The group is made up of eight internationally renowned scholars drawn from Israeli and German institutions.

"It is shameful that agonising questions were left unresolved for far too long," Faeser said.

"For too many years, there was a lack of understanding or reappraisal of the events, transparency about them or acceptance of responsibility for them."

The eight member Commission is to "create a comprehensive scholarly account and assessment of the events."

The research is to be assisted by the Leibniz Institute for Contemporary History (IfZ) which is undertaking an accompanying project.

"The Commission will also rigorously examine the period before and after the attacks," Faeser added.

"It is particularly important to me for their work to also thoroughly address the treatment of the family members after the attack as well as issues related to the culture of remembrance."

Last September, Faeser had spoken at a memorial event at Fürstenfeldbruck Airbase to mark the 50th anniversary of the tragedy.

"We want to learn from this history, and we must learn from it, we must treat people whose lives have been dramatically altered by attacks with greater empathy and support," a statement from Faeser continued.

The research Commission features Dr Ofer Ashkenazi, Professor of history and director of the Richard Koebner Minerva Center for German History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Dr Shlomo Shpiro of Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan, and Dr Shulamit Volkov, Professor Emerita of modern European history at Tel Aviv from Israeli Universities.

The German academics appointed for the project are Dr Michael Brenner, Jewish history and culture Professor and Dr Margit Szöllösi-Janz, Emerita Professor of contemporary history, both from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich.

European and cultural history Professor Dr Petra Terhoeven from Georg-August-Universität Göttingen and Dr Klaus Weinhauer, Professor of modern history at Bielefeld University are also joined by Cambridge University Professor of modern and medieval German studies Dr Christopher Young.

The announcement has been welcomed by Anke Spitzer, widow of fencing coach Andrei who died in the attack, who has been a spokesperson and campaigner for the families of the victims.

"The families of the victims are very pleased that our request to open the archives and establish a Commission of historians has been honoured," Spitzer said.

"We are grateful to the distinguished members of the Commission that they are willing to re-examine the murderous attack and its aftermath. 

"This is of the utmost importance to the families and hopefully will bring justice to history."

German Federal President Frank Walter Steinmeier had been critical of the delay in settling compensation for relatives of the victims.

The sum of €28 million (£24.14 million/$30.7 million) was only agreed shortly before the memorial events last September.

Steinmeier had described the events in September 1972 as "a story of mistakes and fatal misjudgment."

The "Black September" terrorist group had infiltrated the Olympic Village and taken members of the Israeli team hostage at their accommodation in 31 Connollystrasse.

The terrorists were assisted because maps of the accommodation blocks were made publicly available during the Games.

Two members of the Israeli team were murdered during the initial attack.

A day of negotiations with the terrorists followed, when German officials including Village Mayor Walter Troger met leaders of the group.

Later the terrorists and their hostages were taken to Fürstenfeldbruck airbase on the outskirts of Munich where an unsuccessful rescue attempt was made.

The remaining hostages were all killed in the attack and a Munich policeman also lost his life.

Five terrorists also died.