11. Olympic Summer Games
Olympic Medals in the games of 1936 in Berlin
390 Medals in 23 Sports in 131 Events
The 1936 Winter Olympics in Garmisch-Partenkirchen were the test run for the Berlin Summer Games from August 1st to August 16th. Lessons were learned in order to improve the public image of the Nazi regime, the organization and the side events. If one could hide the National Socialist background of the games, one would come to the realization that these games were by far the most impressive event that mankind had ever seen, architecturally, logistically, organizationally, documentarily and in terms of the number of athletes and spectators has seen. Almost 4,000 athletes competed in front of a record number of spectators.
The games had already been given to Berlin in 1931, since the German capital was already planned as the venue in 1916 and Germany was a different country than 5 years later. In January 1933 Hitler took power, Reich President Paul von Hindenburg still had the patronage of the organizing committee. After Hindenburg's death in November 1934, the new Chancellor Adolf Hitler took over and placed it under the Ministry of Propaganda and the Interior. In 1925/26 Hitler had already written down and published his ideas in his writings "Mein Kampf", everyone knew what he was up to. Discrimination against Jews had already progressed well before 1936. This outraged many nations, especially the United States, where a large Jewish community lived.
In order to examine the situation of Jewish athletes on site, the American Olympic Committee Average Brundage, who was elected IOC President in 1952 and remained until 1972, sent Berlin to Berlin in 1934. It didn't understand a word of German, didn't have its own interpreter, so Germans who were loyal to the regime took on this task. Brundage saw sports facilities, met Jewish athletes and sports representatives, who of course did not dare to describe the real situation in the presence of the Nazi representatives because it was life-threatening for them. But Brundage was obviously more interested in the US team participating in the games than in the situation of the Jews. Back in the USA, he spoke out in favor of participating in the games, after long discussions it came to a vote in December 1935, which ended 58:56 for participation. The result of this vote is all the more worrying, since less than three months ago the Nuremberg Laws were passed, which clearly stated that Jews should be systematically discriminated against, persecuted, excluded, harassed and driven out, the beginning of the Holocaust. The result of the vote was in the spirit of Hitler, because a boycott of the USA would have damaged the image of the Nazi propaganda show. Hitler wanted to prove that fascism was stronger than democracy.
In May 1936, Hitler sent Baron Pierre de Coubertin, who was in desperate financial need, a “tribute to the Fiihrer” in the amount of 10,000 Reichsmarks. This naturally led to the question of a French journalist why he supports the Nazi games. Coubertin replied that it didn't matter whether the Olympic Games, like 1932, served as tourism advertisements for Southern California or now as advertisements for a political system, as long as they were celebrated grandly.
Carrying out a torch relay from Olympia in Greece over a distance of 3075 km through as many torch relay runners to Berlin was a new idea. Of course, this had a propaganda character, but the Nazi regime claimed that the run should symbolize the connection between antiquity and modern times. Leni Riefenstahl had been commissioned by the Nazi regime to make a film about the Olympic Games. She accompanied the torch relay and shot with 80 cameramen in several teams at various sports venues in Berlin and Kiel, where the sailing competitions were held. Her two-part documentary “Olympia” is a masterpiece in terms of film technology, but unfortunately it is interspersed with propaganda and ideological elements. Riefenstahl was controversial throughout his life.
In sport, the 1936 games are inextricably linked to the American athlete Jesse Owens. It did not fit into Hitler's concept at all, who wanted to demonstrate the superiority of the German Aryan race at the games. But the star was a black man! Hitler's stomach is certainly heavy. Initially, the medal table did not develop as desired, since the USA was leading in between. The sport of horse riding, rowing, boxing and gymnastics, which was only held in the second half of the games, brought Germany the superior victory in the Nations Cup.
A new medium was tested on a larger scale for the first time at the Olympic Games: television. Newspapers have been reporting since the games began, and radio broadcasts were first broadcast in 1924. Of course there were no television sets in private households in 1936, so 28 film studios were set up in Berlin, Potsdam and Leipzig, in which more than 160,000 viewers saw the first live broadcasts in history. Several hours were broadcast daily, a total of 138 hours, from the opening ceremony to the competitions and the closing ceremony. The tickets for the movie rooms were more difficult to get than those for the sports venues. The audience was fascinated by the new medium.
Hitler had managed to present himself well through the success of the German athletes and the recognition for the successful organization of the games and saw the German people again in the world community. Four weeks after the games, Hitler declared that Germany would never again take part in the Olympic Games under the direction of the IOC's wobbly movements. He was soon convinced to take over the world and that all games should only be played in Germany. He asked his architect Albert Speer to build a stadium for 400,000 people. The stadium was never built and even with world domination it was nothing.