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German ministers are to join Israeli survivors of the Munich Olympics massacre at an airport near the city to mark the 40th anniversary of the event.
They will gather at Fuerstenfeldbruck, the military airport where most of the 11 Israeli victims were killed by their Palestinian captors.
The gunmen had seized Israeli athletes inside the Olympic Village.
Marking the anniversary, UK Foreign Secretary William Hague described the attack as a "shocking act of evil".
It had, he said, "betrayed everything the Olympic movement stands for".
"On today's sad anniversary we pay tribute to their memory and reiterate our determination to confront terrorism and stand with the victims of terrorism wherever it may occur," Mr Hague added.Widows and survivors
The southern German state of Bavaria has ordered flags on public buildings to be flown at half-mast to commemorate the massacre, AFP news agency reports.
Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich and other German officials, including the head of the country's Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach, are to attend the ceremony at Fuerstenfeldbruck along with some 500 people.
Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Silvan Shalom is due to be there with a special 21-member delegation that includes widows and relatives of the victims, as well as survivors of the attack, the Israeli foreign ministry reports.
Among the Israelis expected to attend is the manager of the 1972 Olympic Delegation, Mr Shmuel Lalkin.
A tree will be planted to remember the victims and an exhibition of photos depicting the massacre and its aftermath will be opened.
Wreaths are also being laid at the Olympic Village in Munich.
On 5 September 1972, eight gunmen burst into the Israeli athletes' quarters, killing two immediately and taking nine athletes and coaches hostage.
They demanded the release of more than 200 Palestinian prisoners by Israel, and took their hostages to the airport, where a rescue attempt was made by West German security forces.
During the fighting that followed, the gunmen killed their remaining nine hostages. Five of the gunmen were killed, as was one German policeman.
Israeli athlete Esther Roth-Shachamorov, who lost her coach Amitzur Shapira in the attack, had been scheduled to run in the semi-finals of the 100-metre hurdles on the day after the massacre.
"Instead of running, we found ourselves in the stadium for the memorial service," she told AFP news agency at her home near Tel Aviv this week. "There we stood, crying."
The West German authorities were accused by Israel of having failed to provide adequate security at the Games, recently declassified Israeli official documents show.
German police "didn't make even a minimal effort to save human lives", former Mossad head Zvi Zamir said at the time after returning from Munich. The documents also show evidence of failures by Israeli security forces.
A recent article in German news magazine Der Spiegel has suggested that German officials ignored explicit warnings that a terrorist attack might take place at the Munich Games.
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