Summer and Winter Olympic Games of 1936

The 1936 Olympic Games is remembered for the speed and grace of American runner Jesse Owens, and by the gloom cast over the Games by Nazi flags, and by German dictator Adolf Hitler. Both Summer and Winter Games were most especially Olympics of firsts.

The Summer Games were held in Berlin, Germany that year. The Winter Games were also held in Germany in 1936, in the twin villages of Garmisch-Partenkirchen. There, skater Sonja Henie from Norway won her third Gold Medal in her third Olympics in ladies' figure skating. After her triumph, she went to Hollywood and acted, and skated, in several movies. It was the first Winter Games that allowed the sport of alpine, or downhill and slalom, skiing. Before 1936, skiers competed only in Nordic, or cross-country skiing.

The Summer Games of 1936, as well as the Winter Games, showed sportsmanship in a battle against politics. The International Olympic Committee, or IOC, awarded the 1936 Games to Germany in 1931, when Germany was a democracy. But, by 1936, when it was time for the Games to be held, Adolf Hitler's Nazi Party ruled Germany. Many democratic nations in the world questioned whether or not to send teams to Nazi Germany. Some felt the Games should be canceled.

The Games were allowed to continue after the Nazis promised that foreign visitors would be treated respectfully. They also promised that Jewish athletes would not be banned from the German national team. They allowed two Jews on their team, but did not let one of them, track and field athlete Gretel Bergmann, compete. The other, fencer Helene Meyer, won a silver medal.

The Nazi government passed laws taking away rights from German citizens who were Jewish. Relations with neighboring countries became tense just after the Winter Games of 1936, when the German army marched into the Rhineland. This was a zone between France and Germany where the German army had been banned by a treaty after World War I.

Germany copied Hitler's fascist-style government dictatorship from Italy, where dictator Benito Mussolini ruled since 1922. In May 1936, just before the start of the Games, Italy invaded the north African country of Ethiopia, with intentions to start an empire. The democratic countries feared Adolf Hitler was also making war plans.

The Summer Games of Berlin was used by Hitler to show Nazi military displays, with the swastika, the Nazi symbol, flying on flags all around the stadium. Hitler planned to use the Games to show his country's superiority. The Nazis believed they were an Aryan race of people who were superior to all other people on earth. They believed that winning the most medals of the Games would prove this to the world.

On opening day, 5,300 athletes from 51 nations marched into the stadium. It was the largest Olympics ever held at that time. The German team, as is usual for the host nation, marched last, right behind the team from the United States. They carried the Nazi party flag of the swastika. The athletes gave the Nazi salute to Adolf Hitler as they passed his reviewing stand, as did some other fascist countries.

The drama of the Games, of the democratic world against the fascist world, of the superiority of the German people over everyone else seemed to be acted out by two men: Adolf Hitler, and the American track and field athlete, Jesse Owens.

Owens was the son of poor sharecroppers, farmers who did not own their own land but rented their farms for a share of the crops they grew. He was a fast runner, who had won many races as a college athlete. At the Berlin Games, he ran in four races: three individual races, and one team event. He won Gold Medals for all four races, the first man ever to do this.

From his private box in the stands, Hitler remarked, "The Americans ought to be ashamed of themselves for letting their medals be won by Negroes. I myself would never shake hands with one of them."

Owens was one of the most popular athletes at the Games, and had many fans from other countries, including many people in Germany who did not share Hitler's view.

The Games continued with more political drama. A young man named Kitei Son from Japan won the marathon race. But, he was not Japanese and his name was not Kitei Son. Japan, like Germany and Italy, had a fascist government and also began to invade the nations around them. Kitei Son was from Korea. Japan invaded Korea, and ordered Kitei Son to take that Japanese name.

Kitei Son wanted his Gold Medal to be listed in the official records under his own Korean name, which was Sohn Kee-chung. It was not until 1986 that the International Olympic Committee granted his request and changed the name in the records to his Korean name. The record would now also show that his country was Korea and not Japan. Two years later, Sohn Kee-chung, by this time an elderly man, proudly carried the Olympic torch into the stadium at the Seoul Olympic Games in South Korea.

The U.S. team was also accused of unfairness. When the 4x400 meter relay race was held, two members of the team, Marty Glickman and Sam Stoller were replaced at the last minute by Owens and Ralph Metcalfe. Many felt that they were taken off the US team by president of the United States Olympic Committee, Avery Brundage, because they were Jewish. Brundage was accused of doing this so that Hitler would not be embarrassed by his German team losing to a team that included two Jews.

Other athletes broke records at the Games, including American diver Marjorie Gestring, who was only 13 years old, the youngest Gold Medal winner ever at that time.

When the Games were over, most agreed it had been very well-organized. Despite the political tension, the events were managed efficiently. It was the first Games with an Olympic torch relay from Greece to the host country. It was the first Games that included the sport of basketball. It was the first Olympics to be shown on television. Television was experimental. No one owned a TV set. The Games were shown on television to only a few public viewing rooms in Germany.

Both the 1940 Winter and Summer Games were going to be held in Japan. But, when World War II broke out in 1939, the Olympics were canceled. They would not be held again until 1948. Neither Germany nor Japan would be allowed to participate in an Olympic Games until 1952. Japan hosted its first Summer Games in 1964, followed by two Olympic Winter Games in 1972 and 1998. Germany hosted another Olympic Summer Games in 1972.

Sources:

Sports.jrank.org - website:

Helene Mayer Biography - Chronology, Awards And Accomplishments, Further Information

Cohen, Stan. The Games of '36 - A Pictorial History of the 1936 Olympics in Germany (Missoula, Montana: Pictorial Histories Publishing Company, Inc.) 1996.

Johnson, William Oscar. The Olympics - A History of the Games (Birmingham, Alabama: Oxmoor House) 1993.

Shirer, William L. The Nightmare Years. (NY: Bantam Books) 1985.