REYANE &

ROBLEH

1936
BERLIN
SUMMER
OLYMPICS
2022
EDITION
 E.P.S SECTION EUROPÉENNE

TABLE OF CONTENTS
I. INTRODUCTION 3

Hook
Presentation

II. THE BERLIN GAMES

I. Re-invention of the Games by 2

Pierre de Coubertin

II. Boycott of the Olympic Games 6

III. Conduct of the Berlin Games 8

I. Germany's true intentions and

propaganda 11

II. Jesse Owens, revelation of the

Games
13
III. Reviews and critique
14

III. CONCLUSION

Synthesis

Opening 15
Bibliography 16
 I. INTRODUCTION
The Olympic Games have a very long history. The first
ones begun in Ancient Greece during the first century
B.C. and used to happen in Olympia every four years.
The end of the Olympic Games date back to Antiquity
in the 4th century.

The different Greek cities

participated in the Games in
order to see who were the most
powerful but also in order to
honor their gods.

Then, there has been 1500 years without Olympics.

In this file, we will approach and

deepen all the notions and events
that took place during the Nazi
question, as well as the different
people who marked them or even
the critics. But above all, let's dive
into the question of who created
the Games and since when.
 I. RE-INVENTION OF THE
GAMES BY PIERRE DE
COUBERTIN

During the 19th century, some countries organised

Olympics but they were not organised between the
nations, they just took place within the countries such
as England or Greece. But the baron Pierre de
Coubertin who was an aristocrat, a monarchist,
humanist, catholic and a dreamer decided to restore
again the antique Olympic Games. He is truly
considered as the re-founder of these. He was really
interested in ancient Greece.

Also, he considered these games as an ideal of peace due to the

Olympic Truce who signalled an interruption of wars and the
athletes did not use to play just for the money they could earn.
However, it was not the case and the Olympic Truce was not
always respected as it showed by Sparta, during the
Peloponnesian War who violated it and keep attacking Athens.
On top of that, in Athens, 6 centuries before Christ, the athletes
could earn phenomenal rewards which could benefit a lifetime.
To this end, they could do anything to win these. Philostratus the
Athenian, himself said :

« The sport of today has allowed

athletics to degenerate so much

that it is painful for what it

appreciates to see the sports of

today » seeing the system as

being « mercantile of athletic

merit ». 3rd century BC

 Pierre de Coubertin wanted the new Games to be a
religion ! :
« by carving his body through exercise like a sculptor
of a statue, the modern athlete exalts his body, his
race his homeland his flag. »
So, in 1894, he created the IOC : the International
Olympic Commitee. The first games took place in
Athens in 1896 and as the ancient ones, they are held
every four years.

At the beginning of
the 20th century, the First
World War, one of the
deadliest conflicts in
history, breaks out.
Germany is designated
solely responsible.
Therefore, they are
excluded from the 1920
and the 1924 Olympics.
Thus, they will absolutely change the
The IOC give the Germany a chance to re-
integrate into the international community
in order to promote a new, more positive
image of them. To this end, the
International Olympic Committe grant
Germany the organization of the Games of
the XI Olympics, also known as the 1936
Summer Olympics. The vote was held
during the final years of the Weimar
Republic. But the Wall Street Crash of 1929
totally upset the world and signaled the
beginning of the Great Depression. As a
result, that will a lot help Adolf Hitler and
the Nazi Party rose to power in Germany in
1933.

sport’s face. They will exclude jewish and

gypsy athletes : it was the case for Daniel
Prenn, a tennis champion and Gretel
Bergmann, a high-level high jumper who
were banned from the German National
team in 1933.

 II. BOYCOTT OF THE

OLYMPIC GAMES
Nazi Germany exploited the 1936
Olympics for propaganda purposes.
For the first time in the history of the
Olympic Games, parts of Europe and the
United States called for a boycott of the
Games to expose human rights violations
in the host country.

Jewish sportsmen chose to

Here are the main arguments why this
games were boycotted :
- Nazi Germany discriminates against
Jews, the main motive for boycotting or
relocating games ;
- discrimination is hardly compatible
with sportsmanship;
-the Games remain a platform for the
boycott the
Berlin Olympics. In the United
States, some Jewish sportsmen
and Jewish organizations such as
the American Jewish Congress
and the Jewish Labor Committee
called for a boycott.
In response to reports of the
persecution
of Jewish athletes in 1933, Avery
Brundage, President of the United
States Olympic Committee, made
this statement:

"The very fondation of the modern Olympic

Nazi regime to promote the superiority
Games
of the Aryan race;
-participation in the Games would will be shaken if certain countries are

imply adherence to persecution and allowed to limit participation based on

racism. class, ideas and race.

However, after the United States Union of

Amateur Athletes' vote in favor of
participation in December 1935, other
countries followed and the boycott
movement failed.
The Olympic Games were to be held in
Spain under the name People's Olympiad
and it was intended to take place in
Barcelona to protest. But this was not the
case because of the civil war which broke
out in July 1936.

After a brief and rigorous

inspection of German sports facilities in
1934, he publicly declared that Jewish
athletes were treated fairly and that the
Games should go on, as planned.

III. CONDUCT OF THE

BERLIN GAMES
The Olympics began on August 1, 1936. A
grand opening ceremony took place at
the Olympic Stadium in Berlin. The 1936
Summer Olympics torch relay was the
first of its kind, following on from the
reintroduction of the Olympic Flame at
the 1928 Games. It pioneered the modern
convention of moving the flame via a
relay system from Greece to the Olympic
venue and had involved about 3300
bearers from the 20th July.


By the way, Germany and the United
States of America were the country with
the most participants and athletes. 129
events in 25 disciplines, comprising 19
sports, were part of the Olympic program
in 1936.
A total of 49 nations
attended the Berlin
Olympics : Afghanistan
Argentina/ Australia /Austria
Belgium /Bermuda /Bolivia
Brazil /Bulgaria /Canada
Chile /Republic of China
Colombia /Costa Rica
Czechoslovakia /Denmark
Egypt /Estonia /Finland
France /Germany /Great
Britain /Greece /Hungary
Iceland /India /Italy /Japan
Latvia /Liechtenstein
Luxembourg /Malta /Mexico
Monaco /Netherlands /New
Zealand /Norway /Peru
Philippines /Poland
/Portugal /Romania /South
Africa /Sweden /Switzerland
Turkey /United States
Uruguay /Yugoslavia

 129 events in 25 disciplines, comprising 19 sports, were part of the

Olympic program in 1936. The number of events in each discipline is
noted in parentheses.

The 20-year-old weight-lifter In the end, Germany had a

El Touni lifted a total of
387.5 kg, crushing two German world
champions and breaking the then-
Olympic and world records. 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. El Touni's new world
records stood for 13 years. Hitler was
so impressed by El Touni's
domination in the middleweight
class that he ordered a street named
after him in Berlin's Olympic village.
successful year and was the
big winner with 89 medals
including 33 gold ahead of the
USA (56 including 24 gold).
The Berlin games was
considered as an incredible
success for all Germany
because it have thrilled
Germans and foreign tourists
alike and generated over a
million ReichsMarks in profits.
And, it finally ended with a
huge closing ceremony in the
Olympic stade on August, 16th
1936.
B.
I. GERMANY'S TRUE
INTENTIONS AND PROPAGANDA
However, this Berlin Olympics
Born in 1889 in Braunau am
were just a masquerade.
Inn (Austria), Adolf Hitler was
Germany and the nazi party had
a German politician at the origin
been using this Games to
of Nazism, he led the war
promote and show the entire
through his policy of annexation
world their power, their
of territories, but also initiated
supremacy, their grandeur. It was
the "Final Solution" to
an occasion for them to spread
exterminate the "inferior races".
and prompt their racist
His intentions via the 1936
ideologies. It was a chance to
Olympics is to lessen distrust of
showcase their renaissance to
Nazi ideals
every country in the world.

All the propaganda was

orchestrated by Joseph Goebbels,
the minister of propaganda.
Hitler and the nazi party had been
also using this event to spread
propaganda about nazism and
theories on the superiority of the
Aryan race while concealing the
belligerent intentions of the party.

They took a lot of initiatives during

the pre-olympic campaign :
-the creation of an ultra-modern
Olympic village ;
 -the creation of more
imposing sports’
centres. For example,
the Olympic Stadium in
Berlin which has
100,000 seats and could
technically 250 000
with the outdoor
equiments ;
-the construction of a giant
tower equiped with a bronze
Olympic bell and a new
metro station ;

- they distributed postcards, newsletter

in 14 languages posters in 19 languages
and stamps sponsored by the big guns
of industry like Coca-Cola in order to
embellish the image of National
Socialism in the world.

-the disappearance of anti-Semitic posters

as well as the suspension of anti-Semitic
laws. A particularly telling example is the
half-Jewish fencer Hélène Mayer German
authorized to represent Germany by the
government so that they give a false image
of a peaceful and tolerant Germany ;
 The Berlin Games were filmed and
immortalized with a documentary made
by Leni Riefenstahl in 1938 named
Olympia. It was supervised by the Reich
Chancellor with almost unlimited means
and new filming techniques, very
advanced at the time. It cannot be
denied that it was a huge demonstration
of power for the regime used as a hymn
to Aryan beauty and a engine of their
ideology.

Part of the stadium was

reserved for the S.A for the
applause.
The Nazi anthem “Horst-
Wessel” has been sung 440
times. While the German
national anthem has been
sung 33 times
 II. JESSE OWENS,
REVELATION OF THE GAMES
James Cleveland Owens called Jesse Owens
was born September 12, 1913 in Oakville and
died March 31, 1980 in Tucson. He is an
American athlete considered as the first
black sportsman of international renown,
and the best sprinter of the interwar period .
He is famous today because he won four gold
medals at the Berlin Olympics in 1936 in a
particular political context, under the eyes of
Adolf Hitler. Jesse Owens also came from a
modest family of 11 children.

During his schooling, he

discovered running. Thanks
When his new teacher asked
to his trainer and his great
his name (to enter in her roll
discipline, he progressed
book), he said "J.C.", but because
quickly and began to break
of his strong Southern accent,
records in long and high
she thought he said "Jesse". The
jumps. He wanted to join a
name stuck, and he was known
high school. A meeting with
as Jesse Owens for the rest of his
a former Olympic champion,
life.
Charlie Paddock, will give
him motivation and the
desire to participate in the
Olympic Games. He is crowned United States champion in
the 100m on June 20, 1936 with 10.02 s.
So, at 22 years old, he has his ticket for
the Berlin Olympics.
 He achieved international fame at the 1936
Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany, by
« When I passed the Chancellor
winning four gold medals: 100 meters, long
he arose,
jump, 200 meters, and 4 × 100-meter relay. He
was the most successful athlete at the Games waved his hand at me, and I

and, as a black American man, was credited with waved back at him. I think the

"single-handedly crushing Hitler's myth of Aryan writers showed bad taste in

supremacy", though Owens commented that he criticising the man of the hour in

was "snubbed" by the U.S. president, Franklin D. Germany »« Hitler didn't snub me,

Roosevelt, as he was not invited to the White it was our president who snubbed

House to shake Roosevelt's hand. me. The president didn't even

send me a telegram. »

On his return to the USA, many

people hoped that he was going to
get involved and be a symbol of the
fight against racial segregation but
this was not the case. Forty years
later, it was him who would regret
it and even write a book about it: I
have changed, 1972. He died of
lung cancer in 1980.
 III. REVIEWS AND CRITIQUE
ABOUT THE OLYMPICS
Germany does not respect human rights or the values ​
of the Olympic Games, they take advantage of this
event to make Nazi propaganda. Some Protestants like
the American journalist William L. Shirer claim that “the
spectacle offered in Berlin was only window dressing”
or Jacques Goddet, a French columnist who publishes
an article entitled “Les jeux défigurés” where he
criticizes the games .

The statements of Pierre de Coubertin

create many controversies, some think
he was favorable to Hitler, others
thought he was doing this to highlight
his work entitled "the Modern Olympic
Games".

Faced with all these preparations by the Hitler

regime for the holding and running of the
Olympic Games in Berlin, it is interesting to look
at the perception of journalists. Within the
Montreal Daily Star we can get some reviews. He
describes them as the greatest in Olympic history,
but adds that humanity witnessed a precedent,
the intrusion of politics into games. On the side of
the New York Times, we headlined: "the greatest
propaganda stunt in history 34 ".

The vision of the French press was more nuanced with the right-wing
newspapers which hailed the love of order, the cohesion, the ardor in training
and the acclamations supervised by Hitler and Göring. On the other hand,
others, such as Paris-Soir, changed their attitude during the presentation of the
games, moving from approval to criticism.
 I. CONCLUSION
Pierre de Coubertin was the person behind the Olympic Games
but in 1933 no one expected the Nazi party to come to power
and change the face of Germany. This is why at the beginning
the Games will be boycotted but without success and will
finally take place in Berlin...

This is not without taking into account the fact that the
Nazis used this event for a completely different purpose:
it was propaganda and it was to give the world the image
of a resurgent and peaceful Germany. Some people
understood it and denounced it. And athletes such as
Jessy Owens stood out from this event and proved to
everyone that Nazi theories and other conspiracies were
wrong and that sport was worth much more than all that.

More recently, the Olympic Games will

Indeed, countries such as the United
States, Australia or the United
Kingdom have called for a diplomatic
boycott and today millions of people
in the world absolutely do not want
come and take place in Beijing. Since
the beginning of 2018, many political
figures have denounced the Chinese
regime at the origin of massacres,
enslavement and mistreatment of the
Uyghur people and the rumor has only

and are protesting so that the amplified and taken an international

symbolic values of the Olympic Games turn.
are not represented by a country at
the origin of a genocide.
 BIBILIOGRAPHY AND BERLIN
GAMES' POSTERS

https://ww2.ac-poitiers.fr/histoire-arts/IMG/pdf/Les_jeux_olympiques_de_1936.pdf
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeux_olympiques_d%27%C3%A9t%C3%A9_de_1936
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmn4s5ScGzg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqbFm_2rRKM
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/fr/article/the-nazi-olympics-berlin-1936
https://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/divers/JO_de_Berlin_1936_X_e_jeux_Olympi
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