| Host city | Berlin, Germany |
|---|---|
| Nations participating | 49 |
| Athletes participating | 3,963 (3,632 men, 331 women) |
| Events | 129 in 19 sports |
| Opening ceremony | August 1 |
| Closing ceremony | August 16 |
| Officially opened by | President / Chancellor Adolf Hitler |
| Athlete's Oath | Rudolf Ismayr |
| Olympic Torch | Fritz Schilgen |
| Stadium | Olympic Stadium |
The 1936 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XI Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event which was held in 1936 in Berlin, Germany. Berlin won the bid to host the Games over Barcelona, Spain on April 26, 1931, at the 29th IOC Session in Barcelona (two years before the Nazis came to power). It marked the second and final time that the International Olympic Committee would gather to vote in a city which was bidding to host those Games. The only other time this occurred was at the inaugural IOC Session in Paris, France, on April 24, 1894. Then, Athens, Greece and Paris, France were chosen to host the 1896 and 1900 Games, respectively.
To outdo the Los Angeles games in 1932, the Nazis built a brand new 100,000-seat track and field stadium, 6 gymnasiums, and many other smaller arenas. They also installed a closed-circuit television system, radio network that reached 41 countries, and many other forms of expensive high-tech electronic equipment.[1] Filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl, a favorite of Adolf Hitler, was commissioned for $7 million [2] by the German Olympic Committee to film the Games. Her film, entitled Olympia, introduced many of the techniques now common to the filming of sports.
By allowing only members of the "Aryan race" to compete for Germany, Hitler further promoted his ideological belief of racial supremacy. At the same time, the party removed signs stating "Jews not wanted" and similar slogans from the city's main tourist attractions. In an attempt to "clean up" Berlin, the German Ministry of the Interior authorized the chief of police to arrest all Romani (Gypsies) and keep them in a special camp.[3] Total ticket revenues were 7.5 million Reichsmark, generating a profit of over one million marks. The official budget did not include outlays by the city of Berlin (which issued an itemized report detailing its costs of 16.5 million marks) or that of the German national government (which did not make its costs public, but is estimated to have spent US$30 million, chiefly in capital outlays).[4]
Contents |
The bidding for these Olympic Games was the first to be contested by IOC members casting their votes for their favorite host city.[5] The vote occurred in 1931 during the Weimar Republic era, before Adolf Hitler rose to power in 1933. There were many other cities around the world that wanted to host this Summer Olympics, but they never received a single IOC vote. They were of the following: Alexandria, Buenos Aires, Cologne, Dublin, Frankfurt, Helsinki, Lausanne, Nuremberg, Rio de Janeiro, and Rome.[6] Many commentators have noted the IOC's fascist leanings, which even the most generous historians characterize as "bizarre".[7]
| 1936 Summer Olympics bidding result[8] | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| City | Country | Round 1 | ||||
| Berlin | Germany | 43 | ||||
| Barcelona | Spain | 16 | ||||
Basketball and handball made their debut at the Olympics, both as outdoor sports. Handball would not appear again on the program until 1972.
Hans von Tschammer und Osten, as Reichssportführer, i.e. head of the Deutscher Reichsbund für Leibesübungen (DRL), the Reich Sports Office, played a major role in the structure and organization of the Olympics. He promoted the idea that the use of sports would harden the German spirit and instill unity among German youth. At the same time he also believed that sports was a "way to weed out the weak, Jewish, and other undesirables."[9] Many Jews and Gypsies were banned from participating in sporting events, including Jewish four-time world record holder and 10-time German national champion Lilli Henoch.[10]
Von Tschammer trusted the details of the organization of the games to Theodor Lewald and Carl Diem, the former president and secretary of the Deutscher Reichsausschuss für Leibesübungen, the forerunner of the Reich Sports Office. Diem revealed himself as highly competent and made original innovations, like the Olympic torch relay from Athens, that are still valued.[11]
Prior to and during the Games, there was considerable debate outside Germany over whether the competition should be allowed or discontinued.
Those who voiced their opinions on the debate included Americans Ernest Lee Jahncke, Judge Jeremiah Mahoney, and future IOC President Avery Brundage. The United States considered boycotting the Games, as to participate in the festivity might be considered a sign of support for the Nazi regime and its anti-Semitic policies. However, others argued that the Olympic Games should not reflect political views, but rather be strictly a contest of the greatest athletes.
Avery Brundage, then of the United States Olympic Committee, opposed the boycott, stating that Jewish athletes were being treated fairly and that the Games should continue. Brundage asserted that politics played no role in sports, and that they should never be entwined. He stated, “The very foundation of the modern Olympic revival will be undermined if individual countries are allowed to restrict participation by reason of class, creed, or race.”[12] Brundage also believed that there was a “Jewish-Communist conspiracy” that existed to keep the United States out of competing in the Olympic Games.[13]
Unlike Brundage, Jeremiah Mahoney supported a boycott of the Games. Mahoney, the president of the Amateur Athletic Union, led newspaper editors and anti-Nazi groups to protest against American participation in the Berlin Olympics. He contested that racial discrimination was a violation of Olympic rules and that participation in the Games was tantamount to support for the Third Reich.
Most African-American newspapers supported participation in the Olympics. The Philadelphia Tribune and the Chicago Defender both agreed that black victories would undermine Nazi views of Aryan supremacy and spark renewed African-American pride. American Jewish organizations, meanwhile, largely opposed the Olympics. The American Jewish Congress and the Jewish Labor Committee staged rallies and supported the boycott of German goods to show their disdain for American participation.[13]
Eventually, Brundage won the debate, convincing the Amateur Athletic Union to close a vote in favor of sending an American team to the Berlin Olympics, winning by two and a half votes. Mahoney’s efforts to incite a boycott of the Olympic games in the United States failed. President Roosevelt demanded the participation of U.S.A. in the Olympics, intending to keep the tradition of America being void of outside influence intact.
The 1936 Summer Olympics ultimately boasted the largest number of participating nations of any Olympics to that point. However, some individual athletes, including Jewish Americans Milton Green and Norman Cahners, chose to boycott the Games.
The Spanish government led by the newly elected left-wing Popular Front boycotted the Games and organized the People's Olympiad as a parallel event in Barcelona. Some 6,000 athletes from 22 countries registered for the games. However, the People's Olympiad was aborted because of the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War just one day before the event was due to start. Like Spain, the Soviet Union did not participate in the 1936 summer Olympics.[14]
The games were the first to have live television coverage. The German Post Office, using equipment from Telefunken, broadcast over seventy hours of coverage to special viewing rooms throughout Berlin and Potsdam and a few private TV sets, transmitting from the Paul Nipkow TV Station. The Olympic Flame was used for the second time at these games, but this marked the first time it was brought to the Olympic Village by a torch relay, with the starting point in Olympia, Greece.[15] The Republic of China's Three Principles of the People was chosen as the best national anthem of the games.
The official book of the 1936 Olympics is present in many libraries[16] containing all the signatures of Golden medals winners[17]
United States Olympic Committee president Avery Brundage became a main supporter of the Games being held in Germany, arguing that "politics has no place in sport", despite having initial doubts.[18] Brundage requested that a system be established to examine female athletes for what Time magazine called "sex ambiguities" after observing the performance of Czechoslovak runner and jumper Zdenka Koubkova and English shotputter and javelin thrower Mary Edith Louise Weston. (Both individuals had sex change surgery and legally changed their names, to Zdenek Koubek and Mark Weston, respectively.).[19] Gender verification in sports was not in place in 1936.
Despite not coming from fascist countries, French and Canadian Olympians gave what appeared to be the Hitler salute at the opening ceremony, although some have later claimed that they were just performing the Olympic salute, which was in fact a very similar action.[20]
Gretel Bergmann, despite equaling a national record in the high jump a month before the games, was excluded from the German team because she was Jewish.[21]
American sprinters Sam Stoller and Marty Glickman, the only two Jews on the U.S. Olympic team, were pulled from the 4 × 100 relay team on the day of the competition, leading to speculation that U.S. Olympic committee leader Avery Brundage did not want to add to the embarrassment of Hitler by having two Jews win gold medals.[22]
Italy's football team continued their dominance, winning the gold medal in these Olympics between their two consecutive World Cup victories (1934 and 1938). Much like the successes of German athletes, this triumph was claimed by supporters of Benito Mussolini's regime as a vindication of the superiority of the fascist system. Austria won the silver; a controversial win after Hitler called for a rematch of the quarterfinals match to discount Peru's 4–2 win over Austria. The Peruvian national Olympic team refused to play the match again and withdrew from the games. In the quarter-finals of the football tournament, Peru beat Austria 4–2 in extra-time. Peru rallied from a two-goal deficit in the final 15 minutes of normal time. During extra-time, Peruvian fans allegedly ran onto the field and attacked an Austrian player. In the chaos, Peru scored twice and won, 4–2. However, Austria protested and the International Olympic Committee ordered a replay without any spectators. The Peruvian government refused and their entire Olympic squad left in protest as did Colombia.[23]
The Nazis demoted Captain Wolfgang Fürstner, the half-Jewish commandant of the Olympic Village, during the games, and replaced him with Werner von Gilsa. After the games' conclusion, Fürstner, a career officer, committed suicide when he learned that the Nuremberg Laws classified him as a Jew, and, as such, he was to be expelled from the Wehrmacht.[24]
In the film Charlie Chan at the Olympics (1937) the filmmakers removed all Nazi symbols which appeared during the actual games, although actors playing members of the Berlin police force help Charlie apprehend the spies (of unnamed nationality) trying to steal a new aerial guidance system.[25]
Basketball was added to the Olympic program. In the final game, the United States beat Canada 19–8. The contest was played outdoors on a dirt court in driving rain. Because of the quagmire, the teams could not dribble, thus the score was held to a minimum. Joe Fortenberry was the high scorer for the U.S. with seven points. Spectators did not have seats, and the approximately 1,000 in attendance had to stand in the rain.
In the freestyle event, swimmers originally dived from the pool walls, but diving blocks were incorporated at the 1936 Olympics.
Germany had a prosperous year in the equestrian events, winning individual and team gold in all three disciplines, as well as individual silver in dressage. In the cycling match sprint finals, the German Toni Merkens fouled Arie van Vliet of the Netherlands. Instead of being disqualified, he was fined 100 marks and kept his gold. German gymnasts Konrad Frey and Alfred Schwarzmann both won three gold medals.
Jesse Owens won four gold medals in the sprint and long jump events. His German competitor Luz Long offered Owens advice after he almost failed to qualify in the long jump and was posthumously awarded the Pierre de Coubertin medal for sportsmanship. Mack Robinson, brother to Jackie Robinson won the 100 meter sprint silver medal behind Owens by .04 seconds. In one of the most dramatic 800 meter races in history, American John Woodruff won gold after slowing to jogging speed in the middle of the final in order to free himself from being boxed in.[26] Glenn Edgar Morris, a farm boy from Colorado, won Gold in the Decathlon. Rower Jack Beresford won his fifth Olympic medal in the sport, and his third gold medal. The U.S. eight-man rowing team from the University of Washington won the gold medal, coming from behind to defeat the Germans and Italians with Adolf Hitler in attendance.
In the marathon two Korean athletes won medals — Sohn Kee-chung (gold) and Nam Sung-yong (bronze) — running for Japan and under Japanese names; Japan had annexed Korea in 1910. British India won the gold medal in the field hockey event once again (they won the gold in all Olympics from 1928 to 1956), defeating Germany 8–1 in the final. However, Indians were considered Indo-Aryans by the Germans and there was no controversy regarding their victory. Rie Mastenbroek of the Netherlands won three gold medals and a silver in swimming. Estonia's Kristjan Palusalu won two gold medals in Men's Wrestling, marking the last time Estonia competed as an independent nation in the Olympics until 1992.
After winning the middleweight class, the Egyptian weightlifter Khadr El Touni continued to compete for another 45 minutes, finally exceeding the total of the German silver medalist by 35 kg. The 20-year-old El Touni lifted a total of 387.5 kg crushing two German world champions, El Touni broke the then Olympic and world records, while the German lifted 352.5 kg. Furthermore, El Touni had lifted 15 kg more than the heavyweight gold medalist, a feat only El Touni has accomplished. El Touni's new world records stood for 13 years. Fascinated by El Touni's performance, Adolf Hitler rushed down to greet this human miracle. Prior to the competition, Hitler was said to have been sure that Rudolf Ismayr and Adolf Wagner would embarrass all other opponents. Hitler was so impressed by El Touni's domination in the middleweight class that he ordered a street named after him in Berlin olympic village.[16] The Egyptian held the No. 1 position on the IWF list of history's 50 greatest weightlifters for 60 years, until the 1996 Games in Atlanta where Turkey's Naim Süleymanoğlu surpassed him to top the list.
A total of 49 nations attended the Berlin Olympics, up from 37 in 1932. Six nations made their first official Olympic appearance at these Games: Afghanistan, Bermuda, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Liechtenstein and Peru.
These are the top ten nations that won medals at these Games.
| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Germany (host nation) | 33 | 26 | 30 | 89 |
| 2 | United States | 24 | 20 | 12 | 56 |
| 3 | Hungary | 10 | 1 | 5 | 16 |
| 4 | Italy | 8 | 9 | 5 | 22 |
| 5 | Finland | 7 | 6 | 6 | 19 |
| France | 7 | 6 | 6 | 19 | |
| 7 | Sweden | 6 | 5 | 9 | 20 |
| 8 | Japan | 6 | 4 | 8 | 18 |
| 9 | Netherlands | 6 | 4 | 7 | 17 |
| 10 | Great Britain | 4 | 7 | 3 | 14 |
"The sportive, knightly battle awakens the best human characteristics. It doesn't separate, but unites the combatants in understanding and respect. It also helps to connect the countries in the spirit of peace. That's why the Olympic Flame should never die."— Adolf Hitler, commenting on the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games[27]
"German sport has only one task: to strengthen the character of the German people, imbuing it with the fighting spirit and steadfast camaraderie necessary in the struggle for its existence."— Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels
| Preceded by Los Angeles |
Summer Olympic Games Berlin XI Olympiad (1936) |
Succeeded by Tokyo/Helsinki |
|
||||||||||||||
|
|||||