2024-08-06 05:17:43
Even an ordinary visit to a football match can become an excursion into the dark past – at least in Berlin. At first glance, the oval stadium resembles an ancient arena. The five rings suspended between the tall towers at the entrance indicate that the massive structure was the scene of the Olympics, shadowed by swastika flags. In the end, the hero of the Games was the black sprinter Jesse Owens, who won the 100 meters on August 3.
The Olympics, for which the entire Berlin complex was created, was originally supposed to take place in 1916. But the plans were disrupted by the First World War. After it, Germany – as one of the culprits of the conflict and a defeated power – was completely excluded from the Olympic competition for several years. However, the interest of the German metropolis in organizing the prestigious race did not wane even during the economic crisis of the end of the second decade of the 20th century. In the end, the International Olympic Committee of Berlin agreed and in 1931 gave it five years of preparation time to organize not only the summer but also the winter games.
Germany was then still a democratic Weimar Republic, and Europe and the whole world believed that it would remain so. Only two years later, however, Adolf Hitler came to power. The upcoming Olympics became an ideal opportunity for the regime’s propaganda machine. Nazi ideology considered the Germans to be the true inheritors of the ancient idea of the Greek Games, and even then Hitler was already weaving fantasies of the annual Olympics held in the giant arena in Nuremberg into his plans to dominate the rest of the world.
Photo author: Aktuálně.cz
Aktuálně.cz Stormy Olympics series
The Olympics are supposed to be non-political by nature. Nevertheless, in the 20th century they became a scene of protests, a demonstration of the power of totalitarian regimes or a place where terrorist attacks took place. Not only the power of the athletes, but also of the most powerful leaders on the planet was clearly manifested here. The newspaper Aktuálně.cz published a series of texts dedicated to the eventful history of the race under the five rings.
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The Nazi emphasis on physical beauty, prowess and a pompous antique aesthetic was an important part of the propaganda aimed at the domestic population. Externally, these theories were supposed to overshadow the already ongoing persecution of Jews, Roma, political opponents and other persons whom Hitler labeled as enemies of the nation. As well as the growing military ambitions of the regime, which brought the world into war just three years after the Olympics and caused the deaths of many millions of innocent people.
The new leader of the Reich, together with his Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels, quickly decided to change the existing plans for the Olympic sports venues. Instead of the reconstruction of the buildings originally prepared for the Games in 1916, the construction of a completely new central stadium began.
It was supposed to be surrounded by large areas of free space – the scene of future mass gatherings of the people, for example on the occasion of the visit of the Italian fascist ruler Benito Mussolini a year after the Olympics. Several other stadiums have sprung up in the vicinity, including today’s Waldbühne summer art scene, over which rises an almost eighty-meter tower with a giant bell on top. It also made it into the official logo of the games.
Hitler planned for Berlin 1936 to be grandiose, extravagant and National Socialist. The games were intended to support the myth of the racial superiority of the Aryans, the great athletes whose statues and reliefs adorned even the Olympic sports grounds.
Boycott? Better not to tease
Already several years before the start of the Olympics, calls for its boycott began to be heard. He was supported by Czechoslovak athletes, prominent Americans and German refugees in Western Europe. The organizers, led by the head of the US Olympic Committee, Avery Brundage, however, convinced the Nazis that they respected the ideals of peace and equality between people. The international community then tried to present the event as a symbol of the “humanization” of the expanding Germanic empire, the American New York Times reported in August 1936. A boycott could irritate Hitler unnecessarily, they feared.
The only country that refused to participate – as in all other games until 1952 – was the Soviet Union. The Berlin Summer Olympics finally broke records in the participation of athletes and spectators. The Germans were the first to organize a pilgrimage with the Olympic torch from the Greek birthplace of the games. The relay passed through Prague on July 30. The path of the Olympic flame is also shown in the opening shots of the propaganda film Olympia, one of the most famous works of Hitler’s court filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl (you can find the whole movie below the text).
The Games began with an official ceremony attended by Adolf Hitler on August 1, 1936. “Death takes a vacation,” commented the more critical foreign press. Even the festive scenes at the very beginning of the games contained a number of references to war and death. In one act, for example, two warlords pierced each other with spears, explaining that it is appropriate to sacrifice one’s life for the homeland in need. The homeland is of course Germany, defeated and disgraced in the First World War.
For great success again
The main Olympic stadium itself provided a spectacle for more than a hundred thousand spectators, today its capacity is a third smaller. Architect Werner March liked to boast that all the spectators could leave the site in just 13.5 minutes – two minutes faster than the main sports arena of the previous Olympics in Los Angeles in 1932. The swimming pool, located right next to the main venue of the Games, had bleachers with 18,000 seats, the covered “Hall of Germany”, a hockey stadium, an open amphitheater called the Dietrich-Eckart-Freilichtbühne and other sports venues with about 20,000 seats each.
As part of the Nazi concessions to the organizers, even Jewish and Roma competitors could officially participate in sports competitions. But at that time, they were not allowed to practice practically for several years and did not qualify for the games – with the exception of the half-Jewish fencer Helene Mayerová, who lives abroad. In the end, the Germans won the number of medals, and since only specially screened and selected “racially pure” competitors took part, Hitler could present this fact as proof of Germanic superiority. However, the real star of the games was the black American athlete Jesse Owens. He was the first in history to win gold in four running disciplines.
Jesse Owens on the podium. | Photo: Aktuálně.cz, Wikimedia Commons – Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-G00630 – CC-BY-SA 3.0
At least partially, the Nazi propaganda machine worked. The American New York Times on the front pages of its August 1936 issue praised the technical advancement of Berlin’s sports grounds and Hitler as a leader. The precise organization of the Games then enchanted the International Olympic Committee. He ignored the advancing massive armament of the empire and the fact that the Nazis invaded Spain shortly after the games began to support the dictator there, Francesco Franco. Instead, the committee promised Germany another Games, this time the 1940 Winter Olympics.
However, that did not happen in the end. In May 1939, Hitler was promoting the theory in a thunderous voice from the Olympic Stadium in Berlin living space, that is, the claim of the German Aryans to occupy the territory to the east of the German Empire. Four months later, he turned theory into practice and invaded neighboring Poland.
The dark history of the Olympic sports venues is still visible today. The Olympic Stadium survived the war and the giant stone blocks still remind us of the ambitions of the Nazi empire, which was completely in ruins just nine years after the famous Olympics. The Berlin “colosseum” has undergone two renovations since then and is one of the most modern in Europe. In addition to Hertha Berlin’s regular matches, the 2006 FIFA World Cup final was played here.
Video: Sample from the propaganda documentary Olympia
Sample from the propaganda documentary Olympia | Video: L. Riefenstahl, 1938