The attack
On the evening of September 26, 1980, an explosive device detonated near the main entrance to the Oktoberfest grounds at Munich's Theresienwiese. Official memorial material from the City of Munich records twelve visitors and bystanders killed by the attack. The bomber also died, bringing the number of deaths at the scene to thirteen. More than 200 people were injured.
The bombing became one of the most consequential acts of extremist violence in post-war West Germany. Its history has also been marked by long-running questions about motive, the quality of the early investigation and whether anyone besides the identified bomber participated.
Gundolf Köhler
Investigators identified 21-year-old Gundolf Köhler as the bomber. He had links to the far-right milieu, including prior contact with the Wehrsportgruppe Hoffmann. Because Köhler died in the explosion, there was no criminal trial in which a court could test evidence against him.
That distinction matters. The identification of Köhler and the later assessment of his motive are investigative findings, not a murder conviction after trial.
The first investigation
The original federal investigation was discontinued in November 1982. Over the following decades, survivors, lawyers, journalists and researchers continued to question whether the crime had been too narrowly treated as the act of a lone offender, especially given Köhler's extremist associations and disputed witness recollections.
The investigation is reopened
Germany's Federal Prosecutor reopened the investigation in December 2014 after new information raised the possibility that previously unidentified people might have had knowledge of the crime. Investigators revisited surviving evidence, witness statements and extremist networks connected to the period.
The renewed inquiry did not establish sufficient evidence that another person participated in the bombing. German parliamentary reporting on the later findings states that a witness lead which helped prompt the reopening was not confirmed by the subsequent investigation.
The 2020 federal findings
On July 6, 2020, the Federal Prosecutor closed the reopened investigation. According to the German Bundestag's summary, investigators concluded that the attack was substantially politically motivated and should be assessed as a right-wing extremist act.
The same official material states that, after investigators exhausted promising avenues, they found no sufficient factual indications that additional people had participated in the attack. This is narrower than claiming that every historical question has been answered: it means the renewed investigation did not establish an evidentiary basis for prosecuting another participant.
Questions that remain
Public debate has continued over witness recollections, lost or destroyed evidence from the early investigation and Köhler's contacts within the extremist scene. Those issues remain relevant to the history of the case, but they do not amount to proof that a named additional person helped carry out the bombing.
This archive therefore separates the federal conclusion — Köhler carried out a politically motivated right-wing extremist attack, with no sufficient evidence established against additional participants — from broader theories that never resulted in criminal charges or convictions.
Timeline
September 26, 1980: a bomb explodes at the main entrance to Munich's Oktoberfest. Twelve victims and bomber Gundolf Köhler die; more than 200 people are injured.
November 23, 1982: the original federal investigation is discontinued.
December 5, 2014: the Federal Prosecutor reopens the investigation.
July 6, 2020: the reopened investigation is closed after federal investigators classify the attack as politically motivated and right-wing extremist and report no sufficient evidence of additional participants.
September 26, 2025: Munich marks the 45th anniversary with an official memorial ceremony for victims and survivors.
Current status
The bombing is attributed by the federal investigation to Gundolf Köhler, who died at the scene. The reopened investigation was closed in 2020. No accomplice has been judicially established, and no criminal trial of Köhler was possible.