Generali Replaces BMW as the Berlin Marathon’s Title Sponsor

Anyone who enters the lottery for next year’s Berlin Marathon is signing up for a race with a new name. Organizer SCC Events announced Thursday that the insurer Generali is the race’s new title sponsor, and the 2027 edition on Sept. 26 will be run as the Generali Berlin Marathon, ending BMW’s 16 years in the role at one of the seven World Marathon Majors.

The news landed on the same day registration for 2027 opened, at noon Berlin time. The race’s new website went live with it, while the 2026 results now sit on an archived BMW-branded site.

Generali’s name has been on the Berlin Half Marathon since 2019, the race where Eilish McColgan set a British record in 2023. In August 2024, Generali Deutschland signed on as an official co-sponsor of the marathon for three years, a deal that also put its name on the Generali 5K held on marathon weekend and made it a partner of the mini-marathon, a 4.2195K race for schoolchildren. The company also held title rights to the marathons in Munich and Cologne at the time. That co-sponsorship ran through 2026, which is exactly when BMW’s tenure ended.

Neither SCC Events nor Generali has said how long the new deal runs or what it is worth, and no reason has been given for BMW stepping away. The organizers’ announcement was warm toward the carmaker, thanking BMW “for the trust they have placed in us and for a collaboration shaped by shared successes and unforgettable moments.”

Six World Records Under the BMW Name

BMW took the naming rights in October 2010 on an initial three-year deal, as SportsPro reported at the time, taking over from the hypermarket chain real,-, which had held the name since 2000. The first BMW Berlin Marathon was held in September 2011, and the partnership ended up lasting more than five times as long as that first contract.

Those were the fastest years Berlin has had. Patrick Makau opened them with a men’s world record of 2:03:38 in 2011. Wilson Kipsang took that down to 2:03:23 two years later, and Dennis Kimetto became the first man under 2:03 in 2014 with 2:02:57. Eliud Kipchoge then lowered the mark twice in Berlin, to 2:01:39 in 2018 and to 2:01:09 in 2022, and Tigst Assefa ran 2:11:53 in 2023 to break the women’s world record.

That is six world records from only 15 races, with the 2020 edition cancelled during the pandemic. Berlin no longer holds either marathon world record, but its course has produced 13 of them since the first race in 1974, more than any other marathon, and nearly half came while BMW’s name was on the bibs.

The final BMW edition, on Sept. 27, still delivered a mark. Assefa won the women’s race in a course record of 2:11:04, and Guye Adola won the men’s race.

RTL Deutschland holds exclusive broadcast rights to the race through 2029, so the first three editions under the Generali name will air on RTL and its streaming service, RTL+.