Winter Games in Munich?

The DOSB refused to support any potential bid by Hamburg or Berlin to host the 2016 or 2020 Summer Games in the wake of failed bids by Berlin for the 2000 and Leipzig for the 2012 events.

"We have reached the decision that we view very positively a possible bid for a Winter Olympics under the umbrella of the city of Munich," DOSB president Thomas Bach said Tuesday in Frankfurt where the organization's executive committee is meeting.

The final decision will be made at the DOSB congress in December. The International Olympic Committee is expected to name the host for the 2018 Olympics in 2011.

Munich mayor Christian Ude welcomed the announcement, saying "a major and important hurdle has been cleared on our way to becoming an Olympic city once again."

The Bavarian capital hosted the 1972 Summer Olympics and would become the first city to host a winter and summer games if it puts together a successful bid.

Ude announced that the winter resort of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, situated in the Alps south of Munich, would definitely be part of any bid and he also refused to rule out other locations.

Munich intended to put together a "compact" bid, he said, citing the Canadian city of Vancouver, host of the 2010 Games, as the role model.

DOSB aware of mistakes of the past

"A good bid needs a clear concept and a clear financing structure," said DOSB general director Michael Vesper, while Bach estimated the bid budget at between 25 million and 35 million euros ($34.5 million to $48.4 million).

"But we shouldn't restrict ourselves to a bid that simply puts superb sports venues in places, we also need an inspiring idea," said Bach.

They also need things to run smoothly once that idea is in place. Germany's most recent Olympic bids have been mired in controversy -- and failure -- despite having impressive plans to offer.

The joint Leipzig/Rostock bid for the 2012 games struggled to even make the voting for the candidate cities in 2004 after being crippled by scandals involving alleged financial irregularities and the bid organizers' ties to the Stasi, the former East German secret police.

Stasi rumors and dodgy dealings

First were the allegations surrounding Dirk Thärichen, the head of Leipzig's Olympic bid committee, concerning his past involvement with the Stasi. Thärichen resigned from the post in 2003.

Then Harald Lochotzke, the chairman of Rostock's publicly-run Olympic marketing committee, resigned soon after, dogged by similar Stasi speculation and allegations of complicity in a number of financial irregularities.

He was followed through the exit by Burkhard Jung, the city official who represented Leipzig during the city’s successful bid to become the German candidate before becoming a supervisory board member of the company overseeing Leipzig’s bid.

He stepped down from his position after allegations he was involved in illegal commission payments worth 150,000 euros made to a marketing company while Leipzig was bidding to represent Germany.

The heads kept rolling with Wolfram Köhler, the state secretary for Saxony, who resigned after he had come under fire for allegedly paying his wife high commissions for helping to find financial sponsors while he was the mayor of the town of Riesa.

Berlin hampered by Cold War legacy

Berlin's efforts to get the 2000 Olympic Games ended in humiliation, when it came last among the six countries vying for the honor.

The newly unified capital's bid floundered on its inadequate infrastructure, which had suffered during the divisions of the Cold War. While Berlin attempted to catch up with its rival bidders by embarking on ambitious building projects, the city was too far behind the pack to get the Olympic nod and the games eventually went to Sydney.

Now, after hosting a hugely successful World Cup in 2006, Germany's big event credentials have sky-rocketed and the DOSB hopes to tap into that and put the disappointment of the past behind it.