The 1936 Olympic Games: Nazi Germany’s Gambit

sometimes sports are about a whole lot more than just Sports Jackie Robinson's 1947 baseball season with the Brooklyn Dodgers set the stage for the racial integration of sports in America ping pong diplomacy of the 1970s laid the groundwork for China to reopen friendly contact with the west and we've done our whole video over on the war of Graphics Channel about how sport is often exploited by dictatorships to keep control of their people but the 1936 Olympic Games stand Above the Rest in a sporting Showdown where Nazi ideology virulent racism and the Prelude to war all

took Center Stage this is the story of the 1936 Olympics Hitler's grand plan to pitch eerie and Supremacy to the world and the world's bold efforts to fight back when Adolf Hitler in the Nazi party assumed power in 1933 they took command of a Germany in despair the countries fractured and discontented population the aftershocks of the Great Depression and the emasculating and borderline bankrupting conditions of the Treaty of Versailles had all muddled together into a a uniquely perilous environment but it was one that Hitler and his Nazis were perfectly poised to exploit riding their own

way that anti-semitic populism the Nazi party had made its political fortunes by stoking hatred and in a country where so many people already seemed hungry for an excuse to voice that hatred Hitler had been all too ready to capitalize but hatred on its own is a difficult tool to control and Hitler understood this as well as any dictator throughout history let popular anger fester for too long and that's gonna turn against anybody in order to put that hatred to use Hitler needed an enemy he needed a battle to win although he had his sight set

on European Conquest that goal oh is too far off tanks would have to be built planes put into the skies and an entire generation of Germans would have to become War Ready the prospect of Empire it would have to remain a fiction at least for now and without it Hitler have to focus German rage toward his enemies by some other means now the Nazis had plenty of other tools in their Arsenal they had propaganda their political purges and they had elaborate designs toward a genocide against Germany's Jewish population and a range of other purportedly undesirable

peoples but they also had a major gift from the Weimar Republic one that presented some fascinating opportunities for the Nazi party to expand their power in 1936 just three years after Hitler became chancellor of Germany the Third Reich would host the Olympic Games now the international Olympic Committee or ioc hadn't awarded the 1936 Olympics II Nazi Germany no they had awarded the games to the Weimar Republic in 1931 a full two years before Hitler came to power choosing Berlin over the Spanish city of Barcelona from the ioc's perspective the rise of Hitler was something of

an unwelcome surprise after all this was before the time that the ioc became known for cozying up to authoritarian regimes allegedly but despite by concerns that seeming to endorse Hitler's anti-semitic legislative decisions might be bad for the ioc's brand the ioc was nevertheless convinced to keep the games in Berlin not least because Hitler assured the ioc that he would allow Jewish athletes to compete on the German Olympic team and vowed not to promote Nazi ideology throughout the event now it's also worth noting here that Hitler didn't particularly like the idea of the Olympics they were

globalist Multicultural and part of the same world order that he had professed his dedication to Bringing Down but their value as a propaganda tool was just too great and his lieutenants were able to convince him that this sort of an opportunity simply could not be passed up for Hitler and the Nazis keeping promises was a matter of convenience and if they broke their promise to the ioc not to turn the Olympics to their own aims then they could reap a whole lot of rewards in the process on the one hand they would control how the

Olympics looked how they sounded where they took place and at least partially what their enduring historic message would be this made the games into a valuable chance for Hitler to make a sort of Nazi style elevator pitch to the world explaining what exactly his brand of fascism was all about and why the rest of the world should choose to support him rather than oppose him as time went on now the games also had a second Advantage if Hitler could sweep the Olympic medal counts with a team of Airy and so-called racially pure athletes he would

reinforce his broader ideologies of aryanization and anti-Semitism and finally by bringing all of the world's major governments together under Hitler's roof the Nazis would get a critical propaganda Victory legitimizing both their Rule and their ideology on the world stage Hitler wasted no time in preparing German Society for the games in 1933 propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels began working to transform sport into a central element of German life in his words German sport has only one time to strengthen the character of the German people imbuing it with the fighting spirit and steadfast camaraderie necessary in the struggle

for its existence the German educational curriculum was reshaped around Sports and athleticism partly to identify the athletes who might have the greatest chance of success at the 1936 games but partly to begin preparing a generation that would grow up and become soldiers control of this initiative was passed on to Hans van Sharma and Austin head of the right sport office who quickly set to work systematically excluding Jewish part Jewish and Romani athletes from athletic facilities it's worth emphasizing here that Hitler had promised the ioc that Jewish athletes would be allowed to compete on sports teams

but that only if they were to qualify which shama would make sure never happened only one athlete with Jewish ancestry the fencer Helen Meyer would become part of the German Olympic team at the insistence of the ioc in order to prove that the Nazis weren't completely prohibiting German Jews from a patient Maya an athletic blonde-haired woman with a Christian mother was deemed acceptable while several other impressive German Jewish athletes were never given the opportunity to even qualify and as the table was set for a purportedly Aryan team to represent Germany so too did Hitler set

the table for the Olympics to be seen as a German Birthright at home Germany had been supposed to host the games in 1916 an event which didn't take place due to World War one and as Hitler saw it the defeat of the Central Powers in World War one had been an excuse for the world to gut Germany for their own convenience Germany had even been banned from the Olympics in 1920 and 1924 yet another slap in the face to what Hitler and the Nazis believed oh was German Supremacy now 20 years after the Germans had

had their game stolen Hitler would be the one to bring them home as he told his architect Albert Speer in private he understood that Tokyo would host the games in 1940 but in 1944 in 1948 in 1952 and every Olympic Games thereafter he fully intended that Germany would be their permanent home the Nazi vision for the Olympics was grandiose starkly ideological and opportunistic in nature taking advantage of the technology of the day in order to amplify the event's importance worldwide the propaganda Ministry set to work creating leaflets and a writing speeches that would be saved

for the event extolling the natural superiority of the Aryan race and the Reich Sports field a 325 acre complex including four stadiums was built brand new and practically wallpapered with Nazi imagery and symbolism the German Ministry of the Interior saw to it that no undesirables would be able to arraign on the Nazi parade Berlin's Romani population was rounded up and brought to the Berlin Mars and concentration camp the Nazis also took advantage of new technologies to spread their message the games would be televised for the first time in 1936 and news footage would be sent

quickly via Zeppelin to European cities while the results of the games were sent out in close to real time Hitler also ensured that the the games themselves would include a Nazi touch including by fabricating the Olympic torch relay which Hitler's propagandist claimed had its roots in ancient Greece this was all a farce and it was one of the many attempts by Hitler to try and frame his Rising German Empire under the historic legitimacy of old Empires that had long since Fallen but the event was so popular that it's continued to this day just remember the

Nazis made that up in 1936 almost 3 500 torchbearers ran a relay of 0.6 miles each from Olympia Greece to Berlin along a path marked by pro-nazi demonstrations in Nations the Germans would soon take over internationally Hitler pushed hard against the idea that Jewish or black athletes would even be allowed to participate in the games at all no matter which nation they represented however he was eventually forced to give up on that idea when the threats of a boycott became just too loud to ignore his response at the pleading of the ioc was to sanitize

the city of anti-Semitic propaganda even as the Romani population was arrested antismatic signs and slogans were scrubbed from the city and Nazi officials made the decision not to subject any of their foreign visitors to laws criminalizing homosexuality instead the populations Hitler didn't want the world to see would be kept conspicuously absent while Nazi symbolism was promoted as the Nazis saw it the viewer would be able to figure out the rest the dangers of Nazi Ideology Now hidden far enough away that the rest of the world didn't have to acknowledge them 49 Nations agreed to participate

ending a total of 3943 athletes along with waves of political Representatives foreign dignitaries and Olympic die-hard fans to watch the action the United States Olympic Committee led by Avery Brundage became enthusiastic supporters of the games leaning heavily on the old and somewhat naive adage that politics has no place in sport Brundage had gone to Germany on a fact-finding trip in 1934 to assess the treatment of Jews but after having nice conversations with Nazi handlers who were translating for Jewish interviewes that did not speak English Brundage apparently felt that all was fine in Kingdom Jewish athletes

did try to lead a boycott of their own but this was largely brushed aside in the 1936 games would feature the largest number of participating Nations ever at least to that point Spain attempted to hold a competing event the so-called people's Olympiad but the Spanish Civil War broke out one day before the people's Olympiad was due to begin obviously it didn't take place the games began on the 1st of August 1936 at the Berlin Olympic Stadium Hitler featured prominently in the opening ceremonies watching over the proceedings from his box and he was shown salutes and

acts of deference by most of the participating Nations here Hitler's Rising Cult of Personality was on full display from the mostly German audience and the sheer adoration that was shown to him was not lost on the international attendees unfortunately for Hitler unfortunately for anyone watching who might need a laugh The Opening Ceremonies did have a little hiccup at one point when 25 000 pigeons were released to begin the ceremony but immediately after Hitler's announcement to begin the games would be punctuated by Cannon far as it turned out the Canon far quite literally scared the out

of those 25 000 pigeons and oh we can only hope that the Fiora might have been caught in the crossfire but of course that little detail received minimal press coverage and the games got underway as scheduled once the Olympic Games began it was the athletes who took center stage on the one hand it was obvious by looking at Germany's athletes what precisely Hitler's message was the vast majority were well-muscled blonde-haired blue-eyed examples of the ideal Aryan regime but on the other hand if any athletes had wanted a chance to resist Nazi ideology and flip the

bird to Hitler proverbially of course and now is the time to do so German newspapers were being tightly regulated on what information they allowed to get out so it wouldn't be enough for an anti-nazi athlete to have an above average performance they would have to meddle in order for their names and achievements to be shown to the world black American athletes were Central to the international effort to resist Hitler and even amidst discussions of a boycott in the United States most african-american-run newspapers supported sending their athletes to Germany victories by black athletes they argued would

be incontrovertible proof that Hitler was wrong about the world in fact many black writers denounced Jewish and other pro-boycott activists for the hypocrisy arguing against racial discrimination abroad when they'd done nothing to address discrimination against black athletes at home now the most famous black American athlete at the games was no doubt Jesse Owens who by then had already earned International Acclaim by breaking several World Records in 1936 Owens earned four gold medals at the games the 100 meter dash the 200 meter dash the long jump and the four by 100 meter relay his performances in

both the 100 and 200 meter dash would set new records and his gold medal in the long jump came even despite a tough qualifying round in which two of his three jumped didn't go his way despite Nazi ideology despite Hitler's racial propaganda Owens won the Adoration of the German crowds in attendance and he apparently was able to royally piss off propaganda Minister Goebbels in the Pro process now a popular misconception from the event is that Hitler outright refused to shake owens's hand after his victories in reality Hitler had elected not to shake any Winner's hands

after he had generated controversy by only shaking German and Finnish winners hands on the first day of games regardless though Erin's victories became an iconic Moment In global Sports history and sparked rage among the Nazi Elite but Owens wasn't the only black American athlete to take home major medals either the high jumpers Cornelius Johnson and David Albritton would take home gold and silver respectively the 400 meter Runner Archie Williams and the 800 meter Runner John Woodruff would each win gold in the boxer Jack Wilson would earn the silver medal the runner Ralph Metcalfe finished the

100 meter dash just a tenth of a second after Owens and Mack Robinson would finish the 200-meter dash within half a second of owens's time in all 14 medals went to Black American athletes a quarter of all the medals the United States took home during the games despite being dismissed as auxiliaries throughout the entire Olympics these athletes made a powerful impact at home and abroad kicking off a racial Reckoning that would follow them back to America and for decades to come it wasn't all good news of course a relay Runner named Louis Stokes was barred

from her events and black athletes were barge even attempting to qualify for the American basketball team but these injustices too could only be addressed by the sort of Reckoning that the 1936 Olympics provided even if it would take decades to make substantive change happen in the U.S then thus the stories of the Jewish athletes who competed 13 of whom would win medals over the course of the games six Hungarian Jewish athletes took home gold in water polo Freestyle Wrestling high jump and fencing while polish Austrian Belgian Canadian and American Jews and Medals of their own

but two American Jewish Runners became the focus of the Olympics for very different reasons both runners in the 4x100 meter relay Marty Glickman and Sam Stoller they were pulled from the event one day before they were set to compete they were replaced by Jesse Owens and Ralph Metcalf again two black athletes which some historians believe indicates that the decision was not racially motivated but Glickman or one of the runners saw it differently according to him the aforementioned Avery Brundage as oh well as their running coach wanted to ensure Hitler wouldn't have to endure the site

of Jewish athletes on his Winner's Podium Owens and Metcalfe would go on to win gold on their behalf while Glickman and Stoller a watch from the sidelines it's also worth circling back to that German Jewish fencer Helene Meyer who had been allowed to compete on Hitler's Olympic team despite her ancestry matuka saw to the women's foil event where she would face off with a Hungarian Jewish fencer Iona shareka the two had already met in the qualifying rounds where sharek is unorthodox style had proven to be too much for Meyer and despite excellent performances throughout the

rest of the tournament Maya fell again to shareka in the final round Maya after running her silver medal flipped quick Heil Hitler in the Furious Direction but it was shiraka who had earned the gold and taken nip from The fencer Who many Jews around the world saw us a traitor and finally there was the story of the marathon runner he showed his own Brazen Defiance to a different future Axis power a native of Korea which was in 1936 occupied by Imperial Japan Sean was a Korean nationalist who had been forced to adopt Japanese name and

compete with the Japanese team in order to take part in the Olympics however he made sure to include his Korean name on his official documentation when he won gold setting a marathon world record at 2 hours 29 minutes and 19 seconds son made sure to Bow his head into Defiance as the Japanese national anthem played to celebrate his victory so on would return to Korea as a hero and he would be a key part of independent South Korea's Olympic appearances for decades but even among so many individual stories of resistance the overwhelming narrative during the

games oh it's all Hitlers Germany didn't just win the overall medal count for the event they dominated it taking home 38 gold medals and 101 overall compared to the runner-up of the United States who took home 24 gold and 57 medals overall stories of German Hospitality German extravagant and Nazi pride and glamor spread all around the world and most members of the international press described the event as it would have brought Germany back into the upper echelon of world Nations few pointed out Hitlers and goebbels's facade although a few like writer William Shira saw through

it he stated I'm 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 the big businessman quote ends Shara was right the Olympics would give Hitler and his entire regime invaluable positive press and gain them enough respect and acknowledgment from the world that many people would make the choice not to condemn their actions until it was too late there would be no Olympic

Games in 1940 nor would there be in 1944 by then the Nazis have left the World of Sport behind them in favor of open Warfare as soon as the games concluded the Nazis got right back to work on building the Empire they envisioned during the games Jews and other targeted groups had been able to live in relative quiet so long as they kept their heads down but the Olympics had been a convenient way for the Nazis to essentially write them out of society now the Holocaust would well and truly get underway far from the view

of global onlookers who now knew Germany as a Bastion of sport and not a brutal regime and all through those years before the war Hitler would operate inside a world order that at the very least had learned to tolerate him and perhaps even liked him all courtesy of the 1936 Olympics Nazi Germany's great Gambit had worked and it would take years for the world to learn just what sort of Devastation that meant foreign foreign foreign