--- title: "The 1936 Olympic Games: Nazi Germany’s Gambit" description: "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 sport is often exploited by dictatorships to keep control of their people. But the 1936 Olympic Games stand above all the rest, in a sporting showdown where Nazi ideology, virulent racism, and the prelude to world war all took center stage.\n\nThis is the story of the 1936 Olympics: Hitler's grand plan to pitch Aryan supremacy to the world, and the world's bold efforts to fight back.\n\n## Hitler's Machinations\n\nWhen Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party assumed power in 1933, they took command of a Germany in despair. The country's 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 uniquely perilous environment—but it was one that Hitler and his Nazis were perfectly poised to exploit. Riding their own wave of 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.\n\nBut 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 it'll turn against anybody. In order to put that hatred to use, Hitler needed an enemy, a battle to win—and although he had his sights set on European conquest, that goal was 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 would have to remain a fiction, at least for now, and without it, Hitler would have to focus German rage toward his enemies by some other means.\n\nThe Nazis had plenty of other tools in their arsenal. They had propaganda, they had 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.\n\nNow, the International Olympic Committee, or IOC, hadn't awarded the 1936 Olympics to Nazi Germany. 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 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 through the event.\n\nIt's 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.\n\nOn 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 about, and why the rest of the world should choose to support him, rather than oppose him, as time went on. The Games also had a second advantage: if Hitler could sweep the Olympic medal counts with a team of Aryan, so-called 'racially pure' athletes, he would reinforce his broader ideologies of Aryanization and anti-Semitism. And finally, by bringing all 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.\n\nHitler 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 task: 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.\n\nControl of this initiative was passed on to Hans von Tschammer und Osten, head of the Reich Sports 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's *if* they were to qualify, which Tschammer would make sure they didn't. Only one athlete with Jewish ancestry, the fencer Helene Mayer, 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 participation. Mayer, 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 qualify.\n\nAnd 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 I, and as Hitler saw it, the defeat of the Central Powers in World War I 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 was German supremacy. Now, twenty years after the Germans had had their Games 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.\n\n## The Games Take Shape\n\nThe 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 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 rain on the Nazi parade; Berlin's Romani population was rounded up and brought to the Berlin-Marzahn 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.\n\nHitler also ensured that the Games themselves would include a Nazi's touch, including by fabricating the Olympic Torch Relay, which Hitler's propagandists claimed had its roots in ancient Greece. This was a farce, and it was one of 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 on till this day. In 1936, almost 3,500 torch-bearers 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.\n\nInternationally, 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 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, anti-Semitic 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.\n\nWith the dangers of Nazi ideology now hidden far enough away that the rest of the world didn't have to acknowledge them, forty-nine nations agreed to participate, sending a total of 3,943 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 naïve 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 interviewees that did not speak English, Brundage apparently felt that all was fine in Hitler's kingdom. Jewish athletes did try to lead a boycott of their own, but this was largely brushed aside, and 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 did not take place.\n\nThe Games began on the first 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, and fortunately for anyone watching who might need a laugh, the opening ceremonies did have a little hiccup at one point, when twenty-five thousand pigeons were released to begin the ceremony, but immediately after, Hitler's announcement to begin the Games would be punctuated by cannon fire. As it turned out, the cannon fire quite literally scared the shit out of those twenty-five thousand pigeons, and we can only hope that the Fuhrer might have been caught in the crossfire. But, of course, that little detail received only minimal press coverage, and the Games got underway as scheduled.\n\n## The Athlete Resistance\n\nOnce the Olympics 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, blond-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—then now was 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 medal, in order for their names and achievements to be shown to the world.\n\nBlack American athletes were central to the international effort to resist Hitler, and even amidst discussions of a boycott in the US, 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 their hypocrisy, arguing against racial discrimination abroad when they'd done nothing to address discrimination against Black athletes at home.\n\nThe 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 for sprinting, hurdles, and long jump. In 1936, Owens earned four gold medals at the Games: the 100-meter dash, the 200-meter dash, the long jump, and the 4x100-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 jumps 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 process. A popular misconception from the event is that Hitler outright refused to shake Owens' hand after his victories; in reality, Hitler had elected not to shake any winners' hands, after he had generated controversy by only shaking German and Finnish winners' hands on the first day of the Games. Regardless, though, Owens' victories became an iconic moment in global sports history, and sparked rage among the Nazi elite.\n\nBut 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, and 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' time. In all, fourteen medals went to Black American athletes, a quarter of all the medals the United States took home during the game. 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 for decades to come. It wasn't all good news, of course; a relay runner named Louise Stokes was barred from her event, and Black athletes were barred from 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 US.\n\nThen, there's the stories of the Jewish athletes who competed, thirteen 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 earned 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 were pulled from their event one day before they were set to compete. They were replaced by Jesse Owens and Ralph Metcalfe—again, two Black athletes—which some historians believe indicates that the decision was not racially motivated. But Glickman, one of the runners, saw it differently. According to him, the aforementioned Avery Brundage, as well as their running coach, wanted to ensure Hitler wouldn't have to endure the sight of Jewish athletes on his winners' podium. Owens and Metcalfe would go on to win gold on their behalf, while Glickman and Stoller watched from the sidelines.\n\nIt'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. Mayer took her sword to the women's foil event, where she would face off with a Hungarian Jewish fencer, Ilona Schacherer, for the gold. The two had already met in the qualifying rounds, where Schacherer's unorthodox style had proven to be too much for Mayer, and despite excellent performances throughout the rest of the tournament, Mayer fell again to Schacherer in the final round. Mayer, after earning her silver medal, flipped a quick \"Heil Hitler\" in the Fuhrer's direction, but it was Schacherer who had earned the gold, and taken it from a fencer who many Jews around the world saw as a traitor.\n\nAnd finally, there was the story of the marathon runner Sohn Kee-Chung, who showed his own brazen defiance to a different, future Axis Power. A native of Korea, which was in 1936 occupied by Imperial Japan, Sohn was a Korean nationalist who had been forced to adopt a Japanese name and compete for the Japanese team in order to take part in the Olympics. However, he made sure to include his Korean name on his official documentation, and when he won gold, setting a marathon world record at 2 hours, 29 minutes, 19 seconds, Sohn made sure to bow his head in defiance as the Japanese national anthem played to celebrate his victory. Sohn would return to Korea as a hero, and he would be a key part of independent South Korea's Olympic appearances for decades.\n\nBut even among so many individual stories of resistance, the overwhelming narrative during the Games was all Hitler's. Germany didn't just win the overall medal count for the event; they dominated it, taking home thirty-eight gold medals and 101 overall, compared to the runner-up, the United States, who took home twenty-four gold and 57 medals overall. Stories of German hospitality, German extravagance, and Nazi pride and glamour spread around the world, and most members of the international press described the event as if it had brought Germany back into the upper echelon of world nations. Few pointed out Hitler's and Goebbels' façade, although a few, like writer William Shirer, saw through it: \"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 businessmen\". Shirer was right; the Olympics would give Hitler and his regime invaluable positive press, and gain them enough respect and acknowledgement from the world that many people would make the choice not to condemn their actions till it was too late.\n\nThere would be no Olympic Games in 1940, nor would there be in 1944. By then, the Nazis had left the world of sport behind 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 get well and truly underway, far from the view of global onlookers who now knew Germany as a bastion of sport—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.\n\n## Key Takeaways\n\n- The 1936 Olympics were a propaganda tool for Hitler to promote Aryan supremacy and gain international legitimacy.,Hitler manipulated the Games to showcase German strength and hospitality, hiding anti-Semitic policies from international visitors.,Black American athletes like Jesse Owens challenged Nazi ideology by winning multiple gold medals, defying Hitler's racist beliefs.,Despite individual acts of resistance, Germany dominated the medal count, reinforcing Nazi pride and glamour globally.,The 1936 Olympics allowed Hitler to operate within a tolerant world order, delaying widespread condemnation of his regime.\n\n## Frequently Asked Questions\n\n### Why did Hitler want to host the 1936 Olympic Games?\n\nHitler saw the 1936 Olympic Games as an opportunity to promote Aryan supremacy, reinforce his ideologies, and gain international legitimacy for his regime.\n\n### How did Hitler plan to use the Olympics to his advantage?\n\nHitler planned to control the presentation of the Games, promote Nazi ideology, and showcase the supposed superiority of Aryan athletes. He also aimed to legitimize his rule by hosting world leaders.\n\n### What measures did the Nazis take to prepare for the 1936 Olympics?\n\nThe Nazis transformed sport into a central element of German life, reshaped the educational curriculum around athleticism, and systematically excluded Jewish and Romani athletes from athletic facilities.\n\n### How did the international community react to the Nazi regime hosting the Olympics?\n\nThere were discussions of a boycott, but many countries, including the United States, decided to participate. The IOC kept the Games in Berlin after Hitler assured them that Jewish athletes would be allowed to compete.\n\n### Who were some of the notable Black American athletes who competed in the 1936 Olympics?\n\nJesse Owens, who won four gold medals, was the most famous. Other notable athletes included Cornelius Johnson, David Albritton, Archie Williams, John Woodruff, Jack Wilson, Ralph Metcalfe, and Mack Robinson.\n\n### What was the significance of Jesse Owens' performance at the 1936 Olympics?\n\nJesse Owens' four gold medals directly contradicted Hitler's racial propaganda and earned him the adoration of the German crowds, sparking rage among the Nazi elite.\n\n### How did Jewish athletes fare in the 1936 Olympics?\n\nThirteen Jewish athletes won medals. Notable examples include Hungarian Jewish athletes who won gold in various events, and American Jewish runners Marty Glickman and Sam Stoller, who were controversially pulled from their event.\n\n### What was the impact of the 1936 Olympics on Hitler's international standing?\n\nThe Games gave Hitler and his regime invaluable positive press and gained them respect and acknowledgment from the world, making it harder for people to condemn their actions later.\n\n### What happened to the Olympic Games scheduled for 1940 and 1944?\n\nThere were no Olympic Games in 1940 or 1944 due to the outbreak of World War II. The Nazis shifted their focus from sport to open warfare.\n\n### How did the 1936 Olympics affect the Holocaust?\n\nDuring the Games, Jews and other targeted groups were able to live quietly. After the Games, the Holocaust began in earnest, far from the view of global onlookers who now saw Germany as a bastion of sport.\n\n## Sources\n\n- [Original Into the Shadows video: The 1936 Olympic Games: Nazi Germany’s Gambit](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVjR3Fwoj_0)\n- [https://explorethearchive.com/historically-significant-sporting-events](https://explorethearchive.com/historically-significant-sporting-events)\n- [https://web.archive.org/web/20130607115150/http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/olympics/detail.php?content=sports](https://web.archive.org/web/20130607115150/http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/olympics/detail.php?content=sports)\n- [https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/05/the-nazi-origins-of-the-olympic-flame-relay/257002/](https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/05/the-nazi-origins-of-the-olympic-flame-relay/257002/)\n- [https://time.com/4366120/olympics-brazil-torch-relay-nazi-roots/](https://time.com/4366120/olympics-brazil-torch-relay-nazi-roots/)\n- [https://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/14/arts/14conn.html](https://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/14/arts/14conn.html)\n- [https://web.archive.org/web/20081009114014/http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/olympics/detail.php?content=facade_hospitality_more&](https://web.archive.org/web/20081009114014/http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/olympics/detail.php?content=facade_hospitality_more&)\n- [https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/pigeons-poop-on-1936-olympics/](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/pigeons-poop-on-1936-olympics/)\n- [https://web.archive.org/web/20140202095138/http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007087](https://web.archive.org/web/20140202095138/http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007087)\n- [https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jesse-Owens](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jesse-Owens)\n- [https://www.britannica.com/topic/1936-Olympic-Games-Fencing-for-the-Fuhrer-1367966](https://www.britannica.com/topic/1936-Olympic-Games-Fencing-for-the-Fuhrer-1367966)\n- [https://www.britannica.com/topic/Sohn-Kee-Chung-The-Defiant-One-1367969](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Sohn-Kee-Chung-The-Defiant-One-1367969)\n- [https://www.britannica.com/event/Berlin-1936-Olympic-Games](https://www.britannica.com/event/Berlin-1936-Olympic-Games)\n- [https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-nazi-olympics-august-1936](https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-nazi-olympics-august-1936)\n- [https://www.ushmm.org/collections/bibliography/1936-olympics](https://www.ushmm.org/collections/bibliography/1936-olympics)\n- [https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-nazi-olympics-berlin-1936](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-nazi-olympics-berlin-1936)\n- [https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/goebbels-olympics/](https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/goebbels-olympics/)\n- [https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1268484-the-1936-olympics-a-necessary-reflection-and-the-value-of-a-single-human-being](https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1268484-the-1936-olympics-a-necessary-reflection-and-the-value-of-a-single-human-being)\n- [https://andscape.com/features/jesse-owens-vs-hitler-wasnt-the-only-story-at-the-1936-olympics/](https://andscape.com/features/jesse-owens-vs-hitler-wasnt-the-only-story-at-the-1936-olympics/)\n- [https://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/collections/departments/germanic-collections/about-collections/spotlight-archive/1936-berlin-olympic](https://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/collections/departments/germanic-collections/about-collections/spotlight-archive/1936-berlin-olympic)\n- [https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/brutal-story-1936-popular-olympics-boycott-fascism-hitler](https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/brutal-story-1936-popular-olympics-boycott-fascism-hitler)\n- [https://www.npr.org/2008/06/07/91246674/nazi-olympics-tangled-politics-and-sport](https://www.npr.org/2008/06/07/91246674/nazi-olympics-tangled-politics-and-sport)\n- [Hero image source](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/21/WW2_Nazi_leaders_Goebbels%2C_Terboven%2C_Rediess%2C_G._W._M%C3%BCller%2C_Stortingssalen%2C_Stortinget_%28parliament%29_Oslo%2C_Norway_November_1940_Published_in_%22Bilder%22_January_1946._Photographer_not_credited._No_known_copyright._Eidsvold_1814.jpg) by Author/creator not provided (photographer not credited). No known copyright restrictions. (Photo taken in 1940, publication issued in 1946) / openverse, by-sa.\n\n## Related Coverage" url: https://intotheshadows.pub/article/1936-olympic-games-nazi-germany-gambit.md canonical: https://intotheshadows.pub/article/1936-olympic-games-nazi-germany-gambit datePublished: 2026-06-28 dateModified: 2026-06-28 author: - name: Simon Whistler url: https://intotheshadows.pub/author/simon-whistler publisher: Into the Shadows image: "https://media.intotheshadows.pub/cdn-cgi/image/width=1600,height=900,fit=cover,quality=80,format=auto/articles/wVjR3Fwoj_0/hero.jpg" type: Article contentHash: cd233daefcd30ccc3547b57b63d44d69be4982d7f9375d055d82189b02cf0ae9 tokens: 7046 summaryUrl: https://intotheshadows.pub/article/1936-olympic-games-nazi-germany-gambit.md.summary.md --- 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 sport is often exploited by dictatorships to keep control of their people. But the 1936 Olympic Games stand above all the rest, in a sporting showdown where Nazi ideology, virulent racism, and the prelude to world war all took center stage. This is the story of the 1936 Olympics: Hitler's grand plan to pitch Aryan supremacy to the world, and the world's bold efforts to fight back. ## Hitler's Machinations When Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party assumed power in 1933, they took command of a Germany in despair. The country's 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 uniquely perilous environment—but it was one that Hitler and his Nazis were perfectly poised to exploit. Riding their own wave of 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 it'll turn against anybody. In order to put that hatred to use, Hitler needed an enemy, a battle to win—and although he had his sights set on European conquest, that goal was 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 would have to remain a fiction, at least for now, and without it, Hitler would have to focus German rage toward his enemies by some other means. The Nazis had plenty of other tools in their arsenal. They had propaganda, they had 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 to Nazi Germany. 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 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 through the event. It's 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 about, and why the rest of the world should choose to support him, rather than oppose him, as time went on. The Games also had a second advantage: if Hitler could sweep the Olympic medal counts with a team of Aryan, so-called 'racially pure' athletes, he would reinforce his broader ideologies of Aryanization and anti-Semitism. And finally, by bringing all 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 task: 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 von Tschammer und Osten, head of the Reich Sports 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's *if* they were to qualify, which Tschammer would make sure they didn't. Only one athlete with Jewish ancestry, the fencer Helene Mayer, 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 participation. Mayer, 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 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 I, and as Hitler saw it, the defeat of the Central Powers in World War I 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 was German supremacy. Now, twenty years after the Germans had had their Games 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 Games Take Shape 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 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 rain on the Nazi parade; Berlin's Romani population was rounded up and brought to the Berlin-Marzahn 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 Games themselves would include a Nazi's touch, including by fabricating the Olympic Torch Relay, which Hitler's propagandists claimed had its roots in ancient Greece. This was a farce, and it was one of 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 on till this day. In 1936, almost 3,500 torch-bearers 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 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, anti-Semitic 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. With the dangers of Nazi ideology now hidden far enough away that the rest of the world didn't have to acknowledge them, forty-nine nations agreed to participate, sending a total of 3,943 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 naïve 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 interviewees that did not speak English, Brundage apparently felt that all was fine in Hitler's kingdom. Jewish athletes did try to lead a boycott of their own, but this was largely brushed aside, and 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 did not take place. The Games began on the first 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, and fortunately for anyone watching who might need a laugh, the opening ceremonies did have a little hiccup at one point, when twenty-five thousand pigeons were released to begin the ceremony, but immediately after, Hitler's announcement to begin the Games would be punctuated by cannon fire. As it turned out, the cannon fire quite literally scared the shit out of those twenty-five thousand pigeons, and we can only hope that the Fuhrer might have been caught in the crossfire. But, of course, that little detail received only minimal press coverage, and the Games got underway as scheduled. ## The Athlete Resistance Once the Olympics 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, blond-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—then now was 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 medal, 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 US, 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 their hypocrisy, arguing against racial discrimination abroad when they'd done nothing to address discrimination against Black athletes at home. 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 for sprinting, hurdles, and long jump. In 1936, Owens earned four gold medals at the Games: the 100-meter dash, the 200-meter dash, the long jump, and the 4x100-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 jumps 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 process. A popular misconception from the event is that Hitler outright refused to shake Owens' hand after his victories; in reality, Hitler had elected not to shake any winners' hands, after he had generated controversy by only shaking German and Finnish winners' hands on the first day of the Games. Regardless, though, Owens' 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, and 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' time. In all, fourteen medals went to Black American athletes, a quarter of all the medals the United States took home during the game. 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 for decades to come. It wasn't all good news, of course; a relay runner named Louise Stokes was barred from her event, and Black athletes were barred from 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 US. Then, there's the stories of the Jewish athletes who competed, thirteen 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 earned 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 were pulled from their event one day before they were set to compete. They were replaced by Jesse Owens and Ralph Metcalfe—again, two Black athletes—which some historians believe indicates that the decision was not racially motivated. But Glickman, one of the runners, saw it differently. According to him, the aforementioned Avery Brundage, as well as their running coach, wanted to ensure Hitler wouldn't have to endure the sight of Jewish athletes on his winners' podium. Owens and Metcalfe would go on to win gold on their behalf, while Glickman and Stoller watched 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. Mayer took her sword to the women's foil event, where she would face off with a Hungarian Jewish fencer, Ilona Schacherer, for the gold. The two had already met in the qualifying rounds, where Schacherer's unorthodox style had proven to be too much for Mayer, and despite excellent performances throughout the rest of the tournament, Mayer fell again to Schacherer in the final round. Mayer, after earning her silver medal, flipped a quick "Heil Hitler" in the Fuhrer's direction, but it was Schacherer who had earned the gold, and taken it from a fencer who many Jews around the world saw as a traitor. And finally, there was the story of the marathon runner Sohn Kee-Chung, who showed his own brazen defiance to a different, future Axis Power. A native of Korea, which was in 1936 occupied by Imperial Japan, Sohn was a Korean nationalist who had been forced to adopt a Japanese name and compete for the Japanese team in order to take part in the Olympics. However, he made sure to include his Korean name on his official documentation, and when he won gold, setting a marathon world record at 2 hours, 29 minutes, 19 seconds, Sohn made sure to bow his head in defiance as the Japanese national anthem played to celebrate his victory. Sohn 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 was all Hitler's. Germany didn't just win the overall medal count for the event; they dominated it, taking home thirty-eight gold medals and 101 overall, compared to the runner-up, the United States, who took home twenty-four gold and 57 medals overall. Stories of German hospitality, German extravagance, and Nazi pride and glamour spread around the world, and most members of the international press described the event as if it had brought Germany back into the upper echelon of world nations. Few pointed out Hitler's and Goebbels' façade, although a few, like writer William Shirer, saw through it: "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 businessmen". Shirer was right; the Olympics would give Hitler and his regime invaluable positive press, and gain them enough respect and acknowledgement from the world that many people would make the choice not to condemn their actions till it was too late. There would be no Olympic Games in 1940, nor would there be in 1944. By then, the Nazis had left the world of sport behind 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 get well and truly underway, far from the view of global onlookers who now knew Germany as a bastion of sport—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. ## Key Takeaways - The 1936 Olympics were a propaganda tool for Hitler to promote Aryan supremacy and gain international legitimacy.,Hitler manipulated the Games to showcase German strength and hospitality, hiding anti-Semitic policies from international visitors.,Black American athletes like Jesse Owens challenged Nazi ideology by winning multiple gold medals, defying Hitler's racist beliefs.,Despite individual acts of resistance, Germany dominated the medal count, reinforcing Nazi pride and glamour globally.,The 1936 Olympics allowed Hitler to operate within a tolerant world order, delaying widespread condemnation of his regime. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### Why did Hitler want to host the 1936 Olympic Games? Hitler saw the 1936 Olympic Games as an opportunity to promote Aryan supremacy, reinforce his ideologies, and gain international legitimacy for his regime. ### How did Hitler plan to use the Olympics to his advantage? Hitler planned to control the presentation of the Games, promote Nazi ideology, and showcase the supposed superiority of Aryan athletes. He also aimed to legitimize his rule by hosting world leaders. ### What measures did the Nazis take to prepare for the 1936 Olympics? The Nazis transformed sport into a central element of German life, reshaped the educational curriculum around athleticism, and systematically excluded Jewish and Romani athletes from athletic facilities. ### How did the international community react to the Nazi regime hosting the Olympics? There were discussions of a boycott, but many countries, including the United States, decided to participate. The IOC kept the Games in Berlin after Hitler assured them that Jewish athletes would be allowed to compete. ### Who were some of the notable Black American athletes who competed in the 1936 Olympics? Jesse Owens, who won four gold medals, was the most famous. Other notable athletes included Cornelius Johnson, David Albritton, Archie Williams, John Woodruff, Jack Wilson, Ralph Metcalfe, and Mack Robinson. ### What was the significance of Jesse Owens' performance at the 1936 Olympics? Jesse Owens' four gold medals directly contradicted Hitler's racial propaganda and earned him the adoration of the German crowds, sparking rage among the Nazi elite. ### How did Jewish athletes fare in the 1936 Olympics? Thirteen Jewish athletes won medals. Notable examples include Hungarian Jewish athletes who won gold in various events, and American Jewish runners Marty Glickman and Sam Stoller, who were controversially pulled from their event. ### What was the impact of the 1936 Olympics on Hitler's international standing? The Games gave Hitler and his regime invaluable positive press and gained them respect and acknowledgment from the world, making it harder for people to condemn their actions later. ### What happened to the Olympic Games scheduled for 1940 and 1944? There were no Olympic Games in 1940 or 1944 due to the outbreak of World War II. The Nazis shifted their focus from sport to open warfare. ### How did the 1936 Olympics affect the Holocaust? During the Games, Jews and other targeted groups were able to live quietly. After the Games, the Holocaust began in earnest, far from the view of global onlookers who now saw Germany as a bastion of sport. ## Sources - [Original Into the Shadows video: The 1936 Olympic Games: Nazi Germany’s Gambit](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVjR3Fwoj_0) - [https://explorethearchive.com/historically-significant-sporting-events](https://explorethearchive.com/historically-significant-sporting-events) - [https://web.archive.org/web/20130607115150/http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/olympics/detail.php?content=sports](https://web.archive.org/web/20130607115150/http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/olympics/detail.php?content=sports) - [https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/05/the-nazi-origins-of-the-olympic-flame-relay/257002/](https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/05/the-nazi-origins-of-the-olympic-flame-relay/257002/) - [https://time.com/4366120/olympics-brazil-torch-relay-nazi-roots/](https://time.com/4366120/olympics-brazil-torch-relay-nazi-roots/) - [https://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/14/arts/14conn.html](https://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/14/arts/14conn.html) - [https://web.archive.org/web/20081009114014/http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/olympics/detail.php?content=facade_hospitality_more&](https://web.archive.org/web/20081009114014/http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/olympics/detail.php?content=facade_hospitality_more&) - [https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/pigeons-poop-on-1936-olympics/](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/pigeons-poop-on-1936-olympics/) - [https://web.archive.org/web/20140202095138/http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007087](https://web.archive.org/web/20140202095138/http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007087) - [https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jesse-Owens](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jesse-Owens) - [https://www.britannica.com/topic/1936-Olympic-Games-Fencing-for-the-Fuhrer-1367966](https://www.britannica.com/topic/1936-Olympic-Games-Fencing-for-the-Fuhrer-1367966) - [https://www.britannica.com/topic/Sohn-Kee-Chung-The-Defiant-One-1367969](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Sohn-Kee-Chung-The-Defiant-One-1367969) - [https://www.britannica.com/event/Berlin-1936-Olympic-Games](https://www.britannica.com/event/Berlin-1936-Olympic-Games) - [https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-nazi-olympics-august-1936](https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-nazi-olympics-august-1936) - [https://www.ushmm.org/collections/bibliography/1936-olympics](https://www.ushmm.org/collections/bibliography/1936-olympics) - [https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-nazi-olympics-berlin-1936](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-nazi-olympics-berlin-1936) - [https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/goebbels-olympics/](https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/goebbels-olympics/) - [https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1268484-the-1936-olympics-a-necessary-reflection-and-the-value-of-a-single-human-being](https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1268484-the-1936-olympics-a-necessary-reflection-and-the-value-of-a-single-human-being) - [https://andscape.com/features/jesse-owens-vs-hitler-wasnt-the-only-story-at-the-1936-olympics/](https://andscape.com/features/jesse-owens-vs-hitler-wasnt-the-only-story-at-the-1936-olympics/) - [https://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/collections/departments/germanic-collections/about-collections/spotlight-archive/1936-berlin-olympic](https://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/collections/departments/germanic-collections/about-collections/spotlight-archive/1936-berlin-olympic) - [https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/brutal-story-1936-popular-olympics-boycott-fascism-hitler](https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/brutal-story-1936-popular-olympics-boycott-fascism-hitler) - [https://www.npr.org/2008/06/07/91246674/nazi-olympics-tangled-politics-and-sport](https://www.npr.org/2008/06/07/91246674/nazi-olympics-tangled-politics-and-sport) - [Hero image source](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/21/WW2_Nazi_leaders_Goebbels%2C_Terboven%2C_Rediess%2C_G._W._M%C3%BCller%2C_Stortingssalen%2C_Stortinget_%28parliament%29_Oslo%2C_Norway_November_1940_Published_in_%22Bilder%22_January_1946._Photographer_not_credited._No_known_copyright._Eidsvold_1814.jpg) by Author/creator not provided (photographer not credited). No known copyright restrictions. (Photo taken in 1940, publication issued in 1946) / openverse, by-sa. ## Related Coverage