THE BERLIN OLYMPICS: 1936 “HITLER’S
OLYMPICS”
The Berlin Olympics of 1936 were supposed to be one
of the crowning glories of Hitler’s dictatorship.
What, again, is a ‘dictatorship’?
It is a political system where a single person
or a group of people are responsible for running
a country and they do so with coercion, threats,
propaganda and arbitrary imprisonment of people.
Free speech is also not allowed.
What is ‘coercion’?
Forcing people or a person to do
something.
What is something which is ‘arbitrary’?
It is something which is without good reason or
even a real reason.
What is a ‘crowning glory’?
It is an event or activity which shows
something off in the best possible way.
The whole of Berlin was cleaned up, bright red,
white and black banners were hung all over the
city. Any signs of Anti-Semitism were removed, Jews
were allowed to live normal lives - from August
1st to August 16th.
Countries which had doubts about the fairness and
equality of the Nazi regime were persuaded to “come
and have a look at our country” and see for
themselves how good everything was. When the
representatives of those countries went to see, all
was indeed good.
One country in particular which was in two minds as
to whether or not to attend the Olympics was the
USA. The leader of their Olympic committee was Avery
Brundage; who had been an amateur athlete and rose
to become the leader of American Olympians.
Unfortunately, he was also an ardent supporter of
the Nazis and a Racist; her lobbied - tried to
persuade - all countries to attend the Olympics.
Why did he do this, in spite of there being a brutal
suppression of the Jews and other minorities?
This was because Brundage was invited to Germany,
before the Olympics and he was treated as if he was
a King. He was shown only the best parts of the Nazi
country, the best Nazi athletes, the best facilities
for the Olympics and crucially, he was shown Jewish
athletes training and having mock-competitions with
German athletes.
This all convinced him that Nazi Germany was a good
and honourable place, with no anti-semitism, no
oppression, and was a good example of a fair and
open country. Well, of COURSE he thought that - it
was what he was shown. He was NOT shown the
ghettoes, the bad conditions, the poverty of the
minorities and nor was he allowed to talk to those
who were oppressed.
Once again Hitler fooled other countries.
Anti-Semitism was as strong as it had ever had been
and was getting worse. It was simply hidden during
the Olympics.
The Olympics were also designed to show the
superiority of the Aryan Race over all other races,
especially the “non-humans” - Blacks.
Unfortunately for Hitler, Jesse Owens, a young black
athlete won 4 Gold Medals, far beating the best of
the Germans.

In 1936, Owens and his United States teammates
sailed on the SS Manhattan and arrived
in Germany to compete at the Summer Olympics in
Berlin. According to fellow American
sprinter James LuValle, who won the bronze
in the 400 meters, Owens arrived at the new
Olympic stadium to a throng of fans, many of
them young girls yelling "Wo ist Jesse? Wo
ist Jesse?" ("Where is Jesse? Where is
Jesse?”).
Just before the competitions, founder
of Adidas athletic
shoe company Adi Dassler visited Owens
in the Olympic village and persuaded Owens to
wear Gebrüder Dassler Schuhfabrik shoes; this
was the first sponsorship for a male African
American athlete.
On August 3, Owens won the 100
m dash with a time of 10.3 seconds, defeating a
teammate and a college friend Ralph
Metcalfe by a tenth of a second and
defeating Tinus Osendarp of the
Netherlands by two tenths of a second.
On August 4, he won the
long jump with a leap of 8.06 metres (26 ft
5 in) (3¼ inches short of his own world
record). He later credited this achievement to
the technical advice that he received
from Luz Long, the German competitor whom
he defeated.
On August 5, he won the
200 m sprint with a time of 20.7 seconds,
defeating teammate Mack Robinson (the
older brother of Jackie Robinson).
On August 9, Owens won his
fourth gold medal in the 4 × 100 m sprint relay
when head coach Lawson
Robertson replaced Jewish-American
sprinters Marty Glickman and Sam
Stoller with Owens and Ralph Metcalfe, who
teamed with Frank Wykoff and Foy
Draper to set a world record of 39.8
seconds in the event. Owens had initially
protested the last-minute switch, but assistant
coach Dean Cromwell said to him,
"You'll do as you are told."
Owens'
record-breaking performance of four gold medals
was not equaled until Carl Lewis won
gold medals in the same events at
the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
Owens had
set the world record in the long jump with a
leap of 8.13 m (26 ft 8 in) in
1935, the year before the Berlin Olympics, and
this record stood for 25 years
until it was broken in 1960 by
countryman Ralph Boston. Coincidentally,
Owens was a spectator at the 1960 Summer
Olympics in Rome when Boston took the gold
medal in the long jump.
The long-jump victory is documented,
along with many other 1936 events, in the 1938
film Olympia by Leni Riefenstahl.
On August 1, 1936, Nazi Germany’s
leader Adolf Hitler shook hands with
the German victors only and then left the
stadium. International Olympic Committee
president Henri de
Baillet-Latour insisted that Hitler greet
every medalist or none at all. Hitler opted for
the latter and skipped all further medal
presentations.
The Berlin Olympics were not a success for
Hitler; although many showed their loyalty
to the regime, many did not. Hitler was
outraged whenever a non-German won and often
became bad tempered.
