Memorial theft cuts into Munich grief

A memorial to the Munich air disaster was broken into at Manchesterplatz in Munich, with a glass sculpture and medals stolen from the display case that holds tributes to the 23 people killed in the 1958 crash, including eight Manchester United players.

Munich Police told German media the glass was smashed with a stone and that the incident is believed to have happened between 08:00 and 13:00 local time on 26 October. The case has since been repaired, according to the Manchester Munich Memorial Foundation.

Sport lives on ritual almost as much as results, and this site is one of those places where rivalry usually knows when to shut up. The foundation said it was deeply saddened by the theft. Its chair, Ifty Ahmed, told BBC News the damage ran beyond the missing objects because families had used the memorial as a place of solace. The stolen items, he said, had not taken away the memories attached to the dead.

Mark Salzmann, chair of Bayern Munich supporters’ group Red Docs Munich, which helps care for the memorial, said his mother spotted the damage while passing the site. Salzmann said the stolen property included a glass sculpture originally presented to Munich’s former mayor, Dieter Reiter. He added that some of the items placed in the case came from tributes left by visitors from around the world, which makes replacement less a matter of cost than of meaning.

Ahmed said it was still unclear how many medals were missing. Manchester United offered to pay for repairs, he said, but the foundation had already agreed to cover that work itself. The broken glass was replaced on the same day.

The memorial stone at Manchesterplatz was installed in 2004. The display case was added in 2020 and officially inaugurated in 2023, giving supporters and families a more visible place to leave traces of remembrance at the crash site itself.

Ahmed told the BBC that supporters of Liverpool, Manchester City and Leeds had sent messages of support. In a story about theft, that may be the only useful score: the damage was petty, the response was not.