Live ticker: Public participation in the Olympics in Hamburg

In November 2025, the City of Hamburg will launch a public dialog on the Olympics. We at Stadtmanufaktur have designed the three dialog formats for citizen participation – and are on site at all events. Our tasks: to organize, moderate and facilitate open, critical and inclusive dialogue.

Here in the magazine, we share our impressions and the results of a total of fifteen events across the city. Our report on these three dialog formatsgrows with each week:

• Launch event at HafenCity University Hamburg
• Participation dialogs in all seven Hamburg districts
• Stakeholder events on business, culture and co.

In addition to the live events, Hamburg residents can take part in an online survey and contribute their wishes and ideas.

10 a.m. in Hamburg: it’s November 1, 2025, fog and rain are in the air. Our hometown is showing its most beautiful slippery weather. Our team arrives at HafenCity University right on time and gets its bearings between sound check and set-up. The information market of the Ministry of the Interior and Sport is already being set up in the foyer , while Horst Lange from the Visual Facilitators is setting up right next to the stage in the auditorium. He will be documenting the day today with graphic recording.

We from Stadtmanufaktur are on site with ten experts. The event professionals from Inferno Events have the technology and organization under control. Reassuring: our network works. While project manager Julia Staron whizzes through the rooms, project manager Isabell Köster briefs the Stadtmanufaktur team. Who moderates the three dialog zones, who takes care of the direction, who stands at the Resonanzia wish and theme tree?

Then Isabell is already gone again. Together with Stadtmanufaktur Managing Director Thorsten Kausch, she briefs the moderation duo of the day: Anke Harnack and Michel Abdollahi. The first Hamburg residents arrive, bustle around in the foyer and wander curiously from station to station. The program starts right on time at 12 noon. Hamburg’s public participation in the bidding process begins.

Keynotes and interviews, discussion and moderation will alternate on stage: Steffen Rülke, head of the Hamburg bid for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, will present the Hamburg+ bid concept, answer questions on sustainability, security and financing, the IOC and the motives behind the bid.

Also on stage: top Hamburg athletes such as volleyball pros Clemens Wickler and Nils Ehlers (silver medal in Paris 2024) and multiple Paralympics winner Edina Müller. They talk about the “fascination of the Olympics” and the Olympic Games in Paris and London. And they give Hamburg’s Olympic project group tips for a better and more sustainable Games.

Between the stage program, we will discuss the Olympic bid in three dialogue zones on topics such as “Social City, Participation and Inclusion”, “Climate, Sustainability & Mobility” and “Social Cohesion”. More than 500 Hamburg citizens are on site during the day, thinking and discussing with us, coming and going. Our open event format works.

• Respectful dialog with citizens: The conversations show genuine interest in the details of the bid, justified criticism is voiced and reflected upon together. Here and there, cautious anticipation of an Olympic Games in Hamburg bubbles up.
• The personal accounts of Hamburg’s top athletes: They are the ones who bring the Olympics to life and make it tangible. And with their stories, they show how popular sport and elite sport strengthen each other.
• The vocal performance by the famous Hamburg Goldkehlchen: From the very first song, the participants and team crowded onto the stage. Within seconds, the dialog turned into a concert. (Singing along is encouraged!)
• The fantastic collaboration within the team and with our network: the planning time before the kick-off event was short and the program varied. It took a lot of commitment and creativity from everyone involved.

Therefore: Many thanks to the Olympic project group of the Ministry of the Interior and Sport, to the professionals from Inferno Events and to all the artists, speakers and citizens who made this kick-off event a success.

Report will follow shortly.

Report will follow shortly.

Report will follow shortly.

Report will follow shortly.

Report will follow shortly.

Report will follow shortly.

Report will follow shortly.

Report will follow shortly.