How Hitler Won the Olympic Games - The Berlin Olympics | BETWEEN 2 WARS I 1936 Part 3 of 3 - YouTube (1)

It is an event that leaves the global population in awe; it is the height of modernity. The

first-ever sports-event to be televised. Its host is Adolf Hitler and his National Socialist

German Government. It is the 1936 Olympics, an event meticulously designed to showcase

the Germans as a superior race, and frame the Führer as a heroic imperial host of fabulous

games. It is also a perversion of the original idea of the Modern Olympics as a promotion

of peace and friendly competition.

Welcome to Between-2-Wars a chronological summary of the interwar years, covering all

facets of life, the uncertainty, hedonism, and euphoria, and ultimately humanity's

descent into the darkness of the Second World War. I'm Indy Neidell.

The story of the Berlin Olympics starts in 1931, before Hitler is in power. Germany had

been banned from organizing international sport events after The Great War, and wants

to get back into the game by bidding on the 1936 Summer and Winter Olympics. In an eventful

International Olympic Committee (IOC) meeting in Barcelona in April 1931, Berlin is selected

as the host city. It is supposed to be just another Modern Olympics like the 9 previous

games, but then in 1933, Hitler grabs power, and everything changes.

Now, you might assume that the Olympics are a nice present for Hitler, who doesn't have

to do anything to get them, but can use them to push his political agenda over international

borders.

But that isn't quite the situation. See, the Nazis detest the Olympics and everything

it stands for. They are not at all as much into sports as you might think. Yet. They

consider modern sports to be ‘universalistic' and not in line with German values. And the

Olympics are even worse, as they were designed to be a celebration of universal sportsmanship,

fair competition, and equality. In other words, a product of everything the Nazis hate.

Or as SA man Bruno Malitz, writes in Athleticism of the National Socialist Movement in 1933;

“The Jewish leadership of [international] sport, and those infected by the Jews, the

pacifists, and the intercultural conciliators, have no place in Germany - they are worse

than cholera.”

So it's understandable that Carl Diem, Secretary-General of the Berlin Olympic Organizing Committee,

is quite pessimistic when he is called down to Hitler's office on 16 March 1933 to discuss

the Games. He fears that Hitler is going to just cancel the event. But that is not what

happens. Instead, Hitler and Joseph Goebbels, Reichsminister for Propaganda, have concocted

a plan to make the 1936 Olympics into their most prominent and global propaganda project

to date.

But before we get to that, let's backtrack a bit to better understand what the Nazis

have against modern sports and why especially the Modern Olympics and its ideals don't

fit into the Nazi ideology.

For that we have to go back to 1896.

That year, the first Modern Olympics were hosted in Athens. Frenchman Pierre de Coubertin

was the man leading the effort to revive the ancient Olympic Games, and he had a grand

vision that transcended a mere ‘sports event.' He described it as 'Olympism'. Now, Coubertin

was profoundly impressed by the then modern British education system which, unlike the

French and German systems, not built only on strict discipline, but included ideas of

self-revelation and physical education, and most importantly team-sports. Convinced that

this explained the Anglo-Saxon successes in economy and geopolitics, he wanted to import

this to the European mainland. He introduced sports and athletics in the French education

system - with great success. Through Coubertin and his compatriots, the first French sport

clubs were established, and many educational institutions founded athletic programs, bringing

tennis, rugby and football to France.

But still, in France of the 1890s, sports was something very liberal and progressive,

and to many others, the international aspect of Coubertin's efforts was damning. People

like the radical political agitator Paschal Grousset did see the value of sports but gave

it a heavily nationalist spin - only promoting games that originated in France. So Coubertin,

though not necessarily anti-patriotic, had to face many accusations of importing English

culture into France. Not only that, his ideal of ‘Olympism' was founded of self-revelation,

peace, solidarity, mutual respect and international understanding or even co-operation. Sports

was to be at the center of the peaceful development of humankind.

Optimistic? Idealistic? Maybe, but that was what the Olympics were a symbol of from the

moment they first took place. Although others saw the Olympics as being more about differences

than any sort of unity.

One of them was the poet, journalist, and Fascist Integral Nationalist thinker, Charles

Maurras, who you might remember from our episodes on French Fascism and Fascism in general.

He said to Coubertin about the Olympics that

‘I see that your internationalism […] does not kill national spirit - it strengthens

it'

And he wasn't all wrong. To many, the Olympics became a ‘sportive war', where nationalism

caused countries to aim for the gold medals, not friendly sportsmanship. This was especially

the case in games where two competing nations faced real-world tension at the same time.

And Olympic committees were nationalistic kinda by default, representing political states

and not necessarily ‘sport nations'. In any case, although the Olympics originated

with an ideal of internationalism, they became a tool for Nationalism in the early 1900's.

And this precisely, is why Hitler and Goebbels are not opposed to hosting the Olympic Games

in 1936.

The Nazis' sudden readiness to embrace the games raises some concerns at the International

Olympic Committee, the IOC. The Three German IOC members are soon questioned about Jewish

participation on the German national team. They state that ‘as a principle, German

Jews shall not be excluded from German teams'. But while Carl Diem and German IOC Representative

Karl Ritter von Halt keep repeating this promise time and again, German sports clubs are actively

banning Jews from participating.

In 1935, after the Nuremberg Race Laws are issued, all Jews working for the German Olympic

Committee are dismissed. There are protests and international calls for a boycott of the

games, but thre is also support from abroad. For instance; Avery Brundage, chairman of

the American Olympic Committee soon claims that every call for a boycott is, quote “obviously

written by a Jew or someone who has succumbed to Jewish propaganda.” Significantly Henri

de Baillet-Latour, Coubertin's successor as Chairmen of the IOC, is also furious at

the ‘Jewish' boycott campaign. And still, a boycott does have wide support from non-Jewish

groups and individuals in many places – in 1935 43% of all Americans agree with the US

not sending a delegation. But these voices are soon silenced as Brundage just ignores

them, and the American Sports Associations vote to go to Germany.

So Hitler gets his cake and now gets to eat it too. The second step in his plans is to

use the Olympics for his own ends to incorporate sports into German life.

As I said, Germany had not embraced sports or team-sports the same way that France or

Britain had. It was still seen as a liberal hobby. Other than boxing maybe, the Nazis

didn't apply team-sports to their education programs or workers' and youth organizations.

Well, all of this changes now that Hitler has seen the light of the Olympics.

In 1934 the ‘German League of the Reich for Physical Exercise' (DRL) is created

under the leadership of SA man Hans von Tschammer und Osten was its leader, and changes the

nature of sports in the Third Reich, together with the Olympic organizers Diem and Ritter

von Halt, even creating a new German sports-ideal.

I already told you about how the French adopted British ideas of self-revelation and collective

sports to replace discipline. And how Maurras saw that this could be used to enhance the

national spirit. Well, these three now take both of these concepts to the next level.

All sports organizations are incorporated into the new DRL. Physical exercise becomes

a staple of German work culture, education, youth movements and the military. It is to

promote a new ideal of heathy athleticism and the ‘physical superiority of the Aryan

race'. A healthy, fit body becomes synonymous with the health of the German nation, and

muscular aesthetics become synonymous with propaganda depictions of Germans. Popular

government-sponsored magazines such as 'Sport und Staat' are founded with stylized pictures

of Nazis engaged in sports, and attractive, young people of the SA, the Bund Deutscher

Mädel and the Hitler Jugend in muscular motion.

So within a few years, sports goes from a socialist hobby to the standard of German

unit and health, and a signifier of racial superiority. And the 1936 Olympics? That shall

be the crown on all of this.

It has to be magnificent. And it is. Monumental sports facilities are built like the Olympic

Stadium in Berlin, which holds 100,000 people, an open-air pool, a state of the art Olympic

village with modern training facilities. No expenses spared: What to many today are gaudy,

caricatured, oversized representatives of 'Aryan Athletes' are truly impressive

to visitors from Germany and abroad. New ‘Traditions' speak to the imagination of imperial memories

as well, such as the relay of the Olympic Torch from Olympia in Greece to the stadium

in Berlin. The marathon winner from 1896, Spiridon Louis, is invited to Berlin to ‘crown'

Hitler with an Olive branch. During the opening ceremony, the German airship Hindenburg flies

over the Stadium trailing a gigantic Olympic flag. Along with the sport events are cultural

displays, like a series of dances featuring a chorus of 1000 and 140 dancers. There are

operas, concerts and luxurious dinners in the countryside hosted by Goebbels and full

of international high-profile guests. Things that today are staples of the Olympics and

other sport events had never been seen in 1936.

The Swastika is of course featured on banners, flags, uniforms and buildings. The Hitler

Salute had already been incorporated in the German sports culture, but mow many of the

visiting teams even salute Hitler by bringing up their right arms as they walked past his

stage during the opening ceremony. And yet, Hitler is not at the center of it all. At

least, not by design. The IOC had feared that he would turn it into his own personal celebrations

and use it as stage for his famous oratory. So the IOC allows him only a single line in

the opening ceremony: ‘I declare the games of the Eleventh Olympiad of the modern era

to be open'. That's all. Jokingly, Hitler told Baillet-Latour: ‘Count, I'll take

the trouble to learn it by heart.'

But whether or not Baillet-Latour wanted it or not, the Games are a celebration of Hitler,

the Nazi-Party and Germany. Famed Nazi propaganda film maker Leni Riefenstahl is commissioned

to create an awe-inspiring movie about the games, called ‘Olympia.' While producing

this she establishes many sports-filming techniques still used today, like zip line camera, camera

with automatic dollies pulled along the track, multi jointed jib arms, and telescopic lens

film cameras along the field. Everyone who visits the games is presented with a polished,

perfected and staged image of Germany and its rulers. The games, and sports in general,

become a celebration of German nationalism and nationalism in general. A recurring connection

between the antique world and the German regime provides a sense of imperial grandeur and

political legitimacy. But here's a perhaps unexpected thing; racism is not at all at

the center of the games. You see Diem is well aware that he needs to tilt to the positive.

And oppression, suppression, and hatred is really hard to spin as a positive thing to

people who have not drunk the cool aid, if you see what I mean. So instead it's pageantry

where the sky is the limit - Nazism is framed as progress, health, and happiness in monumental