German sports ministers have urged the public to endorse the four candidates in the country vying for a future Olympic bid in planned referendums.

The cities of Berlin, Hamburg and Munich as well as the Rhine-Ruhr region are interested, and the sports ministers from the 16 states say that hosting Olympic Games would benefit the country and future generations.

“I can only urge everyone to support any German bid. This major sporting event inspires an entire nation, as we saw once again in Paris [at the 2024 Games],” the chair of the conference of sports ministers, Theresa Schopper, said after their meeting on Friday.

All four candidates have passed a first phase and can hold referendums until June 2026. The winning bid is to be determined in the autumn of 2026, and a decision must also come for which Games the bid will be: 2036, 2040 or 2044.

The Munich referendum is scheduled for October 26. The city hosted the last Olympics in Germany in 1972, while a 2022 Winter Games bid was stopped by a referendum. Hamburg’s bid for the 2024 Olympics also ended prematurely in that way.

Schopper hopes for different outcome this time around, with the aim to use the Olympics as “a catalyst.”

“This is a national project for the future. We have four great candidate cities. We could compete very well with any of them. These are very, very convincing concepts,” she said.

The ministers also aim to develop a national action plan, which is to be discussed at their next conference in March 2026, alarmed by studies that 75% of young people exercise less than an hour per day.

Hamburg’s Senator for Sport Andy Grote said such a plan would serve as “a lifeline for parents to prevent their children from spending all their time on their mobile phones.

“I believe that we still underestimate socially and politically how much we need sport,” Grote said.