that the sun will prevail.
- This gives my life purpose and meaning.
For me, climate protection is the sum of love for one’s neighbour, love for those far away, love for one’s grandchildren, love for one’s enemies, love for animals, love for nature and love for God. What matters is that we do not find ourselves empty-handed at the end of our lives.
