title: American Express

text: By 1903, the company had assets of some $28 million, second only to the National City Bank of New York among financial institutions in the city. To reflect this, the company purchased the Broadway buildings and site.


title: American Express

text: At the end of the Wells-Fargo reign in 1914, an aggressive new president, George Chadbourne Taylor (1868–1923), who had worked his way up through the company over the previous thirty years, decided to build a new headquarters. The old buildings, dubbed by "The New York Times" as "among the ancient landmarks" of lower Broadway, were inadequate for such a rapidly expanding concern.


title: American Express

text: After some delays due to the First World War, the 21-story neo-classical American Express Co. Building was constructed in 1916–17 to the design of James L. Aspinwall, of the firm of Renwick, Aspinwall & Tucker, the successor to the architectural practice of the eminent James Renwick Jr. The building consolidated the two lots of the former buildings with a single address: 65 Broadway. This building was part of the "Express Row" section of lower Broadway at the time. The building completed the continuous masonry wall of its block-front and assisted in transforming Broadway into the "canyon" of neo-classical masonry office towers familiar to this day. American Express sold this building in 1975, but retained travel services there. The building was also the headquarters over the years of other prominent firms, including investment bankers J.& W. Seligman & Co. (1940–74), the American Bureau of Shipping, a maritime concern (1977–86), and later J.J. Kenny, and Standard & Poor's, the latter of which renamed the building for itself.


title: American Express

text: American Express extended its reach nationwide by arranging affiliations with other express companies (including Wells Fargo – the replacement for the two former companies that merged to form American Express), railroads, and steamship companies.


title: American Express

text: In 1857, American Express started its expansion in the area of financial services by launching a money order business to compete with the United States Post Office's money orders.


title: American Express

text: Sometime between 1888 and 1890, J. C. Fargo took a trip to Europe and returned frustrated and infuriated. Despite the fact that he was president of American Express and that he carried with him traditional letters of credit, he found it difficult to obtain cash anywhere except in major cities. Fargo went to Marcellus Flemming Berry and asked him to create a better solution than the letter of credit. Berry introduced the American Express Traveler's Cheque which was launched in 1891 in denominations of $10, $20, $50, and $100.


title: American Express

text: Traveler's cheques established American Express as a truly international company. In 1914, at the onset of World War I, American Express in Europe was among the few companies to honor the letters of credit (issued by various banks) held by Americans in Europe, because other financial institutions refused to assist these stranded travelers.


title: American Express

text: The British government appointed American Express its official agent at the beginning of World War I. They were to deliver letters, money, and relief parcels to British prisoners of war. Their employees went into camps to cash drafts for both British and French prisoners and arranged for them to receive money from home.


title: American Express

text: By the end of the war they were delivering 150 tonnes of parcels per day to prisoners in six countries.


title: American Express

text: American Express was one of the monopolies that President Theodore Roosevelt had the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) investigate during his administration. The interest of the ICC was drawn to its strict control of the railroad express business. However, the solution did not come immediately to hand. The solution to this problem came as a coincidence to other problems during World War I.


title: American Express

text: During the winter of 1917, the United States suffered a severe coal shortage and on December 26 President Woodrow Wilson commandeered the railroads on behalf of the United States government to move federal troops, their supplies, and coal. Treasury Secretary William Gibbs McAdoo was assigned the task of consolidating the railway lines for the war effort. All contracts between express companies and railroads were nullified and McAdoo proposed that all existing express companies be consolidated into a single company to serve the country's needs. This ended American Express's express business and removed them from the ICC's interest. The result was that a new company called the American Railway Express Agency formed in July 1918. The new entity took custody of all the pooled equipment and property of existing express companies (the largest share of which, 40%, came from American Express, who had owned the rights to the express business over of railroad lines, and had 10,000 offices, with over 30,000 employees).


title: American Express

text: During the 1980s, American Express embarked on an effort to become a financial services supercompany and made a number of acquisitions,


title: American Express

text: creating an investment banking arm. In mid-1981 it purchased Sanford I. Weill's Shearson Loeb Rhoades, the second-largest securities firm in the United States to form Shearson/American Express.


title: American Express

text: Shearson Loeb Rhoades itself was the culmination of several mergers in the 1970s as Weill's Hayden, Stone & Co. merged with Shearson, Hammill & Co. in 1974, to form Shearson Hayden Stone. Shearson Hayden Stone then merged with Loeb, Rhoades, Hornblower & Co. (formerly Loeb, Rhoades & Co.) to form Shearson Loeb Rhoades in 1979. With capital totaling $250 million at the time of its acquisition, Shearson Loeb Rhoades trailed only Merrill Lynch as the securities industry's largest brokerage firm.


title: American Express

text: After the purchase of Shearson, Weill was given the position of president of American Express in 1983. Weill grew increasingly unhappy with responsibilities within American Express and his conflicts with American Express' CEO James D. Robinson III. Weill soon realized that he was not positioned to be named CEO and left in August 1985.


title: American Express

text: In 1984, American Express acquired the investment banking and trading firm Lehman Brothers Kuhn Loeb, and added it to the Shearson family, creating Shearson Lehman/American Express. It was Lehman's CEO and former trader Lewis Glucksman who would next lead Shearson Lehman/American Express.


title: American Express

text: In 1984, Shearson/American Express also purchased the 90-year-old "Investors Diversified Services" (IDS), bringing with it a fleet of financial advisors and investment products.


title: American Express

text: In 1988, Shearson Lehman acquired the brokerage firm E.F. Hutton & Co. E.F. Hutton was merged with the investment banking business and the investment banking arm was renamed Shearson Lehman Hutton, Inc.


title: American Express

text: In 1983, Edmond Safra, the owner of Trade Development Bank in Geneva, sold his bank for US$550 million to American Express. Safra was inducted into the board of American Express. The acquisition of TDB by American Express was part of James D. Robinson III's plan to break into the private depositor banking industry. TDB American Express was intended to be the third arm of American Express's financial empire which would reach wealthy private depositors internationally.


title: American Express

text: TDB quickly realized after the acquisition that American Express was not able to uphold promises with which they used to court them at the time of acquisition, as TDB executives were excluded from important company decisions. Edmond Safra, an executive at TDB, tried to separate from the mother company. After failed attempts to get American Express to accept his offers to buy TDB back, Safra opened a competing bank. In response, American Express launched an international smear campaign against Safra by inaccurately reporting to news and media outlets in that Safra was being investigated by the FBI for being involved in the Iran–Contra affair, along with drug trafficking and the mafia.


title: American Express

text: All of the accusations were confirmed to be false, and led to the resignation of Harry L. Freeman, James D. Robinson III's right-hand man and public relations chief in American Express, after admitting to the entire scandal. In July 1989, American Express publicly apologized to Edmond Safra and donated US$8 million to the charity of his choice.


title: American Express

text: In 1990, American Express sold its Swiss banking operations to Compagnie de Banque et d'Investissements, which led to the creation of Union Bancaire Privée (UBP).


title: American Express

text: When Harvey Golub became CEO of American Express in 1993, American Express decided to get out of the investment banking business and negotiated the sale of Shearson's retail brokerage and asset management business to Primerica. The Shearson business was merged with Primerica's Smith Barney to create Smith Barney Shearson. Ultimately, the Shearson name was dropped in 1994.


title: American Express

text: In 1994, American Express spun off of the remaining investment banking and institutional businesses as Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc, ending what "The New York Times" called "a nettlesome foray into the brokerage business." After almost fifteen years of independence, Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy protection in 2008 as part of the financial crisis of 2007–08.


title: American Express

text: In January 2021, the "Wall Street Journal" reported that the Department of the Treasury, the FDIC, and the Federal Reserve had launched an investigation into whether the company had misled potential corporate customers and used aggressive tactics while selling American Express cards. After the announcement, shares of the company fell in price. The period in question was between 2015 and 2016.


title: American Express

text: Following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, in March 2022, American Express announced that it would suspend all operations in Russia and Belarus.


title: American Express

text: American Express executives discussed the possibility of launching a travel charge card as early as 1946, but it was not until Diners Club launched a card in March 1950, that American Express began to seriously consider the possibility. At the end of 1957, American Express CEO Ralph Reed decided to get into the card business, and by the launch date of October 1, 1958, public interest had become so significant that 250,000 cards were issued prior to the official launch date. The card was launched with an annual fee of $6, $1 higher than Diners Club, to be seen as a premium product. The first cards were made of paper, with the account number and card member's name typed. In 1959, American Express began issuing embossed plastic cards, an industry first.


title: American Express

text: In 1966, American Express introduced the Gold Card. In 1984, the company launched the Platinum Card, clearly defining different market segments within its own business, a practice that has proliferated across a broad array of industries. The Platinum Card was billed as super-exclusive and had a $250 annual fee (, the fee is $695). It was offered by invitation only to American Express customers with at least two years of tenure, significant spending, and excellent payment history; , it is open to applicants on request. In 1987, American Express introduced the Optima card, its first credit card product that did not have to be paid in full at the end of the month.


title: American Express

text: American Express formed a venture with Warner Communications in 1979, called Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment, which created MTV, Nickelodeon, and The Movie Channel. The partnership lasted only until 1984. The properties were sold to Viacom soon after.


title: American Express

text: In April 1992, American Express spun off its former subsidiary, First Data Corp., in an initial public offering.


title: American Express

text: In 1994, the Optima True Grace card was introduced. The card was unique in that it offered a grace period on all purchases whether a balance was carried on the card or not (as opposed to traditional revolving credit cards which charge interest on new purchases if so much as $1 was carried over). The card was discontinued a few years later.


title: American Express

text: In 1995, American Express and Hilton announced a co-brand credit card, allowing users to earn Hilton HHonors bonus points for everyday charges.


title: American Express

text: The "ONE" card, introduced in 2005 but since discontinued, innovated in "cash back rewards" (described then as "have become staples of credit card reward programs") which are "deposited in an interest bearing savings account" The "rewards" account was a high-yield FDIC-insured savings account. The "ONE" from American Express card offered a feature similar to "Optima True Grace" which it called "Interest Protection."


title: American Express

text: From the early 1980s until the early 1990s, American Express was known for cutting its interchange fee (also known as a "discount rate") to merchants and restaurants if they accepted only American Express and no other credit or charge cards. This prompted competitors such as Visa and Mastercard to cry foul for a while as the tactics "locked" restaurants into American Express. Capitalizing on this elitist image, American Express frequently mentioned such exclusive partnerships in its advertising.


title: American Express

text: Aside from some holdouts including Neiman Marcus (which continued exclusivity until 2011), the practice largely ended in 1991. A group of restaurants in Boston stopped accepting American Express while accepting and encouraging the use of Visa and Mastercard, including some that were exclusive to American Express. The rationale was due to far lower fees as compared with American Express' fees at the time (which were about 4% for each transaction versus around 1.2% at the time for Visa and Mastercard). The revolt, known as the "Boston Fee Party" (alluding to the Boston Tea Party), spread to over 250 restaurants across the United States, including restaurants in other cities such as New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Visa offered to pay the Fee Party's legal bills, and Discover Card was able to increase their acceptance among Boston restaurants by 375%. Kenneth Chenault, then head of Travel Related Services prior to becoming American Express CEO, cut fees to bring these restaurants back into the fold. American Express then shifted its focus from exclusivity to broadening acceptance, adding mainstream merchants like Walmart to the American Express network.


title: American Express

text: On November 10, 2008, during the financial crisis of 2007–2008, the company won Federal Reserve System approval to convert to a bank holding company, making it eligible for government help under the Troubled Asset Relief Program. At that time, American Express had total consolidated assets of about $127billion. In June 2009, $3.39billion in TARP funds were repaid plus $74.4million in dividend payments. In July 2009, the company ended its obligations under TARP by buying back $340million in Treasury warrants.


title: American Express

text: In November 2010, the UK division of American Express was cautioned by the Office of Fair Trading for the use of controversial charging orders against those in debt. The regulator said that the company was one of four companies who were encouraging customers to turn their unsecured credit card debts into a form of secured debt.


title: American Express

text: In October 2012, The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced an enforcement action with orders requiring three American Express subsidiaries to refund an estimated $85million to approximately 250,000 customers for illegal card practices between 2003 and 2012. Allegations included that American Express made misleading statements regarding signup bonuses, charged unlawful late fees, discriminated against applicants due to age, and failed to report consumer complaints to regulators.


title: American Express

text: Beginning in 2004, Costco issued co-branded American Express cards which also doubled as a membership card. Costco ended this arrangement in 2016 in the United States, and in 2015 in Canada. The cards did not have annual fees and offered cash back in form of in-store rebates on certain tiers of purchases. The TrueEarnings cards issued by Costco in the United States were an extension of an exclusive credit card network deal between Costco and American Express dating from 1999. Costco was the last major U.S. merchant that accepted American Express cards exclusively. In November 2011, Neiman Marcus, which gave similar general-purpose card exclusivity to American Express since the 1980s, began accepting Visa and Mastercard.


title: American Express

text: Costco's Canadian stores ended its exclusive deal with American Express in January 2015, in favor of one with Capital One and Mastercard. Capital One did not buy accounts and balances from American Express, which required Costco Canada members to apply for the new cards instead of automatically qualifying.


title: American Express

text: On February 12, 2015, it was announced that the partnership between American Express and Costco in the United States would dissolve March 31, 2016, which was later extended to June 19, 2016. By March 2, 2015, Costco announced that Citigroup would become the exclusive issuer of Costco's credit cards and that Visa Inc. would replace American Express as the exclusive credit card network accepted at Costco's stores in the United States. The Costco deal with Visa began on June 20, 2016, and in addition to the new Citi card, Costco accepted all other Visa cards. All TrueEarnings card accounts and balances held by American Express were sold to Citigroup, and new Costco Anywhere Visa cards were sent to Costco members prior to the switch date. Concurrent with the switch to Visa, Costco no longer accepts American Express in stores, at Costco.com, or through Costco Travel.


title: American Express

text: The Costco partnership represented 8%, or $80billion, of American Express' billed business and about 20%, or about $14billion, of its interest-bearing credit portfolio, according to Richard Shane of JPMorgan Chase & Co. The impact of losing the Costco card accounts was significant; in the first quarter without Costco cards, company profit dropped 10% and revenue dropped 5% compared to the previous year.


title: American Express

text: American Express operates a network of Centurion Lounges at major airports which are available to their Platinum and Centurion card members. The first lounge opened in 2013, at McCarran Airport and the network has expanded ever since. American Express also has agreements with other airport lounges to offer access to their Platinum and Centurion card members as part of the Global Lounge Collection. These lounge networks include:


title: American Express

text: In 2019, American Express acquired LoungeBuddy, a provider which offers pay-per-use access to select airport lounges worldwide.


title: American Express

text: As of October 2021, there are fifteen Centurion Lounges in operation, mostly located in the United States with the exception of lounges in Hong Kong and London.


title: American Express

text: American Express plans to open an lounge at Washington-Reagan in 2022, and a lounge at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson in 2023.


title: American Express

text: For the fiscal year 2017, American Express reported earnings of US$2.634billion, with an annual revenue of US$35.583billion, an increase of 5.2% over the previous fiscal cycle. Its shares traded at over $83 per share, and its market capitalization was valued at over US$86.5billion in October 2018. American Express ranked in the 2018 Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by total revenue.


title: American Express

text: , the company had 121.7 million cards in force, including 56.4million cards in force in the United States, each with average annual spending of $20,392. These include consumer, small business and corporate cards issued by American Express themselves and cards issued by its Global Service Network partners that run on its network (such as Commonwealth Bank, Westpac, and NAB in Australia and Lloyds Bank and Barclays Bank in the UK). On March 1, 2017, Australia's fourth-largest bank ANZ announced that it was no longer issuing American Express cards, with the support phased out entirely by August 5, 2017.


title: American Express

text: American Express is the fourth largest general-purpose card network on a global basis based on purchase volume, behind China UnionPay, Visa and MasterCard. It is the 4th largest card network in the world, based on the number of cards it has in circulation.


title: American Express

text: American Express is one of the partner banks to both Google and Apple's mobile wallet systems (Google Pay and Apple Pay, respectively) meaning that cardholders can use their American Express-issued cards to pay at establishments where NFC payments are accepted. American Express offers various contactless credit cards.


title: American Express

text: American Express is best known for its Green, Gold, and Platinum charge cards. The Gold Card was converted to a credit card for U.K. residents in 2018, but remains a charge card in the U.S.


title: American Express

text: In 1958, American Express issued its first charge card, which required payment at the end of every month. In 1966, the company issued its first gold card, in an effort to cater to the upper echelon of business travel. Its platinum card debuted in 1984.


title: American Express

text: In 1999, American Express introduced the Centurion Card, often referred to as the "black card," which caters to an even more affluent customer segment. The card was initially available only to select users of the Platinum card. The annual fee for the card in the United States is $5,000 (up from $1,000 at introduction) with an additional one-time initiation fee of $10,000. American Express created the card line amid rumors and urban legends in the 1980s that it produced an ultra-exclusive black card for elite users who could purchase anything with it.


title: American Express

text: American Express cards publicly issued in the United States range in cost between no annual fee (for Blue and many other consumer and business cards) and a $695 annual fee (for the Platinum card). Annual fees for the Green card start at $150, while Gold card annual fees start at $250.


title: American Express

text: American Express has several co-branded credit cards, with most falling into one of three categories:


title: American Express

text: A credit card aimed at young adults is called "Blue", which has no annual fee and a loyalty program. A television media campaign for Blue adopted the 1979 UK Synthpop hit "Cars" by Gary Numan as its theme music. A cashback reward program version, "Blue Cash", quickly followed. American Express also targeted young adults with City Reward Cards that earn INSIDE Rewards points to eat, drink, and play in New York, Chicago, and LA hot spots. American Express began phasing out the INSIDE cards in mid-2008, with no new applications being taken as of July 2008.


title: American Express

text: In 2002, American Express introduced Clear, advertised as the first credit card with no fees of any kind. Other cards introduced in 2005, included "The Knot" and "The Nest" Credit Cards from American Express, co-branded cards developed with the wedding planning website theknot.com.


title: American Express

text: In 2006, the UK division of American Express joined the Product Red coalition and issued a Red Card, donating with each purchase through The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria to help African women and children with HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases.


title: American Express

text: In 2009, American Express introduced the ZYNC charge card. White in color, this card was created for people aged 20–40. The Zync charge card has since been discontinued with the exception of current cardholders who are grandfathered into the ZYNC.


title: American Express

text: In late 2012, American Express and Walmart announced the launch of Bluebird, a prepaid debit card similar to that of Green Dot. Bluebird is being touted as having some of the benefits of traditional American Express cards, such as roadside assistance and identity theft protection. The card can also be used as a substitute for a traditional checking account. Unlike other such cards, Bluebird is FDIC-insured. Bluebird accounts have standard FDIC deposit insurance and check writing capabilities, and as of March 2013 customers can have Social Security payments, military pay, Tax Return, paycheck, and other government benefits deposited directly into their accounts.


title: American Express

text: American Express credit cards are noted by travel guides, including Rough Guides and Lonely Planet, as being less commonly accepted in Europe than Visa or Mastercard.


title: American Express

text: The company logo, a gladiator or centurion, appears at the center of the iconic Zync, Cobalt, Blue Business, Plum, Green, Gold, Platinum, and Centurion cards. The figure and his pose evoke classical antiquity. These cards also feature intricate border and background designs that read "American Express." The designs on these cards, especially the Green card, bear resemblance to those on the United States Federal Reserve Notes.


title: American Express

text: In 2005, American Express introduced ExpressPay, similar to Mastercard Contactless and Visa payWave, all of which use the symbol appearing on the right. It is a contactless payment system based on wireless RFID, where transactions are completed by holding the credit card near a receiver at which point the debt is immediately added to the account. All three contactless systems use the same logo. The card is not swiped or inserted into a smart card reader and no PIN is entered.


title: American Express

text: Many merchants, in the U.S. and globally, offer American Express contactless payment, including Meijer, Walgreens, Best Buy, Chevron Corporation, Starbucks, and McDonald's.


title: American Express

text: American Express OPEN, the small-business branch of American Express, offers various types of charge cards for small businesses to manage their expenses.


title: American Express

text: In late 2007, the company announced the new Plum Card as the latest addition to their card line for small business owners. The card provides a 1.5% early pay discount or up to two months to defer payment on purchases. The 1.5% discount is available for billing periods where the cardmember spends at least $5,000. The first 10,000 cards were issued to members on December 16, 2007.


title: American Express

text: In 2008, American Express closed all Business Line of Credit accounts. This decision was reached in tandem with the Federal Reserve's approval of American Express's request to become a commercial bank.


title: American Express

text: , American Express has several credit cards designed for small businesses. These include SimplyCash Plus Business Credit Card. Cashback earned is automatically credited to the cardholder's statement and other benefits are included. Other cards include the Business Platinum Card from American Express OPEN, the Business Gold Rewards Card from American Express OPEN, the Blue for Business Credit Card from American Express, Business Green Rewards Card from American Express OPEN, the Business Green Rewards Card from American Express OPEN and the Plum Card from American Express OPEN. These cards have return protection, year-end summaries and other tools to help with the business accounting and control.


title: American Express

text: In 2008, American Express acquired the Corporate Payment Services business of GE, which primarily focused on providing Purchasing Card solutions for large global clients. As part of the $1b+ transaction, American Express also added a new product, called V-Payment, to its product portfolio. V-Payment is unique in that it enables a tightly controlled, single-use card number for increased control.


title: American Express

text: , American Express offered several business, corporate and travel credit and charge cards and services and data and information services related to their use in the competitive markets for these cards.


title: American Express

text: The online "American Express @ Work" function gives corporations a site on which to apply for, cancel or suspend cards, monitor policy compliance and track expenses. The cardholder company can create and generate reports for a corporate expense account program, including analytics and data consolidation or integration. Reports can be tailored for various sized companies. Through a Standard Expense Reporting feature in its "Manage Your Card Account site", American Express corporate cards provide cardholders access to pre-populated expense reports. The cardholder needs to annotate expenses and add out-of-pocket charges upon completion of which the report can be downloaded in electronic or paper format.


title: American Express

text: American Express Corporate Card program can be used with a third-party on-demand expense management tool by Concur, a provider of integrated travel and expense management services. This tool simplifies the creation of expense account reports and the corporate approval process. Corporate card activity, including viewing statements, making payments, setting up alerts and making inquiries and disputing charges, can be managed through an account online or via a mobile device through this service.


title: American Express

text: The corporate cards have benefits including discounts and rebates for travel and transportation, travel and emergency help, travel insurance and baggage protection. Upgrades from the Corporate "Green" Card to the Corporate Gold Card or Corporate Platinum Card, although subject to fees and terms and conditions, have several additional benefits at each card level, such as free breakfast or late checkout at many hotels. The American Express/Business Extra Corporate Credit Card is affiliated with American Airlines and provides a 4% rebate on eligible American Airlines travel purchased with the card.


title: American Express

text: American Express has a specialized corporate meeting credit card. Another specialized American Express business card is the American Express Corporate Purchasing Card, which can be assigned to individual employees or departments. Reconciliation and accounting services are available to make these functions easier for the corporation.


title: American Express

text: In December 2000, American Express agreed to acquire the US$226million credit card portfolio of Bank of Hawaii, then a division of Pacific Century Financial Corp. In January 2006, American Express sold its Bank of Hawaii card portfolio to Bank of America (MBNA). Bank of America will issue Visa and American Express cards under the Bank of Hawaii name.


title: American Express

text: Until 2004, Visa and Mastercard rules prohibited issuers of their cards from issuing American Express cards in the United States. This meant, as a practical matter, that U.S. banks could not issue American Express cards. These rules were struck down as a result of antitrust litigation brought by the U.S. Department of Justice, and are no longer in effect. In January 2004, American Express reached a deal to have its cards issued by a U.S. bank, MBNA America. Initially decried by Mastercard executives as nothing but an "experiment", these cards were released in October 2004. Some said that the relationship was going to be threatened by MBNA's merger with Bank of America, a major Visa issuer and original developer of Visa (and its predecessor, BankAmericard). However, an agreement was reached between American Express and Bank of America on December 21, 2005. Under the terms of the agreement, Bank of America will own the customer loans and American Express will process the transactions. Also, American Express will dismiss Bank of America from its antitrust litigation against Visa, Mastercard, and a number of U.S. banks. Finally, both Bank of America and American Express also said an existing card-issuing partnership between MBNA and American Express will continue after the Bank of America-MBNA merger. The first card from the partnership, the no-annual-fee Bank of America Rewards American Express card, was released on June 30, 2006.


title: American Express

text: Since then, Citibank, Wells Fargo, First National Bank of Omaha, USAA, Navy Federal, Synchrony Financial, and US Bancorp have started issuing American Express cards. Citi issues the Macy's and Bloomingdale's American Express cards along with Citi-branded cards. Wells Fargo issues American Express cards under their own brand and for Dillard's. US Bancorp issues American Express-branded cards for US Bank along with Elan Card Services, a subsidiary that issues credit cards on behalf of small to midsize banks. Some credit unions, including PenFed, also issue American Express cards. JPMorgan Chase is the largest bank and the only Big Four bank in the US that does not partner with American Express. Instead, JPMorgan made the decision in 2013, to partner with Visa on the ChaseNet closed-loop network that is similar in terms of functionality to the American Express network.


title: American Express

text: Many retailers do not accept American Express cards. American Express charges merchants significantly higher fees than other credit card providers. In a court case "Ohio v. American Express Co.", merchants filed a class action lawsuit against American Express and claimed that charging high fees is a violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act. According to the lawsuit, accepting American Express cards costs merchants the most. In January 2017, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court ruling that American Express could block merchants that accept its cards from steering customers to other cards, like those offered by Visa and Mastercard. In June 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the 2nd Circuit Court's ruling.


title: American Express

text: In 2005, American Express released the American Express Travelers Cheque Card, a stored-value card that serves the same purposes as a traveler's cheque, but can be used in stores like a credit card. Amex discontinued the card in October 2007, due to "changing market conditions" and issued refund checks to cardholders for the remaining balances.


title: American Express

text: On September 30, 2005, American Express spun-off its American Express Financial Advisors unit, Ameriprise Financial, to its shareholders. On September 30, 2005, RSM McGladrey acquired American Express Tax & Business Services (TBS).


title: American Express

text: In 2008, Standard Chartered Bank acquired American Express Bank Ltd, the international banking subsidiary of American Express for US$823million.


title: American Express

text: American Express established a Travel Division in 1915, that tied together all earlier efforts at making travel easier, and soon established its first travel agencies. In the 1930s, the Travel Division had grown widely. Albert K. Dawson was instrumental in expanding business operations overseas, even investing in tourist relations with the Soviet Union. During World War I, Dawson was a photographer and film correspondent with the German army.


title: American Express

text: In March 2014, American Express announced that it signed an agreement to create a joint venture for business travel and spun off its corporate travel business as American Express Global Business Travel.


title: American Express

text: The American Express Publishing Corporation published the "Travel + Leisure," "Food & Wine," "Executive Travel", "Black Ink", and "Departures" magazines until October 1, 2013, when it sold those titles to Time Inc. It publishes "American Express Skyguide" and is based in New York City. , Time Inc. is restructuring the portfolio of publications. These assets are now part of IAC's Dotdash Meredith.


title: American Express

text: American Express FSB (federal savings bank) is a direct bank offering a standard savings account to individuals. The names used are Centurion Bank and American Express Bank; both are Utah-based and TRS (Travel Related Services).


title: American Express

text: American Express Rewards Checking, an online checking account, is available to consumer card members who have held card accounts for three or more months. There are no account fees and customers earn a 0.50% APY alongside Membership Rewards points on debit transactions.


title: American Express

text: In 2020, American Express acquired Kabbage. In June 2021, the company's first checking account for small businesses, Kabbage Checking, was launched. American Express also offers credit lines of to for small businesses, using Kabbage's automated underwriting software.


title: American Express

text: Full-service business checking for small and mid-sized businesses under the American Express brand was launched in October 2021.


title: American Express

text: In 1975, David Ogilvy of Ogilvy & Mather developed the highly successful "Don't Leave Home Without Them" ad campaign for American Express Traveler's Cheques, featuring Oscar-award-winning actor Karl Malden. Malden served as the public face of American Express Travelers Cheques for 25 years. In the UK, the spokesman was the television personality Alan Whicker.


title: American Express

text: After Malden's departure, and as the card assumed importance over the traveler's cheques, American Express continued to use celebrities, such as Mel Blanc and ballerina Cynthia Gregory. A typical ad for the American Express Card began with a celebrity asking viewers: "Do you know me?" Although he/she gave hints to his/her identity, the star's name was never mentioned except as imprinted on an American Express Card, after which announcer Peter Thomas told viewers how to apply for it. Each ad concluded with the celebrity reminding viewers: "Don't Leave Home Without It." The "Don't Leave Home Without It" slogan was revived in 2005.


title: American Express

text: American Express continues to use celebrities in their ads. Some notable examples include a late 1990s ad campaign with comedian Jerry Seinfeld, including the two 2004 webisodes in a series entitled "The Adventures of Seinfeld & Superman".


title: American Express

text: In late 2004, American Express launched the "My life. My card." brand campaign, and later the "Are You a Cardmember?" brand campaign in 2007, (both by Ogilvy & Mather), featuring famous American Express cardmembers talking about their lives. The ads have featured actors/actresses Kate Winslet,<ref name="amex-adsoftheworld-04/2009"></ref> Robert De Niro, Ken Watanabe, and Tina Fey; Duke University basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski; fashion designers Collette Dinnigan and Diane von Fürstenberg; comedian and talk show hostess Ellen DeGeneres; golfer Tiger Woods; professional snowboarder Shaun White; tennis pros Venus Williams, Andy Roddick, and Andre Agassi; surfer Laird Hamilton Manchester United manager José Mourinho; film directors Martin Scorsese, Wes Anderson, and M. Night Shyamalan; singers Sheryl Crow, Alicia Keys and Beyoncé.


title: American Express

text: In 2007, a two-minute black-and-white ad, entitled "Animals" and starring Ellen DeGeneres, won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Commercial.


title: American Express

text: Many American Express credit card ads feature a sample American Express Card with the name "C. F. Frost" on the front. This is not a fabricated name; Charles F. Frost was an advertising executive at Ogilvy & Mather.


title: American Express

text: American Express was one of the earliest users of cause marketing, to great success. A 1983 promotion advertised that for each purchase made with an American Express Card, American Express would contribute one penny to the renovation of the Statue of Liberty. The campaign generated contributions of $1.7 million to the Statue of Liberty restoration project. What would soon capture the attention of marketing departments of major corporations was that the promotion generated approximately a 28% increase in American Express card usage by consumers.


title: American Express

text: In May 2007, American Express launched an initiative called the Members Project. Cardholders were invited to submit ideas for projects, and were told American Express was funding the winning project.


title: American Express

text: American Express supports initiatives to enhance the architectural and cultural heritage, with the aim of raising awareness on the importance of historical and environmental conservation, through the restoration of historical monuments. American Express is a founder sponsor of the global program "World Monuments Watch", launched in 1995, by World Monuments Fund. During the first edition of Corporate Art Awards, in 2016, American Express received by pptArt the Corporate Art Award for its international restoration program.


title: American Express

text: In 2019, Australian media company Pedestrian Group acquired Openair Cinemas, which had formerly been known as American Express Openair Cinemas. The brand refers to outdoor showings of films in open spaces across Australia and New Zealand.


title: American Express

text: In April 1986, American Express moved its headquarters to the 51-story Three World Financial Center in New York City. After the events of September 11, 2001, American Express had to leave its headquarters temporarily because it was located directly opposite the World Trade Center and was damaged during the fall of the towers. The company began gradually moving back into its rehabilitated building in 2002.


title: American Express

text: The company maintains major offices in Sunrise, Florida, Salt Lake City, and Phoenix, Arizona, with its main data centers in North Carolina and Phoenix.


title: American Express

text: AMEX Bank of Canada was founded in 1853, in Toronto. It has around 1,700 employees as of December 2020 in its head office at Sheppard, east of Highway 404 in Toronto (relocated from Markham, Ontario, a northern suburb of Toronto where it resided from 1985 to 2015), as well as an office in Hamilton, Ontario. The company began operations as a bank on July 1, 1990, following an order-in-council made by the Brian Mulroney government on November 21, 1988. This decision was not without controversy as federal banking policy at the time would not ordinarily have permitted American Express to operate as a bank. It is a member of the Canadian Bankers Association (CBA) and a registered member of the Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation (CDIC), the federal agency insuring deposits at all of Canada's chartered banks.


title: American Express

text: American Express has several offices in the UK, including a European Service Center in the Carlton Hill area of Brighton, England. The building was completed in 2012. It replaced American Express's former building, Amex House, a large white tower block built in 1977 and surrounded by several other smaller offices around the city. The American Express European Service Center deals with card servicing, sales, fraud and merchant servicing. Official Europe, Middle East, and Africa HQ is located in the Belgravia district of Westminster, in central London, at Belgrave House on Buckingham Palace Road, SW1; other UK offices are based in Sussex at Burgess Hill and Manchester. In November 2009, Brighton and Hove City Council granted planning permission for American Express to redevelop the Amex House site.


title: American Express

text: Japan, Asia-Pacific, and Australian Headquarters is co-located in Singapore, at 16 Collyer Quay, and in Sydney's King Street Wharf area.


title: American Express

text: American Express also has a significant presence in India. Its two centers are located at Gurgaon, Haryana and on Mathura Road in New Delhi. The Indian operations of American Express revolve around the back office customer services operations apart from the credit card business for the domestic Indian Economy, arguably the American Express campus in Gurgaon is the largest employee location by headcount for Amex and supports business continuity objectives of Amex including during Hurricane Sandy, the center works 24/7 and includes a co-located second building which was recently transferred to a third party service provider but does much work for Amex.


title: American Express

text: In 2008, American Express was named the 62nd best company to work for in the United States by "Fortune", ranking it number one for bank card companies. In October 2008, Amex Canada Inc. was named one of Greater Toronto's Top Employers by Mediacorp Canada Inc., which was announced by the "Toronto Star" newspaper. In 2018, "Fortune" ranked it the 23rd best company to work for. In 2019, "Fortune" ranked it the 9th best company to work for.


title: American Express

text: , American Express shares are mainly held by institutional investors (Berkshire Hathaway, Vanguard group, BlackRock, State Street Corporation and others).


title: American Express

text: The "Don't Leave Home Without It" campaign was parodied by the American game show "Press Your Luck" in 1984, with the show's mascot, the "whammy", showing the viewers an "American Xcess" card, using the introduction of "Hello, do you know me?" The name "W-H-A-M-M-Y" is then revealed to the audience before taking all of the player's earnings to that point.


title: Munich massacre

text: The Munich massacre was a terrorist attack carried out during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany, by eight members of the Palestinian militant organization Black September, who infiltrated the Olympic Village, killed two members of the Israeli Olympic team, and took nine others hostage. Black September called the operation "Iqrit and Biram", after two Palestinian Christian villages whose inhabitants were expelled by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. The Black September commander was Luttif Afif, who was also their negotiator. West German neo-Nazis gave the group logistical assistance.


title: Munich massacre

text: Shortly after the hostages were taken, Afif demanded the release of 234 Palestinian prisoners who were being held in Israeli jails, plus the West German–imprisoned founders of the Red Army Faction, Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof. West German police ambushed the terrorists, and killed five of the eight Black September members, but the rescue attempt failed and all of the hostages were killed. A West German policeman was also killed in the crossfire, and the West German government was criticized for the poor execution of its rescue attempt and its overall handling of the incident. The three surviving perpetrators were Adnan Al-Gashey, Jamal Al-Gashey, and Mohammed Safady, who were arrested, only to be released the next month in the hostage exchange that followed the hijacking of Lufthansa Flight 615. By then, the Israeli government had launched Operation Wrath of God, which authorized Mossad to track down and kill anyone who had played a role in the attack.


title: Munich massacre

text: Two days prior to the start of the 2016 Summer Olympics, in a ceremony led by Brazilian and Israeli officials, the International Olympic Committee honored the eleven Israelis and one German who were killed at Munich. In the 2020 Summer Olympics, a moment of silence was observed in the opening ceremony.


title: Munich massacre

text: The hostages were taken during the second week of the 1972 Summer Olympics. The West German Olympic Organizing Committee had hoped to discard the military image of Germany. The Committee was wary of the image portrayed by the 1936 Summer Olympics, which Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler used for his propaganda. Security personnel known as Olys were inconspicuous, but were prepared to deal mostly with ticket fraud and drunkenness. The documentary film "One Day in September" claims that security in the athletes' village was unfit for the Games and that athletes could come and go as they pleased. Athletes could sneak past security, and go to other countries' rooms, by going over the fencing that encompassed the village.


title: Munich massacre

text: The absence of armed personnel had worried Israeli delegation head Shmuel Lalkin even before his team arrived in Munich. In later interviews with journalists Serge Groussard and Aaron J. Klein, Lalkin said that he had expressed concern with the relevant authorities about his team's lodgings. The team was housed in a relatively isolated part of the Olympic Village, on the ground floor of a small building close to a gate, which Lalkin felt made his team particularly vulnerable to an outside assault. The West German authorities apparently assured Lalkin that extra security would be provided to look after the Israeli team, but Lalkin doubts that any additional measures were ever taken.


title: Munich massacre

text: Olympic organizers asked West German forensic psychologist Georg Sieber to create 26 terrorism scenarios to aid the organizers in planning security. His "Situation 21" accurately forecast armed Palestinians invading the Israeli delegation's quarters, killing and taking hostages, and demanding Israel's release of prisoners and a plane to leave West Germany. Organizers balked against preparing for Situation 21 and the other scenarios, since guarding the Games against them would have gone against the goal of "Carefree Games" without heavy security.


title: Munich massacre

text: The German weekly news magazine "Der Spiegel" wrote in 2012 that West German authorities had a tip-off from a Palestinian informant in Beirut three weeks before the massacre. The informant told West Germany that Palestinians were planning an "incident" at the Olympic Games, and the Foreign Ministry in Bonn viewed the tip-off seriously enough to pass it to the secret service in Munich and urge that "all possible security measures" be taken.


title: Munich massacre

text: However, according to "Der Spiegel", the authorities failed to act on the tip, and had never acknowledged it in the following 40 years. The magazine said that this was only part of a 40-year cover-up by German authorities of the mishandling of its response to the massacre.


title: Munich massacre

text: The attackers were reported to be Palestinian terrorists from refugee camps in Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan. They were identified as Luttif Afif (using the codename Issa), the leader (three of Issa's brothers were also reportedly members of Black September, two of them in Israeli jails), his deputy Yusuf Nazzal ("Tony"), and junior members Afif Ahmed Hamid ("Paolo"), Khalid Jawad ("Salah"), Ahmed Chic Thaa ("Abu Halla"), Mohammed Safady ("Badran"), Adnan Al-Gashey ("Denawi"), and Al-Gashey's cousin, Jamal Al-Gashey ("Samir").


title: Munich massacre

text: According to author Simon Reeve, Afif (the son of a Jewish mother and Christian father), Nazzal and one of their confidantes had all worked in various capacities in the Olympic Village, and had spent a couple of weeks scouting for their potential target. A member of the Uruguayan Olympic delegation, which shared housing with the Israelis, claimed that he found Nazzal inside 31 Connollystraße less than 24 hours before the attack, but since he was recognized as a worker in the Village, nothing was thought of it at the time. The other members of the group entered Munich via train and plane in the days before the attack.


title: Munich massacre

text: On Monday evening, 4 September, the Israeli athletes enjoyed a night out, watching a performance of "Fiddler on the Roof" and dining with the star of the play, Israeli actor Shmuel Rodensky, before returning to the Olympic Village. On the return trip in the team bus Lalkin denied his 13-year-old son—who had befriended weightlifter Yossef Romano and wrestler Eliezer Halfin—permission to spend the night in their apartment at Connollystraße 31, which may have saved the boy's life.


title: Munich massacre

text: At 4:30 am local time on 5 September, as the athletes slept, eight tracksuit-clad members of the Black September faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization, carrying duffel bags loaded with AKM assault rifles, Tokarev pistols, and grenades, scaled a chain-link fence with the assistance of unsuspecting athletes who were also sneaking into the Olympic Village. The athletes were originally identified as Americans, but were claimed to be Canadians decades later.


title: Munich massacre

text: Once inside, the group used stolen keys to enter two apartments being used by the Israeli team at Connollystraße 31. Yossef Gutfreund, a wrestling referee, was awakened by a faint scratching noise at the door of Apartment 1, which housed the Israeli coaches and officials. When he investigated, he saw the door begin to open and masked men with guns on the other side. He shouted a warning to his sleeping roommates and threw his 135 kg (300 lb) weight against the door in an attempt to stop the intruders from forcing their way in. Gutfreund's actions gave his roommate, weightlifting coach Tuvia Sokolovsky, enough time to smash a window and escape. Wrestling coach Moshe Weinberg fought the intruders, who shot him through his cheek and then forced him to help them find more hostages.


title: Munich massacre

text: Leading the intruders past Apartment 2, Weinberg lied by telling them that the residents of the apartment were not Israelis. Instead, Weinberg led them to Apartment 3, where the gunmen corralled six wrestlers and weightlifters as additional hostages. It is possible that Weinberg had hoped that the stronger men would have a better chance of fighting off the attackers than those in Apartment 2, but they were all surprised in their sleep.


title: Munich massacre

text: As the athletes from Apartment 3 were marched back to the coaches' apartment, the wounded Weinberg again attacked the gunmen, allowing one of his wrestlers, Gad Tsobari, to escape via the underground parking garage. Weinberg knocked unconscious one of the intruders and slashed at another with a fruit knife but failed to draw blood before being shot to death.


title: Munich massacre

text: Weightlifter Yossef Romano, a veteran of the 1967 Six-Day War, also attacked and wounded one of the intruders before being shot and killed. In its publication of 1 December 2015, "The New York Times" reported that Romano was castrated after he was shot.


title: Munich massacre

text: The gunmen were left with nine hostages. They were, in addition to Gutfreund, shooting coach Kehat Shorr, track and field coach Amitzur Shapira, fencing master Andre Spitzer, weightlifting judge Yakov Springer, wrestlers Eliezer Halfin and Mark Slavin, and weightlifters David Berger and Ze'ev Friedman. Berger was an expatriate American with dual citizenship; Slavin, the youngest of the hostages at 18, had only arrived in Israel from the Soviet Union four months before the Olympic Games began. Gutfreund, physically the largest of the hostages, was bound to a chair (Groussard describes him as being tied up like a mummy); the rest were lined up four apiece on the two beds in Springer and Shapira's room, and bound at the wrists and ankles and then to each other. Romano's bullet-riddled corpse was left at his bound comrades' feet as a warning. Several of the hostages were beaten during the stand-off, with some suffering broken bones as a result.


title: Munich massacre

text: Of the other members of Israel's team, racewalker Shaul Ladany had been jolted awake in Apartment 2 by Gutfreund's screams. He jumped from the second-story balcony of his room and fled to the American dormitory, awakening U.S. track coach Bill Bowerman and informing him of the attack. Ladany, a survivor of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, was the first person to spread the alert. The other four residents of Apartment 2 (shooters Henry Hershkowitz and Zelig Shtroch, fencers Dan Alon and Yehuda Weisenstein), plus chef de mission Shmuel Lalkin and the two team doctors, hid and eventually fled the besieged building. The two female members of Israel's Olympic team, sprinter and hurdler Esther Shahamorov and swimmer Shlomit Nir, were housed in a separate part of the Olympic Village.


title: Munich massacre

text: The hostage-takers demanded the release of 234 Palestinians and non-Arabs jailed in Israel, along with two West German insurgents held by the West German penitentiary system, Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof, who were founders of the West German Red Army Faction. The hostage-takers threw the body of Weinberg out of the front door of the residence to demonstrate their resolve. Israel's response was immediate and absolute: there would be no negotiation. Israel's official policy at the time was to refuse to negotiate with terrorists under any circumstances, as according to the Israeli government such negotiations would give an incentive to future attacks.


title: Munich massacre

text: The German authorities, under the leadership of Chancellor Willy Brandt and Minister for the Interior Hans-Dietrich Genscher, rejected Israel's offer to send an Israeli special forces unit to West Germany. The Bavarian interior minister Bruno Merk, who headed the crisis centre jointly with Genscher and Munich's police chief Manfred Schreiber, denies that such an Israeli offer ever existed.


title: Munich massacre

text: According to journalist John K. Cooley, the hostage situation presented an extremely difficult political situation for the Germans because the hostages were Jewish. Cooley reported that the Germans offered the Palestinians an unlimited amount of money for the release of the athletes, as well as the substitution by high-ranking Germans. However, the kidnappers refused both offers.


title: Munich massacre

text: Munich police chief Manfred Schreiber, and Bruno Merk, interior minister of Bavaria, negotiated directly with the kidnappers, repeating the offer of an unlimited amount of money. According to Cooley, the reply was that "money means nothing to us; our lives mean nothing to us." Magdi Gohary and Mohammad Khadif, both Egyptian advisers to the Arab League, and A.D. Touny, an Egyptian member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), also helped try to win concessions from the kidnappers, but to no avail. However, the negotiators apparently were able to convince the terrorists that their demands were being considered, as "Issa" granted a total of five deadline extensions. Elsewhere in the village, athletes carried on as normal, seemingly oblivious to the events unfolding nearby. The Games continued until mounting pressure on the IOC forced a suspension some 12 hours after the first athlete had been murdered. United States marathon runner Frank Shorter, observing the unfolding events from the balcony of his nearby lodging, was quoted as saying, "Imagine those poor guys over there. Every five minutes a psycho with a machine gun says, 'Let's kill 'em now,' and someone else says, 'No, let's wait a while.' How long could you stand that?"


title: Munich massacre

text: At 4:30 pm, a squad of 38 West German police officers was dispatched to the Olympic Village. Dressed in Olympic sweatsuits (some also wearing Stahlhelme and carrying Walther MP sub-machine guns), they were members of the German border police, although according to former Munich policeman Heinz Hohensinn they were regular Munich police officers, with no experience in combat or hostage rescue. Their plan was to crawl down from the ventilation shafts and kill the terrorists. The police took up positions awaiting the codeword "Sunshine", which upon hearing, they were to begin the assault. In the meantime, camera crews filmed the actions of the officers from the German apartments, and broadcast the images live on television. Thus, the terrorists were able to watch the police prepare to attack. Footage shows one of the kidnappers peering from the balcony door while one of the police officers stood on the roof less than from him. In the end, after "Issa" threatened to kill two of the hostages, the police retreated from the premises.


title: Munich massacre

text: At one point during the crisis, the negotiators demanded direct contact with the hostages to satisfy themselves the Israelis were still alive. Fencing coach Andre Spitzer, who spoke fluent German, and shooting coach Kehat Shorr, the senior member of the Israeli delegation, had a brief conversation with West German officials while standing at the second-floor window of the besieged building, with two kidnappers holding guns on them. When Spitzer attempted to answer a question, he was clubbed with the butt of an AK-47 in full view of international television cameras and pulled away from the window. A few minutes later, Hans-Dietrich Genscher and Walter Tröger, the mayor of the Olympic Village, were briefly allowed into the apartments to speak with the hostages. Tröger spoke of being very moved by the dignity with which the Israelis held themselves, and that they seemed resigned to their fate.


title: Munich massacre

text: Tröger noticed that several of the hostages, especially Gutfreund, showed signs of having suffered physical abuse at the hands of the kidnappers, and that David Berger had been shot in his left shoulder. While being debriefed by the crisis team, Genscher and Tröger told them that they had seen "four or five" attackers inside the apartment. Fatefully, these numbers were accepted as definitive. While Genscher and Tröger were talking with the hostages, Kehat Shorr had told the West Germans that the Palestinians would not object to being flown to an Arab country, provided that strict guarantees for their safety were made by the Germans and whichever nation they landed in.


title: Munich massacre

text: The original West German plan was to offer to transport the terrorists and the hostages by plane to Cairo. Two Bell UH-1 military helicopters were to take them to nearby Fürstenfeldbruck, a NATO airbase. Initially, the perpetrators' plan was to go to Riem, which was the international airport near Munich at the time, but the negotiators convinced them that Fürstenfeldbruck would be more practical.


title: Munich massacre

text: Realizing that the Palestinians and Israelis had to walk 200 metres through the underground garages to reach the helicopters, the West German police saw another opportunity to ambush the perpetrators, and placed sharpshooters there. But "Issa" insisted on checking the route first. He and some other Palestinians walked pointing their AK-47s at Schreiber, Tröger and Genscher. At that time, the police snipers were lying behind cars in the sidestreets, and when they approached the latter crawled away, making noise in the process. Thus the terrorists were immediately alerted of the dangerous presence, and they decided to use a bus instead of walking. The bus arrived at 10:00 pm and drove the contingent to the helicopters. "Issa" checked them with a flashlight before boarding in groups.


title: Munich massacre

text: Five West German policemen were deployed around the airport in sniper roles—three on the roof of the control tower, one hidden behind a service truck and one behind a small signal tower at ground level. However, none of them had any special sniper training, nor any special weapon (being equipped with the H&K G3, the ordinary battle rifle of the German Armed Forces without optics or night vision devices). The officers were selected because they shot competitively on weekends. During a subsequent German investigation, an officer identified as "Sniper No. 2" stated: "I am of the opinion that I am not a sharpshooter."


title: Munich massacre

text: The members of the crisis teamSchreiber, Genscher, Merk and Schreiber's deputy Georg Wolfsupervised and observed the attempted rescue from the airport control tower. Cooley, Reeve and Groussard all placed Mossad chief Zvi Zamir and Victor Cohen, one of Zamir's senior assistants, at the scene as well, but as observers only.


title: Munich massacre

text: A Boeing 727 jet was positioned on the tarmac with sixteen West German police inside dressed as flight crew. It was agreed that "Issa" and "Tony" would inspect the plane. The plan was that the West Germans would overpower them as they boarded, giving the snipers a chance to kill the remaining terrorists at the helicopters.


title: Munich massacre

text: At the last minute, as the helicopters were arriving at Fürstenfeldbruck, the West German police aboard the airplane decided it was too dangerous and voted to abandon their mission, without consulting the central command. This left only the five sharpshooters to try to overpower a larger and more heavily armed group. At that point, Colonel Ulrich Wegener, Genscher's senior aide and later the founder of the elite German counter-terrorist unit GSG 9, said "I'm sure this will blow the whole affair!".


title: Munich massacre

text: The helicopters landed just after 10:30 pm and the four pilots and six of the kidnappers emerged. While four of the Black September members held the pilots at gunpoint (breaking an earlier promise that they would not take any Germans hostage), Issa and Tony walked over to inspect the jet, only to find it empty. Realizing they had been lured into a trap, they sprinted back toward the helicopters. As they ran past the control tower, Sniper 3 took one last opportunity to eliminate "Issa", which would have left the group leaderless. However, due to the poor lighting, he struggled to see his target and missed, hitting "Tony" in the thigh instead. Meanwhile, the West German authorities gave the order for snipers positioned nearby to open fire, which occurred around 11:00 pm.


title: Munich massacre

text: In the ensuing chaos, Ahmed Chic Thaa and Afif Ahmed Hamid, the two kidnappers holding the helicopter pilots, were killed while the remaining gunmensome possibly already woundedscrambled to safety, returning fire from behind and beneath the helicopters, out of the snipers' line of sight, shooting out many of the airport lights. A West German policeman in the control tower, Anton Fliegerbauer, was killed by the gunfire. The helicopter pilots fled; the hostages, tied up inside the crafts, could not. During the gun battle, the hostages secretly worked on loosening their bonds and teethmarks were found on some of the ropes after the gunfire had ended.


title: Munich massacre

text: The West Germans had not arranged for armored personnel carriers ahead of time and only at this point were they called in to break the deadlock. Since the roads to the airport had not been cleared, the carriers became stuck in traffic and finally arrived around midnight. With their appearance, the kidnappers felt the shift in the status quo, and possibly panicked at the thought of the failure of their operation.


title: Munich massacre

text: At four minutes past midnight of 6 September, one of the terrorists (likely Issa) turned on the hostages in the eastern helicopter and fired at them with a Kalashnikov assault rifle from point-blank range. Springer, Halfin and Friedman were killed instantly; Berger, shot twice in the leg, is believed to have survived the initial onslaught (as his autopsy later found that he had died of smoke inhalation). The attacker then pulled the pin on a hand grenade and tossed it into the cockpit; the ensuing explosion destroyed the helicopter and incinerated the bound Israelis inside.


title: Munich massacre

text: Issa then dashed across the tarmac and began firing at the police, who killed him with return fire. Another, Khalid Jawad, attempted to escape and was gunned down by one of the snipers. What happened to the remaining hostages is still a matter of dispute. A German police investigation indicated that one of their snipers and a few of the hostages may have been shot inadvertently by the police. However, a "Time" magazine reconstruction of the long-suppressed Bavarian prosecutor's report indicates that a third kidnapper (Reeve identifies Adnan Al-Gashey) stood at the door of the western helicopter and raked the remaining five hostages with machine gun fire; Gutfreund, Shorr, Slavin, Spitzer and Shapira were shot an average of four times each.


title: Munich massacre

text: Of the four hostages in the eastern helicopter, only Ze'ev Friedman's body was relatively intact; he had been blown clear of the helicopter by the explosion. In some cases, the exact cause of death for the hostages in the eastern helicopter was difficult to establish because the rest of the corpses were burned almost beyond recognition in the explosion and subsequent fire.


title: Munich massacre

text: Three of the remaining terrorists lay on the ground, one of them feigning death, and were captured by police. Jamal Al-Gashey had been shot through his right wrist, and Mohammed Safady had sustained a flesh wound to his leg. Adnan Al-Gashey had escaped injury completely. Yusuf Nazzal ("Tony") escaped the scene, but was tracked down with police dogs 40 minutes later in an airbase parking lot. Cornered and bombarded with tear gas, he was shot dead after a brief gunfight. By around 1:30 am on 6 September, the battle was over.


title: Munich massacre

text: Initial news reports, published all over the world, indicated that all the hostages were alive, and that all the attackers had been killed. Only later did a representative for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) suggest that "initial reports were overly optimistic." Jim McKay, who was covering the Olympics that year for the American Broadcasting Company (ABC), had taken on the job of reporting the events as Roone Arledge fed them into his earpiece. At 3:24 am, McKay received the official confirmation:


title: Munich massacre

text: Author Simon Reeve, among others, writes that the shootout with the well-trained Black September members showed an egregious lack of preparation on the part of the German authorities. They were not prepared to deal with this sort of situation. This costly lesson led directly to the founding, less than two months later, of police counter-terrorism branch GSG 9. German authorities made a number of mistakes. First, because of restrictions in the post-war West German constitution, the army could not participate in the attempted rescue, as the German armed forces are not allowed to operate inside Germany during peacetime. The responsibility was entirely in the hands of the Munich police and the Bavarian authorities.


title: Munich massacre

text: It was known a half-hour before the hostages and kidnappers had even arrived at Fürstenfeldbruck that the number of the latter was larger than first believed. Despite this new information, Schreiber decided to continue with the rescue operation as originally planned and the new information could not reach the snipers since they had no radios.


title: Munich massacre

text: It is a basic tenet of sniping operations that there are enough snipers (at least two for each "known" target, or in this case a minimum of ten) deployed to neutralize as many of the attackers as possible with the first volley of shots. The 2006 "National Geographic" Channel's "Seconds From Disaster" profile on the massacre stated that the helicopters were supposed to land sideways and to the west of the control tower, a maneuver which would have allowed the snipers clear shots into them as the kidnappers threw open the helicopter doors. Instead, the helicopters were landed facing the control tower and at the centre of the airstrip. This not only gave them a place to hide after the gunfight began, but put Snipers 1 and 2 in the line of fire of the other three snipers on the control tower.


title: Munich massacre

text: According to the same program, the crisis committee delegated to make decisions on how to deal with the incident consisted of Bruno Merk (the Bavarian interior minister), Hans-Dietrich Genscher (the West German interior minister) and Manfred Schreiber (Munich's Chief of Police); in other words, two politicians and one tactician. The program mentioned that a year before the Games, Schreiber had participated in another hostage crisis (a failed bank robbery) in which he ordered a marksman to shoot one of the perpetrators, managing only to wound the robber. As a result, the robbers shot an innocent woman dead. Schreiber was consequently charged with involuntary manslaughter.


title: Munich massacre

text: As mentioned earlier, the five German snipers at Fürstenfeldbruck did not have radio contact with one another (nor with the German authorities conducting the rescue operation) and therefore were unable to coordinate their fire. The only contact the snipers had with the operational leadership was with Georg Wolf, who was lying next to the three snipers on the control tower giving orders directly to them. The two snipers at ground level had been given vague instructions to shoot when the other snipers began shooting, and were basically left to fend for themselves.


title: Munich massacre

text: In addition, the snipers did not have the proper equipment for this hostage rescue operation. The Heckler & Koch G3 battle rifles used were considered by several experts to be inadequate for the distance at which the snipers were trying to shoot. The G3, the standard service rifle of the Bundeswehr at that time, had a barrel; at the distances the snipers were required to shoot, a barrel would have ensured far greater accuracy. None of the rifles were equipped with telescopic or infrared sights. Additionally, none of the snipers were equipped with a steel helmet or bullet-proof vest. No armored vehicles were at the scene at Fürstenfeldbruck, and were only called in after the gunfight was well underway.


title: Munich massacre

text: There were also numerous tactical errors. As mentioned earlier, "Sniper 2", who was stationed behind the signal tower, wound up directly in the line of fire of his fellow snipers on the control tower, without any protective gear and without any other police being aware of his location. Because of this, "Sniper 2" didn't fire a single shot until late in the gunfight, when hostage-taker Khalid Jawad attempted to escape on foot and ran right at the exposed sniper. "Sniper 2" killed the fleeing perpetrator but was in turn badly wounded by a fellow police officer, who was unaware that he was shooting at one of his own men. One of the helicopter pilots, Gunnar Ebel, was lying near "Sniper 2" and was also wounded by friendly fire. Both Ebel and the sniper recovered from their injuries.


title: Munich massacre

text: Many of the errors made by the Germans during the rescue attempt were ultimately detailed by Heinz Hohensinn, who had participated in Operation Sunshine earlier that day. He stated in "One Day in September" that he had been selected to pose as a crew member. He and his fellow policemen understood that it was a suicide mission, so the group unanimously voted to flee the plane. None of them were reprimanded for that desertion.


title: Munich massacre

text: The bodies of the five Palestinian attackers—Afif, Nazzal, Chic Thaa, Hamid and Jawad—killed during the Fürstenfeldbruck gun battle were delivered to Libya, where they received heroes' funerals and were buried with full military honours. On 8 September, Israeli planes bombed ten PLO bases in Syria and Lebanon in response to the massacre, killing a reported 200 militants and 11 civilians.


title: Munich massacre

text: The three surviving Black September gunmen had been arrested after the Fürstenfeldbruck gunfight, and were being held in a Munich prison for trial. On 29 October, Lufthansa Flight 615 was hijacked and threatened to be blown up if the Munich attackers were not released. Safady and the Al-Gasheys were immediately released by West Germany, receiving a tumultuous welcome when they touched down in Libya and (as seen in "One Day in September") giving their own firsthand account of their operation at a press conference broadcast worldwide.


title: Munich massacre

text: Further international investigations into the Lufthansa Flight 615 incident have produced theories of a secret agreement between the German government and Black September release of the surviving terrorists in exchange for assurances of no further attacks on Germany.


title: Munich massacre

text: In the wake of the hostage-taking, competition was suspended for 34 hours, for the first time in modern Olympic history, after public criticism of the Olympic Committee's decision to continue the games. On 6 September, a memorial service attended by 80,000 spectators and 3,000 athletes was held in the Olympic Stadium. IOC President Avery Brundage made little reference to the murdered athletes during a speech praising the strength of the Olympic movement and equating the attack on the Israeli sportsmen with the recent arguments about encroaching professionalism and disallowing Rhodesia's participation in the Games, which outraged many listeners. The victims' families were represented by Andre Spitzer's widow Ankie, Moshe Weinberg's mother, and a cousin of Weinberg, Carmel Eliash. During the memorial service, Eliash collapsed and died of a heart attack.


title: Munich massacre

text: Many of the 80,000 people who filled the Olympic Stadium for West Germany's football match with Hungary carried noisemakers and waved flags, but when several spectators unfurled a banner reading "17 dead, already forgotten?" security officers removed the sign and expelled those responsible from the grounds. During the memorial service, the Olympic Flag was flown at half-staff, along with the flags of most of the other competing nations at the request of Willy Brandt. Ten Arab nations objected to their flags flying at half-staff and the mandate was rescinded.


title: Munich massacre

text: Willi Daume, president of the Munich organizing committee, initially sought to cancel the remainder of the Games, but in the afternoon Brundage and others who wished to continue the Games prevailed, stating that they could not let the incident halt the Games. Brundage stated "The Games must go on, and we must ... and we must continue our efforts to keep them clean, pure and honest." The decision was endorsed by the Israeli government and Israeli Olympic team chef de mission Shmuel Lalkin.


title: Munich massacre

text: On 6 September, after the memorial service, the remaining members of the Israeli team withdrew from the Games and left Munich. All Jewish sportsmen were placed under guard. Mark Spitz, the American swimming star who had already completed his competitions, left Munich during the hostage crisis (it was feared that as a prominent Jew, Spitz might be a kidnapping target). The Egyptian team left the Games on 7 September, stating they feared reprisals. The Philippine and Algerian teams also left the Games, as did some members of the Dutch and Norwegian teams. American marathon runner Kenny Moore, who wrote about the incident for "Sports Illustrated", quoted Dutch distance runner Jos Hermens as saying "It's quite simple. We were invited to a party, and if someone comes to the party and shoots people, how can you stay?" Dutch sprinter Wilma van Gool had qualified for the semifinals in the 200 m sprint; the time that she ran in the quarterfinals was faster than quarterfinals time of the eventual gold medal winner, Renate Stecher of East Germany. However, she withdrew from the competition in sympathy with the Israeli victims. She said that she was leaving in protest of the "obscene" decision to continue with the Olympic Games. Many athletes, dazed by the tragedy, similarly felt that their desire to compete had been destroyed, although they stayed at the Games.


title: Munich massacre

text: Four years later at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, the Israeli team commemorated the massacre: when they entered the stadium at the Opening Ceremony, their national flag was adorned with a black ribbon.


title: Munich massacre

text: The families of some victims have asked the IOC to establish a permanent memorial to the athletes. The IOC has declined, saying that to introduce a specific reference to the victims could "alienate other members of the Olympic community," according to the BBC. Alex Gilady, an Israeli IOC official, told the BBC: "We must consider what this could do to other members of the delegations that are hostile to Israel."


title: Munich massacre

text: The IOC rejected an international campaign in support of a minute of silence at the Opening Ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics in honour of the Israeli victims on the 40th anniversary of the massacre. Jacques Rogge, the IOC President, said it would be "inappropriate," although the opening ceremony included a memorium for the victims of the 7 July 2005 London bombings. Speaking of the decision, Olympian Shaul Ladany, who survived the attack, commented: "I do not understand. I do not understand, and I do not accept it."


title: Munich massacre

text: In 2014 the International Olympic Committee agreed to contribute $250,000 towards a memorial to the murdered Israeli athletes. After 44 years, the IOC commemorated the victims of the Munich massacre for the first time in the Rio 2016 Olympic Village on 4 August 2016.


title: Munich massacre

text: There is a memorial outside the Olympic stadium in Munich in the form of a stone tablet at the bridge linking the stadium to the former Olympic village. There is a memorial tablet to the slain Israelis outside the front door of their former lodging at 31 Connollystraße. On 15 October 1999 (almost a year before the Sydney 2000 Games), a memorial plaque was unveiled in one of the large light towers (Tower 14) outside the Sydney Olympic Stadium.


title: Munich massacre

text: In the 2020 Summer Olympics, a moment of silence was observed in the opening ceremony in 2021, a year before its 50th anniversary. This was the first time in history this happened in the opening ceremony.


title: Munich massacre

text: King Hussein of Jordan, the only leader of an Arab country to denounce the attack publicly, called it a "savage crime against civilization ... perpetrated by sick minds."


title: Munich massacre

text: U.S. President Richard Nixon privately discussed a number of possible American responses, such as declaring a national day of mourning (favored by Secretary of State William P. Rogers), or having Nixon fly to the athletes' funerals. Nixon and U.S National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger decided instead to press the United Nations to take steps against international terrorism.


title: Munich massacre

text: On 5 September, Golda Meir, Prime Minister of Israel, appealed to other countries to "save our citizens and condemn the unspeakable criminal acts committed." She also stated, "if we [Israel] should give in, then no Israeli anywhere in the world shall feel that his life is safe... it's blackmail of the worst kind."


title: Munich massacre

text: Meir and the Israeli Defense Committee secretly authorized Mossad to track down and kill those allegedly responsible for the Munich massacre. The accusation that this was motivated by a desire for vengeance was disputed by Zvi Zamir, who described the mission as "putting an end to the type of terror that was perpetrated" in Europe. To this end Mossad set up a number of special teams to locate and kill these fedayeen, aided by the agency's stations in Europe.


title: Munich massacre

text: The Israeli mission later became known as "Operation Wrath of God" or "Mivtza Za'am Ha'El". Reeve quotes General Aharon Yariv—who, he writes, was the general overseer of the operation—as stating that after Munich the Israeli government felt it had no alternative but to exact justice.


title: Munich massacre

text: Benny Morris writes that a target list was created using information from "turned" PLO personnel and friendly European intelligence services. Once completed, a wave of assassinations of suspected Black September operatives began across Europe. On 9 April 1973, Israel launched Operation "Spring of Youth", a joint Mossad–IDF operation in Beirut. The targets were Mohammad Yusuf al-Najjar (Abu Yusuf), head of Fatah's intelligence arm, which ran Black September, according to Morris; Kamal Adwan, who headed the PLO's Western Sector, which controlled PLO action inside Israel; and Kamal Nassir, the PLO spokesman. A group of Sayeret commandos were taken in nine missile boats and a small fleet of patrol boats to a deserted Lebanese beach, before driving in two cars to downtown Beirut, where they killed Najjar, Adwan and Nassir. Two further detachments of commandos blew up the PFLP's headquarters in Beirut and a Fatah explosives plant. The leader of the commando team that conducted the operations was Ehud Barak.


title: Munich massacre

text: On 21 July 1973, in the Lillehammer affair, a team of Mossad agents mistakenly killed Ahmed Bouchiki, a Moroccan man unrelated to the Munich attack, in Lillehammer, Norway, after an informant mistakenly said Bouchiki was Ali Hassan Salameh, the head of Force 17 and a Black September operative. Five Mossad agents, including two women, were captured by the Norwegian authorities, while others managed to slip away. The five were convicted of the killing and imprisoned, but were released and returned to Israel in 1975. Mossad later found Ali Hassan Salameh in Beirut and killed him on 22 January 1979 with a remote-controlled car bomb. The attack killed four passersby and injured 18 others. According to CIA officer Duane "Dewey" Claridge, chief of operations of the CIA Near East Division from 1975 to 1978, in mid-1976, Salameh offered Americans assistance and protection with Arafat's blessings during the American embassy pull-out from Beirut during the down-spiraling chaos of the Lebanese Civil War. There was a general feeling that Americans could be trusted. However, the scene of cooperation came to an end abruptly after the assassination of Salameh. Americans were generally blamed as Israel's principal benefactors.


title: Munich massacre

text: Simon Reeve writes that the Israeli operations continued for more than twenty years. He details the assassination in Paris in 1992 of Atef Bseiso, the PLO's head of intelligence, and says that an Israeli general confirmed there was a link back to Munich. Reeve also writes that while Israeli officials have stated "Operation Wrath of God" was intended to exact vengeance for the families of the athletes killed in Munich, "few relatives wanted such a violent reckoning with the Palestinians." Reeve states the families were instead desperate to know the truth of the events surrounding the Munich massacre. Reeve outlines what he sees as a lengthy cover-up by German authorities to hide the truth. After a lengthy court fight, in 2004 the families of the Munich victims reached a settlement of €3 million with the German government.


title: Munich massacre

text: An article in 2012 in a front-page story of the German news magazine "Der Spiegel" reported that much of the information pertaining to the mishandling of the massacre was covered up by the German authorities. For twenty years, Germany refused to release any information about the attack and did not accept responsibility for the results. The magazine reported that the government had been hiding 3,808 files, which contained tens of thousands of documents. "Der Spiegel" said it obtained secret reports by authorities, embassy cables, and minutes of cabinet meetings that demonstrate the lack of professionalism of the German officials in handling the massacre. The newspaper also wrote that the German authorities were told that Palestinians were planning an "incident" at the Olympics three weeks before the massacre, but failed to take the necessary security measures, and these facts are missing from the official documentation of the German government.


title: Munich massacre

text: In August 2012, "Der Spiegel" reported that following the massacre, Germany began secret meetings with Black September, at the behest of the West German government, due to the fear that Black September would carry out other terrorist attacks in Germany. The government proposed a clandestine meeting between German Foreign Minister Walter Scheel and a member of Black September to create a "new basis of trust." In return for an exchange of the political status of the Palestine Liberation Organization, the PLO would stop terrorist attacks on German soil. When French police arrested Abu Daoud, one of the chief organizers of the Munich massacre, and inquired about extraditing him to Germany, Bavaria's justice secretary recommended that Germany should not take any action, causing the French to release Abu Daoud and the Assad regime to shelter him until he died at a Damascus hospital in 2010.


title: Munich massacre

text: Two of the three surviving gunmen, Mohammed Safady and Adnan Al-Gashey, were allegedly killed by Mossad as part of "Operation Wrath of God". Al-Gashey was allegedly located after making contact with a cousin in a Gulf State, and Safady was found by remaining in touch with family in Lebanon. This account was challenged in a book by Aaron J. Klein, who claims that Al-Gashey died of heart failure in the 1970s, and that Safady was killed by Christian Phalangists in Lebanon in the early 1980s. However, in July 2005, PLO veteran Tawfiq Tirawi told Klein that Safady, whom Tirawi claimed as a close friend, was "as alive as you are."


title: Munich massacre

text: The third surviving gunman, Jamal Al-Gashey, was known to be alive as of 1999, hiding in North Africa or in Syria, claiming to still fear retribution from Israel. He is the only one of the surviving terrorists to consent to interviews since 1972, having granted an interview in 1992 to a Palestinian newspaper, and having briefly emerged from hiding in 1999 to participate in an interview for the film "One Day in September", during which he was disguised and his face shown only in blurry shadow.


title: Munich massacre

text: Of those believed to have planned the massacre, only Abu Daoud, the man who claimed that the attack was his idea, is known to have died of natural causes. Historical documents released to "Der Spiegel" by the German secret service show that Dortmund police had been aware of collaboration between Abu Daoud and neo-Nazi ( E. W. Pless and, since 1979, officially named Willi Voss) seven weeks before the attack. In January 1977, Abu Daoud was intercepted by French police in Paris while traveling from Beirut under an assumed name. Under protest from the PLO, Iraq, and Libya, who claimed that because Abu Daoud was traveling to a PLO comrade's funeral he should receive diplomatic immunity, the French government refused a West German extradition request on grounds that forms had not been filled in properly, and put him on a plane to Algeria before Germany could submit another request.


title: Munich massacre

text: Abu Daoud was allowed safe passage through Israel in 1996 so he could attend a PLO meeting convened in the Gaza Strip for the purpose of rescinding an article in its charter that called for Israel's eradication. In his autobiography, "From Jerusalem to Munich", first published in France in 1999, and later in a written interview with "Sports Illustrated", Abu Daoud wrote that funds for Munich were provided by Mahmoud Abbas, Chairman of the PLO since 11 November 2004 and President of the Palestinian National Authority since 15 January 2005.


title: Munich massacre

text: Abu Daoud believed that if the Israelis knew that Mahmoud Abbas was the financier of the operation, the 1993 Oslo Accords would not have been achieved, during which Mahmoud Abbas was seen in photo ops at the White House.


title: Munich massacre

text: Ankie Spitzer, widow of fencing coach and Munich victim Andre, declined several offers to meet with Abu Daoud, saying that the only place she wants to meet him is in a courtroom. According to Spitzer, "He [Abu Daoud] didn't pay the price for what he did." In 2006, during the release of Steven Spielberg's film, "Munich", "Der Spiegel" interviewed Abu Daoud regarding the Munich massacre. He was quoted as saying: "I regret nothing. You can only dream that I would apologize."


title: Munich massacre

text: Fliegerbauer was born in Westerndorf, Lower Bavaria and grew up on a farm with his two siblings. He originally attended Agricultural school before taking up an apprenticeship with the Bavarian State Police. Fliegerbauer was appointed as police officer of the Municipal Police Munich to the rank "Polizeiobermeister" (Policeuppermaster) on 19 November 1970. In 1964 he met his future wife who he then married in 1966 and two years later they had a son, Alfred.


title: Munich massacre

text: Fliegerbauer was buried on 8 September after a "well attended" civic funeral attended by the Mayor of Munich Georg Kronawitter and Prime Minister of Bavaria Alfons Goppel with wreaths laid on behalf of West German Chancellor Willy Brandt and West German President Gustav Heinemann.


title: Munich massacre

text: In a memorial service held at Fürstenfeldbruck Air Base in 2012, commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Munich massacre, Fliegerbauer was remembered alongside the eleven members of the Israeli delegation slain by the terrorists.


title: Munich massacre

text: On the memorial to the massacre erected at Olympiapark (Munich), Fliegerbauer is described in a sentence that reads, "The police failed in this attempt, and the operation ended in disaster. All of the hostages and the German police officer Anton Fliegerbauer, as well as five of the terrorists, died."


title: St. Vincent (musician)

text: Anne Erin Clark (born September 28, 1982), known professionally as St. Vincent, is an American singer, musician, and songwriter. Her music is noted for its complex arrangements utilizing a wide array of instruments. St. Vincent is the recipient of various accolades, including three Grammy Awards.


title: St. Vincent (musician)

text: Raised in Dallas, St. Vincent began her music career as a member of the Polyphonic Spree. She was also a member of Sufjan Stevens's touring band before forming her own band in 2006. Her debut solo album, "Marry Me", was released in 2007; it was followed by "Actor" (2009) and "Strange Mercy" (2011). In 2012, St. Vincent released "Love This Giant", an album made in collaboration with David Byrne of Talking Heads. Her fourth studio album, "St. Vincent" (2014), received widespread acclaim from contemporary critics. Her fifth album, "Masseduction" (2017), was released to further acclaim. St. Vincent's sixth album, "Daddy's Home", was released in 2021.


title: St. Vincent (musician)

text: Besides music, St. Vincent has written and directed a segment in the 2017 anthology horror film "XX". She also co-wrote and starred in the psychological thriller film "The Nowhere Inn" (2020).


title: St. Vincent (musician)

text: Clark was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on September 28, 1982. Her mother is a social worker and administrator for a nonprofit organization, and her stepfather works in corporate tax administration. Her parents divorced when she was 3, and when she was 7, she moved with her mother and two older sisters to Dallas, Texas. She has said that a 23andMe DNA test revealed her ancestry to be 80% Irish and 20% Ashkenazi Jewish. She was raised Catholic and Unitarian Universalist. She has four brothers and four sisters from her parents' blended families.


title: St. Vincent (musician)

text: As a child, Clark was fond of Ritchie Valens and the movie "La Bamba". When she was five, her mother gave her a red plastic guitar from a Target store for Christmas. She began playing her first real guitar at age 12 and worked some of her teenage years as a roadie for her aunt and uncle, the guitar-vocal jazz duo Tuck & Patti. In 2001, she graduated from Lake Highlands High School, where she participated in theater and the school's jazz band, and was a classmate of actor Mark Salling.


title: St. Vincent (musician)

text: She attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, studying with professor Lauren Passarelli. She left after three years, feeling that art institutions such as Berklee were sometimes focused more on the aesthetics of art than the product. In retrospect, she said, "I think that with music school and art school, or school in any form, there has to be some system of grading and measurement. The things they can teach you are quantifiable. While all that is good and has its place, at some point you have to learn all you can and then forget everything that you learned in order to actually start making music."


title: St. Vincent (musician)

text: In 2003, Clark released an EP with fellow Berklee students entitled "Ratsliveonnoevilstar". She also worked with Heavy Rotation Records, where "she revealed a much more private and intimate rendering of 'Count' for "Dorm Sessions Vol. 1"" and studied with professor of guitar Lauren Passarelli. Shortly after leaving Berklee, she returned home to Texas, where she joined the Polyphonic Spree just before they embarked on a European tour. In 2004, she joined Glenn Branca's 100-guitar orchestra for the Queens performance, and she was also briefly in a noise rock band called the Skull Fuckers. Clark left the Polyphonic Spree and joined Sufjan Stevens' touring band in 2006. During this period, she recorded and released an EP titled "Paris Is Burning" (2006).


title: St. Vincent (musician)

text: In 2006, she began recording a studio album under the stage name St. Vincent. In an interview on "The Colbert Report", she said that she "took [her] moniker from a line in a Nick Cave song" that referred to the hospital where Dylan Thomas died: "And Dylan Thomas died drunk in / St. Vincent's hospital" (from Cave's song "There She Goes, My Beautiful World", from the 2004 album "Abattoir Blues / The Lyre of Orpheus"). The name is also a reference to her great-grandmother, whose middle name was St. Vincent. Clark released her debut album, "Marry Me", on July 10, 2007, on Beggars Banquet Records. Named after a line from the television sitcom "Arrested Development", it features appearances from drummer Brian Teasley (Man or Astro-man?, the Polyphonic Spree), Mike Garson (David Bowie's longtime pianist), and horn player Louis Schwadron (the Polyphonic Spree).