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Teaching the Holocaust and other Genocides
 
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1936 Berlin Olympics

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The 1936 Olympics: A Stage for Politics, Propaganda, and Resistance

The 1936 Summer Olympics, held in Berlin, Germany, were one of the most politically charged and controversial sporting events in modern history. These Games, officially known as the XI Olympiad, were used as a propaganda tool by Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime to showcase its ideology of Aryan superiority and the supposed resurgence of Germany. However, the Games also became a platform for resistance against these ideals, particularly through the remarkable performance of African American athlete Jesse Owens.

When the International Olympic Committee (IOC) awarded the 1936 Summer Olympics to Berlin in 1931, Germany was still under the democratic Weimar Republic. However, by the time the Games took place, Adolf Hitler had risen to power in 1933, and the Nazi regime sought to use the event to promote its totalitarian and racist ideals. Joseph Goebbels, the Minister of Propaganda, meticulously orchestrated the Games as a global spectacle meant to demonstrate German strength, unity, and racial superiority.

Despite widespread calls for boycotts, particularly in the United States, the Games proceeded with most nations in attendance. Hoping to impress the many foreign visitors who were in Germany for the games and avoid international condemnation, the Nazi government temporarily softened its overtly racist policies to, removing antisemitic signs barring Jews from public places and scaling back public persecution of Jews.  However, discrimination persisted behind the scenes, including the exclusion of Jewish athletes from the German team, notably fencer Helene Mayer, who was included only as a token figure and won the silver medal!

View Clip of the Ceremonies
Poster from the 1936 Berlin Olympics
Poster from the 1936 Berlin Olympics

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Man running down steps at 1936 Olympics
Fritz Schilgen with Torch in 1936 Olympics

By 1936, the Nazis had enacted several racist and antisemitic policies aimed at excluding Jews and other marginalized groups from German society. In April 1933, an "Aryans only" policy had been instituted in all German athletic organizations. "Non-Aryans"—Jews or individuals with Jewish parents and Roma (Gypsies)—were systematically excluded from German sports facilities and associations. The German Boxing Association expelled professional light heavyweight champion Erich Seelig in April 1933 because he was Jewish. Daniel Prenn, Germany's top-ranked tennis player, was removed from Germany's Davis Cup Team. Gretel Bergmann, a world-class high jumper, was expelled from her German club in 1933 and excluded from the German Olympic team in 1936. The Nuremberg Laws of 1935 stripped Jews of their citizenship and imposed severe restrictions on their rights. These laws were part of a broader effort to establish Aryan supremacy, which the Nazis sought to highlight through the Olympics.

Jesse Owens
Jesse Owens at the 1936 Berlin Olympics

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Jesse Owens on the Podium
Jesse Owens on the Podium at the 1936 Berlin Olympics

Owens' victories were met with mixed reactions. “The African American athletes left Germany with good memories of their treatment by the German public and the friendships they developed at the stadium and the Olympic Village with athletes from other countries.  Owen was pursued everywhere he went and cheered loudly by the largely German audience every time he entered the Olympic stadium.  Some African American athletes were invited to German homes for coffee or dinner.”[1] Max von der Grun, who was ten years old that summer, later recalled,

Although it was drummed into our heads every day that anything or anyone non-German was completely worthless, a black man became our idol: the American Jesse Owens, winner of four Olympic medals. In the playing field, we used to play at being Jesse Owens; whoever could jump the farthest or run the fastest or throw some object the greatest distance became Jesse Owens. When our teachers heard us, they forbade us to play such games, but they never replied to our question of how a black man, a member of an “inferior” race, could manage to be such a consummate athlete.[2]

While he was celebrated internationally, reports suggest that Hitler avoided congratulating him. However, it is a myth that Hitler snubbed Owens directly; in reality, Hitler had already stopped personally greeting athletes after the first day of the Games. More notably, Owens faced discrimination upon returning to the United States, where he was not invited to the White House or formally recognized by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

“Germany emerged victorious from the XIth Olympiad. Its athletes captured the most medals when all events were counted, and German hospitality and organization won the praises of visitors. Many newspaper accounts echoed Frederick Birchall’s report in the New York Times that the Games put Germans ‘back in the fold of nations,’ and even made them ‘more human again.’ Some writers even found reason to hope that the peaceable interlude would last.  Only a few reporters, such as William Shirer, regarded the Berlin glitter as merely hiding a racist, militaristic regime.  In his diary he wrote, ‘I am afraid the Nazis have succeeded with their propaganda.  First, the Nazis have run the Games on a lavish scale never before experienced, and this has appealed to the athletes.  Second, the Nazis have put up a very good front for the general visitors, especially big businessmen.’ Propaganda efforts continued well after the Olympics with the world release in 1938 of Olympia, a controversial film documentary of the games, produced by Leni Riefenstahl.  The Nazi regime commissioned Riefenstahl to produce the film, which won first prize at the Venice Film Festival in 1938.” [3]

The 1936 Berlin Olympics were more than just an international sporting event; they were a battleground of ideologies. While the Nazi regime sought to use the Games as a platform for racial superiority, Jesse Owens’ victories served as a powerful counterpoint, disproving the notion of Aryan dominance. The Games highlighted the intersection of sports and politics, demonstrating how athletic competition can challenge oppressive narratives and serve as a platform for resistance.

[1]  Bachrach, Susan D.  The Nazi Olympics: Berlin 1936 p. 95 Boston: Little, Brown, Company, 2000, p. 95.

[2] Max von der Gruen, Howl Like Wolves: Growing Up in Nazi Germany.  New York: William Morrow, 1980, p. 107.

[3] Bachrach, Susan D.  The Nazi Olympics: Berlin 1936 p. 95 Boston: Little, Brown, Company, 2000, p. 106-107

Discussion Questions

  1. How did the 1936 Berlin Olympics serve as both a tool of Nazi propaganda and a form of resistance against Nazi ideals?
  2. Why do you think the international community chose to participate in the Berlin Olympics despite evidence of Nazi discrimination and racism? 
  3. Why was Jesse Owens’ success at the 1936 Olympics so significant, both in terms of sports and politics? 


 

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