1936 Summer Olympics
The 1936 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XI Olympiad and officially branded as Berlin 1936, were an international multi-sport event held from 1 to 16 August 1936 in Berlin, the capital of Germany. Berlin won the bid to host the Games over Barcelona at the 29th International Olympic Committee meeting on 26 April 1931. The 1936 Games marked the second and most recent time the IOC gathered to vote in a city bidding to host those Games. Later rule modifications forbade cities hosting the bid vote from being awarded the games.
To outdo the 1932 Los Angeles Games, Adolf Hitler had a new 100,000-seat track and field stadium built, as well as six gymnasiums and other smaller arenas. The Games were the first to be televised, with radio broadcasts reaching 41 countries. Filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl was commissioned by the German Olympic Committee to film the Games for $7 million. Her film, titled Olympia, pioneered many of the techniques now common in the filming of sports.
Hitler saw the 1936 Games as an opportunity to promote his government and ideals of racial supremacy and antisemitism, and the official Nazi Party paper, the Völkischer Beobachter, wrote in the strongest terms that Jews should not be allowed to participate in the Games. German Jewish athletes were barred or prevented from taking part in the Games by a variety of methods, although some female swimmers from the Jewish sports club Hakoah Vienna did participate. Jewish athletes from other countries were said to have been sidelined to avoid offending the Nazi regime. Lithuania was expelled from the Olympic Games due to Berlin's position regarding Lithuanian anti-Nazi policy, particularly because of the 1934–35 Trial of Neumann and Sass in Klaipėda.
Total ticket revenues were 7.5million Reichsmark, for a profit of over one million ℛ︁ℳ︁. The official budget did not include outlays by the city of Berlin or the outlays of the German national government.
Jesse Owens of the United States won four gold medals in the sprint and long jump events, and became the most successful athlete to compete in Berlin, while Germany was the most successful country overall with 101 medals ; the United States placed a distant second with 57 medals. These were the final Olympic Games under the presidency of Henri de Baillet-Latour. For the next 12 years, no Olympic Games were held due to the immense world disruption caused by the Second World War. The next Olympic Games were held in 1948.
Host City Selection
At the 28th IOC Session, held in May 1930 in Berlin, 14 cities announced their intention to bid to host the 1936 Summer Olympic Games. By the time of the 29th IOC Session in Barcelona in April 1931, only Barcelona and Berlin were left in contention. The other cities that announced an intention to hold the games, but withdrew from the race, were Alexandria, Budapest, Buenos Aires, Cologne, Dublin, Frankfurt, Helsinki, Lausanne, Montevideo, Nuremberg, Rio de Janeiro, and Rome. Helsinki, Rome, Barcelona, and Rio de Janeiro would go on to host the Olympic Games in 1952, 1960, 1992, and 2016, respectively. Rome withdrew on the eve of the 1931 Session.The city of Barcelona held a multi-sport festival at the same time as the 1931 IOC Session. This included a football match between Spain and the Irish Free State, which was watched by 50,000 spectators. The political uncertainty around the declaration of the Second Spanish Republic, which had happened days before the IOC Session, was likely a great factor in the decision taken by delegates regarding the host city for 1936.
The games were the first for which the host was decided by a vote of each individual IOC member. The deadline for votes was 13 May 1931, two weeks after the Barcelona Session. Of the 67 voting IOC members, 19 submitted ballots during the Session, and 40 by post to the IOC headquarters in Lausanne; the other 8 abstained. The vote was 43 for Berlin, and 16 for Barcelona.
After the Nazis took control of Germany and began instituting anti-Semitic policies, the IOC held private discussions among its delegates about changing the decision to hold the Games in Berlin. However, Hitler's regime gave assurances that Jewish athletes would be allowed to compete on a German Olympic team. One year before the games, the American Olympic Association suggested to change the venue to Rome; they saw Rome as a good replacement because Rome was originally selected to hold the 1908 Summer Olympics. The proposal was not seriously discussed.
Organization
, as Reichssportführer played a major role in the structure and organisation of the Olympics. He promoted the idea that the use of sports would harden the German spirit and instill unity among German youth. At the same time, he also believed that sports was a "way to weed out the weak, Jewish, and other undesirables".Von Tschammer entrusted the details of the organisation of the Games to the president of the German Olympic Committee, Theodor Lewald, and Carl Diem, the former president and secretary of the DRL, the forerunner of the Reich Sports Office. Among Diem's ideas for the Berlin Games was the introduction of the Olympic torch relay between Greece and the host nation. Lewald would be replaced, owing to his paternal grandmother's Jewish roots, by Von Tschammer himself.
Torch Relay
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. Leni Riefenstahl filmed the relay for the 1938 film Olympia.Broadcasting
The games were the first to have live television coverage in black-and-white. The German Post Office, using equipment from Telefunken, broadcast over 70 hours of coverage to special viewing rooms throughout Berlin and Potsdam and a few private TV sets, transmitting from the Paul Nipkow TV Station. They used three different types of TV cameras, so blackouts would occur when changing from one type to another. The Games were also the first photographed and filmed in color using newly invented Agfacolor.Olympic Village
The 1936 Olympic village was located at Elstal in Wustermark, on the western edge of Berlin. The site, which is from the centre of the city, consisted of one and two-floor dormitories, a large dining hall, Dining Hall of the Nations, a swimming facility, a gymnasium, track, and other training facilities. Its layout was designed and construction was overseen by the appointed village commander Hauptmann Wolfgang Fürstner beginning in 1934. Less than two months before the start of the Olympic Games, Fürstner was abruptly demoted to vice-commander, and replaced by Oberstleutnant Werner von Gilsa, commander of the Berlin Guard-Regiment. The official reason for the replacement was that Fürstner had not acted "with the necessary energy" to prevent damage to the site as 370,000 visitors passed through it between 1 May and 15 June. However, this was just a cover story to explain the sudden demotion of the half-Jewish officer. The 1935 Nuremberg Laws, passed during the period Fürstner was overseeing the Olympic Village, had classified him as a Jew, and as such, the career officer was to be expelled from the Wehrmacht. Two days after the conclusion of the Berlin Olympics, vice-commander Fürstner had been removed from active Wehrmacht duty, and committed suicide a day later because he realised he had no future under the Nazis.After the completion of the Olympic Games, the village was repurposed for the Wehrmacht into the Olympic Döberitz Hospital, and Army Infantry School, and was used as such through the Second World War. In 1945 it was taken over by the Soviet Union and became a military camp of the Soviet occupation forces. Late 20th-century efforts were made to restore parts of the former village, but little progress was made. More recently, the vast majority of the land of the Olympic Village has been managed by the DKB Foundation, with more success; efforts are being made to restore the site into a living museum. The dormitory building used by Jesse Owens, Meissen House, has been fully restored, with the gymnasium and swimming hall partially restored. Seasonally, tours are given daily to small groups and students.
The site remains relatively unknown even in Germany, but some tournaments are held at the site to boost knowledge of the venues.
Venues
Twenty-two venues were used for the 1936 Summer Olympics. Many were located in the Reich Sportsfeld complex.Sailing was held in the Bay of Kiel, which would serve as the same sporting venue for the 1972 Summer Olympics held in Munich. The Olympic Stadium would later be part of two FIFA World Cups and then host an IAAF World Championships in Athletics along with undergoing a renovation in the early 2000s to give new life to the stadium. Avus Motor Road was started in 1907, but was not completed until 1921 due to World War I. The track was rebuilt for the 1936 Games. AVUS continued being used after World War II though mainly in Formula 2 racing. The German Grand Prix was last held at the track in 1959. Dismantling of the track first took place in 1968 to make way for a traffic crossing for touring cars that raced there until 1998.
BSV 92 Field was first constructed in 1910 for use in football, handball, athletics, and tennis. The Reich Sports Field, which consisted of the Olympic Stadium, the Dietrich Eckert Open-Air Theatre, the Olympic Swimming Stadium, Mayfield, the Hockey Stadiums, the Tennis Courts, and the Haus des Deutschen Sports, was planned for the aborted 1916 Summer Olympics, but was not completed until 1934. Mayfield was the last venue completed prior to the 1936 Games in April 1936. Deutschland Hall was opened in 1935. Mommenstadion opened in 1930. Basketball was held outdoors at the request of the International Basketball Federation. The tennis courts were used, which turned to mud during heavy rain at the final. The K-1 1000 m canoeing final was also affected by heavy rain at Grünau that included thunder and lightning. During World War II, Deutschlandhalle in Berlin, suffered heavy aerial bombing damage. After the war, the hall was reconstructed and expanded. The Deutschlandhalle was used as a venue, but was increasingly closed for repairs, last in 2009. It was demolished in December 2011. The Mommsenstadion was renovated in 1987 and was still in use as of 2010.
The Olympic Stadium was used as an underground bunker in World War II as the war went against Nazi Germany's favor. The British reopened the Stadium in 1946 and parts of the stadium were rebuilt by the late 1950s. As a host venue for the 1974 FIFA World Cup, the stadium had its roof partially covered on the North and South Stands. British occupation of the stadium ended in 1994. Restoration was approved in 1998 with a contractor being found to do the work in 2000. This restoration ran from 2000 to 2004. The modernized Stadium reopened in 2004, with a capacity of 74,228 people. The seating has been changed greatly, especially the sections that were reserved for German and international political leaders. The stadium now plays host to Hertha BSC, and is expected to remain the home of the team for years to come. For the 2006 FIFA World Cup, the venue was where the final took place between Italy and France. Three years later, the venue hosted the World Athletics Championships.
| Venue | Sports | Capacity | |
| Avus Motor Road | Athletics, Cycling | Not listed | |
| BSV Field | Cycling, Handball | 1,000 | |
| Dietrich Eckart Open-Air Theatre | Gymnastics | 20,000 | |
| Döberitz | Equestrian, Modern pentathlon | Not listed | |
| Deutschlandhalle | Boxing, Weightlifting, Wrestling | 8,630 | |
| Berlin-Grünau Regatta Course | Canoeing, Rowing | 19,000 | |
| Haus des Deutschen Sports | Fencing, Modern pentathlon | 1200 | |
| Hertha BSC Field | Football | 35,239 | |
| Hockeystadion | Field hockey | 18,000 | |
| Hockeystadion#2 | Field hockey | 1600 | |
| Kiel Bay | Sailing | Not listed | |
| Mayfield | Equestrian, Polo | 75,000 | |
| Mommsenstadion | Football | 15,005 | |
| Olympic Stadium | Athletics, Equestrian, Football, Handball | 100,000 | |
| Olympic Swimming Stadium | Diving, Modern pentathlon, Swimming, Water polo | 20,000 | |
| Police Stadium | Handball | Not listed | |
| Poststadion | Football | 45,000 | |
| Ruhleben | Modern pentathlon | Not listed | |
| Tennis Courts | Basketball, Fencing | 832 | |
| Tennis Stadium | Basketball | Not listed | |
| Wannsee Golf Course | Modern pentathlon | Not listed | |
| Wannsee Shooting Range | Shooting | Not listed |