The 1936 Berlin Olympics propaganda

The 1936 Berlin Olympics propaganda

Introduction

The worlds Olympics held in Berlin in 1936 were named as the Nazi or Hitler’s Olympics as a result of the influence of the ideology of the Nazi and the policy it had on the outcomes of the activities. At that time, Hitler was the president of the Germans and the Nazis were in supremacy and he had been indifferent towards the entire idea of holding the Olympics in 1936 in Berlin. The stadium had been under construction the previous years for the preparation of the Olympics but once it was through, an enormous disagreement emerged when the athletes from Jews were isolated from the team of the Olympics of Germany.  In 1931, the committee of the Olympics (International Olympic Committee, IOC) came into agreement that Germany was to hold the Olympic games before Hitler had entered into power.

In 1933, Adolf Hitler became the president and instituted a policy for the Aryans only all through the entire organizations of the German athletic, sparking global outrage, particularly among the athletes from America. Through the direction of Goebbels, the Nazi party had planned to use the Olympics in Berlin as a platform for the new Germany. The Nazis in addition had the expectation that they would get profit from those who had visited their country and who would bring into the country the foreign currency.

Prior to the Olympics, the Jews from Germany were isolated and distinguished beside by the Aryans. The Olympics sports were not rational or evenhanded in any manner, form or shape. Hitler extended his anti-Semitic opinions via the Olympics to hundred thousands of viewers and participants that attended the festivities. Dr. Lewald, the head of the Committee of Olympics in Germany was himself overthrown from this docket after it was understood that his parental grandma was from the Jewish community and the position was taken by Hans von Tschammer who then formed a policy for the Aryans only in selecting athletes who would take part in the summer Olympic sports competition (Weisbord, 2017).  Through this establishment of the policy with the numerous rules and regulations of the Nazi, the Jews remained eliminated to take part in the competition and also other facets of the society of Germany (Weisbord, 2017).

The act of banning those athletes who were not Aryans from the Olympic team was an act that was denounced globally to have broken the code of equality of the Olympics and the play fairness. The intent of the Olympic games was goodwill among those nations involved and encouraging equality in racial matters in the field of games competition (Weisbord, 2017).  However, the Nazis intention was totally different from this fact of promoting oneness to the races but merely use the Olympics to show off athletes from the Aryans as they believed that it’s their nature of superiority from their race. The attitude of the Nazis to the Olympics called for a boycott of the Olympic Sports and also demands from people to shift the venue to a different country (Guttmann, 2013). One of the large boycott controversies happened in the U.S as they had sent most of the players to past Olympics and mostly brought home most of the medals (Guttmann, 2013).

The American Olympic Committee (AOC) chairperson, Brundage had at first reinforced the boycott against the actions taken to eliminate the Jews in Germany from taking part in the Olympics. In1934, he was invited to go to Germany as the Nazis tried to smoothen things and took him to special isolated places where the Jews undertook their training (Large, 2012). After the visit, he returned and said that he was fascinated on what he saw and on the same year, he announced that the AOC had officially agreed to accept the request to take part in the Olympics. A different union called the AAU (Amateur Athletic Union) and whose leader being J. Mahoney did not accept to support the AOC and declared that the participation of the Americans in the Olympics would mean nothing rather than just giving financial and moral sustenance to the Nazi regime as contrary to the Americans’ opinions (Large, 2012)  Most of the Jewish athletes did not take part in the competition, as they were demanded to stay aside as the other athletes participated fully in the sports. This means that the Olympics competition presented barely a break in the dreadful Nazism movement. The Jews eliminated from the team of Olympics were international athletes, for instance, a hero in Tennis by the name Daniel Prenn and a boxer by the name Eric Seeling. However, these great Heroes along with other athletes departed from Germany to continue their professions in sports abroad where Daniel went to England and Erich went to U.S (Large, 2012) Other Jews who were excluded by the Nazi are the Gypsies, together with the Johann Trollmann, a boxing champion (Weisbord, 2017).

Among the Jewish-German athletes, only one of them managed to get an opportunity to take part in the competition-fencer Helene Mayer- the reason being only her father was a Jew although her position was not highly recognized. Reports from one of the media sources, “TIME” shows that in 1935, one of the members of the International Olympic Committee, Charles H. Sherrill went to Germany before the Olympics to ensure that Helen would have an opportunity in the Olympic team (Milford, 2012) Among the Jews from the United States, Jesse Owens participated while others from the United States team were pulled out by their coaches. For instance, Marty Glickman together with Sam Stoller were isolated from the 4 x 100 m relay the previous day to the competition (Drake,2011).  Marty later speculated that this was probably done by Brundage who might have pressured the coaches of the American teams to eliminate the Jews as an attempt not to offend the Nazis. Many of the athletes from the Jewish community who participated in the Olympics before and in 1936 competition died in concentration camps in the cause of the Holocaust (Large, 2012) They include a polish swimmer called Szraibman and a polish fencer called Kantor, who competed in 1936 and passed away in Majdanek.

The summer Olympics competition took almost fourteen days to complete as Hitler upheld an unspectacular occurrence at the Olympics. It is believed that this was so for the purposes of pleasing the officials of the Olympics who didn’t want him to outdo the celebrations. This was furthermore a chance for the Fuhrer to be peaceful and honorable among the many international spectators keeping watch on his reactions. It was so surprising to his assistants when Hitler got attracted in the several sporting tournaments where he took abundant amusement in every single success of the Germans (Kessler, 2011).  These Olympics were used by the Germans to brag the supposed importance of the of Nazi code of belief to the whole world and how the Germans were happy due to the hiding of the true nature of the Nazis status. The benefits of the Nazi dogma were also revealed on the performance of the other athletes from Germany who managed to take home most of the medals of any nation, supposedly proving Hitler’s theory of Aryan superiority and showing off the strength of Nazi (Cottrell, 2011). The fact that Hitler considered these Olympic games a success ascertained how comprehensively the games were used to profit the movement of the Nazi.

It wasn’t a surprising thing that the Berlin Olympics were to be problematical as the disputing started months prior to the competitions, as the United States opted to pull out of the sports over the suspicion that the athletes from the Jewish society of the host nation, Germany were not being permitted to take part in the competition (Kessler, 2011).  At the time when Hitler and the team from the Nazis opened the sports, it was noted that the athletic activities were covered by “other tasks in Berlin” i.e. from the magazines, these Olympic games shared space with other news of a church in the country protesting against the Nazism and the Nazi officers meeting with Charles Lindbergh in the country.

According to Duff Hart-Davis, a big percentage of the people who had gone to Germany came back with the thought that the Nazi regime couldn’t be as bad as rumor claimed. The Nazis had attained a glorious success at the local level and in the highest diplomatic levels.  Hitler had strengthened the Nazi party in one of his most successful propaganda accomplishments which were the hosting the Olympic sports in his country. He managed to use this event as a means to model the image of the party in a more promising light and he had all reasons to be contented as he and other party officials charmed their international colleagues (Kessler, 2011). The Olympics was among the instants the Nazis effectively nurtured respect from the congregation, and it marked a high level of respect in their country and among the people. The sports gave the Nazis an allowance to pretend to be welcoming and inclusive. However, this was a distance from the fact.

Though Hitler’s efforts to see the Aryan athletes triumph wasn’t entirely a complete success-most famously because of the medal sweep brought by the United States star in tracks, J. Owens- the Aryan athletes from Germany took most of the Olympic medals (Milford, 2012). Not everybody, of course, realized the Owens’ victories as highlights. It was realized that Hitler failed to congratulate Owens (Drake,2011). The Nazis knew that the United States has been beating them due to the inclusive of the Negroes who are seen as not really people but an auxiliary force brought by the team of the white American.  Despite the effort to clarify away the wins such untruths, Owens had shown Hitler’s theories about race variances wrong (Kessler, 2011). A few individuals thought that these Olympic games showed Germany had successfully raised from the economic go-down it had experienced during the post- world war 1 and had eventually appeared to be a great host.

Conclusion

The summer Olympics got the name Nazi Olympics as a result of the influence ideology of the Nazi and the policy instituted by Hitler on the results of the activities. It was during this time when Hitler and the Nazis were in power and he had been indifferent towards the entire idea of holding the Olympics in 1936 in Berlin.  It is seen that the policy he had instituted eliminated the Jews from all the facets in the country and that they were not allowed to take part in the summer Olympics. These Olympics were used by the Germans to brag the supposed importance of the of Nazi code of belief to the whole world and how the Germans were happy due to the hiding of the true nature of the Nazis status. The benefits of the Nazi dogma were also revealed on the performance of the other athletes from Germany who managed to take home most of the medals of any nation, supposedly proving Hitler’s theory of Aryan superiority and showing off the strength of Nazi. The fact that Hitler considered these Olympic games a success ascertained how comprehensively the games were used to profit the movement of the Nazi.  The 1936 summer Olympics sports which took place in Berlin, clearly revealed that Germany merely wanted to see its super athletes shine all together: the heroes of the race of Aryan, superior of their genomic temperament instead of their athleticism. Generally, the 1936 Olympics held in Berlin is said to be the Nazis’ big success. Many of the global journalists recognized that Germany had hosted most extreme and the largest Olympics than before. Most of the visitors left the country with happy commemorations of the courteousness given to them by the people and the Nazi from Germany in addition to the eccentric amenities and accurate effectiveness of the entire events of the Olympics. The Nazis had managed in achieving what they needed from hosting the Olympic events all together.

References

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Drake, R. (2011). Jesse Who?: Race, the Southern Press, and the 1936 Olympic

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Kessler, M. (2011). Only Nazi Games? Berlin 1936: The Olympic Games between Sports and

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Milford, M. (2012). The Olympics, Jesse Owens, Burke, and the implications of media

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