Extended History Essay Berlin Olympics 1936

The Berlin Olympics took place in early August of 1936, and from seeing
various clips as a younger child, its fascinated me greatly.
Ive gathered three reliable sources of information, that I will reference
throughout my essay.
They include a website, a documentary and a book that I have read whilst
researching my topic.
The website I will be using as my first source is called;
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/. I found this source to be very useful
and didnt see any bias what so ever whilst doing my research there.
Despite the website being British and possible Anti-Germany during the 1930s,
the author of the website gives a fair portrayal of the events during the
Olympics and how Hitler organised them.
I will also be using another website called: http://www.ushmm.org/ and
interestingly appears to be more bias and anti-Hitler.
The Olympics were awarded to Germany before the infamous Nazi Party came
to power, although when they did, Adolf Hitler, leader of the party seized the
moment and used the Games to show the world how efficient and successful
Germany had become after World War One.
Overall according my source, historylearning.co.uk, 49 countries competed in
the games.
I will be discussing various controversies and incidents that occurred during the
Games, the most popular among the media wouldve been the Jesse Owens
handshake incident.
I will also be discussing the propaganda used by the Master Race at the time,
and how they painted a very different image to the media in Berlin rather than
how the Nazi regime actually ran.

The Germans were awarded the 1936 Olympic Games in 1931, by the
International Olympic Committee in attempt to end the isolation the Germans
faced following the World War One sanctions were introduced.
Following the decision to award Germany the Games, Adolf Hitler became
Chancellor of Germany in 1933 and slowly began to transform Germany into a
right wing dictatorship, worrying other political leaders around the globe.
As August approached, Germans everywhere began to remove the anti-semitic
signs and propaganda around cities, before media arrived.
According to USHMM.ORG, newspapers also began to tone down their rhetoric
propaganda too.
Before the Games took place, various countries attempted to boycott the
Games, the most involved being USA according to my source.
A solution to boycotting The Games was to hold a counter-Olympics,
somewhat replacing the Games in Germany.
The biggest attempt of this was known as the Peoples Olympiad which was
due to be held in Barcelona, Spain but plans were halted due to the civil war
which broke out at the time.

The Olympic stadium, which still exists today, fit 100,000 spectators back then
and was ready well in time for the Opening Ceremony on August 1
st
.
An area, where the Germans seemed to triumph during the fortnight of
Olympic action, was in providing the many media from around the world with
excellent equipment to use broadcasting the Games.
The Germans provided presenters and journalists with over 300 microphones
to assist in their efforts of publicising the Olympics and were surprisingly
praised by a director of NBC according to my source, historylearningsite.co.uk.

The second source Ive referred to is a documentary named Olympia. Olympia
is a 1938 film by Leni Riefenstahl documenting the 1936 Summer Olympics in
Berlin and how successful the Games were.
The movie is filled with bias due to it being made at the time, although its
appeared on many Top 100 Movies of All Time lists including the respected
TIME Magazine.
A documentary of its sort at the time was rare, new filming techniques and
technology were used by Riefenstahl as she attempted to show the world how
brilliant Germany really was.
The film is extremely long, and in my opinion very boring at times but it gave a
very interesting yet bias insight on the Games.
Olympia is a subtitled movie which consists of little narration and long silent
shots of crowds during the Games and athletes competing.
Despite the bias towards the German athletes at times, the movie attempts to
show Germany as a nation of diversity and how fans cheered for coloured
athletes as well as athletes that didnt fit Hitlers Perfect Race.
It features plenty of slow-motion shots which was a rarity in the film industry
at the time, as well as some unusual camera angles.
The roar from the crowd is deafening at times during the documentary and
continuously shows spectators enjoying themselves and chanting different
Nazi songs.
Jesse Owen is a figure who is shown quite a lot and seems to be whistled and
booed by some spectators although I wasnt sure if this was due to him being
an African-American or a method of putting him off as he faced a German
athlete in the final of the long jump.
Owens is probably the most renown athlete of the Games, as rumours began
to emerge that Hitler snubbed his handshake although this seems to be
fictional as he was quoted as saying: When I passed the Chancellor, he arose,
waved his hand at me, and I waved back at him.
The snubbing had reportedly occurred after Owens had one another medal at
the games, but the event which Owens was running in was delayed at the time
and as soon as the German competitors were eliminated from the high jump,
Hitler left the stadium in a hurry.
Although Hitler was quoted in the book as saying to another Nazi Youth
Leader, Baldur von Schirach as saying Do you really think that I will allow
myself to be photographed shaking hands with a Negro?. Referring to Owens
following his Olympic victory.
Another prominent figure during the Games, even more so than Hitler at
times, was Josef Goebbels.
Goebbels was head of propaganda and media during the Olympics and
throughout the reign of the Nazi regime.
He was responsible for portraying the Germans in a respected and efficient
sense.
From the book Ive used as my final source, Hitlers Olympics: The 1936 Berlin
Olympics by Christopher Hilton, a lot of the book is based around Goebbels
and his many techniques used during the Games to paint such a pleasant
picture of Germany.
The opening quote was taken from Josef Goebbels The German nation
provided the world with its willingness to co-operate in large international
projects designed to further universal peace.

Despite how ironic this is, Goebbels was a smart man and had organised the
Olympics to perfection.
Despite the USA wanting the boycott the Games, many of the major directors
of newspapers and television stations praised Goebbels for his organisation in
the lead up to the Games.

Hitler was a man who in my reference Olympia was always seen to be smiling
and applauding the athletes after theyd finished their event.
The book Ive read very much counteracts that view the documentary
portrayed as the German Chancellor was quoted as saying Do you really think
that I will allow myself to be photographed shaking hands with a Negro? to
Baldur von Schirach, a Nazi Youth leader at the time.
In my opinion there may or may not be truth in this quote, I found the book to
be rather bias against the Germans and were basing the book on the aftermath
of the Olympic Games and not the actual events.

As the Games came to a close, German athletes won the most medals and had
seemed to recover their poor image they obtained after the First World War.
New York Times praised Germany as a country by stating that they were "back
in the fold of nations," and that they were more human again.
Despite the excellent propaganda used by the Germans as well as the
organisation of the Games, this disguised the regime they had in store only for
a short period of time.
It soon became evident that the Nazi Party had plans that didnt include
different communities following the Olympics as Captain Wolfgang Fuerstner,
head of the Olympic village, killed himself when he was dismissed from military
service because of his Jewish ancestry.

Within three years of the Games, Germany invaded Poland and regained their
notorious reputation for war crimes, unleashing untold destruction as time
told.
Overall all the three sources used contained some bias in my opinion although
the websites I used seemed to be a good medium between all three.
I found the topic Ive studied extremely interesting throughout, and learned an
enormous amount on the Germany at the time along with their efficiency and
smart propaganda.