Welcome!

Welcome to our blog! When viewing, please be sure to click, "older posts" once you have reached the bottom of each page. Also, keep in mind that we excluded many of the gizmos and gadgets from the original blog settings, and set the page to a charcoal gray hue, to create what we believe is an appropriate atmosphere for the study of Berlin.

Enjoy,

Rohan and Neil

The Consequences of the 1936 Olympics in Berlin

The issuing of the 1936 Olympics to Berlin during the era of Nazi Germany brought about major controversy among the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the world at large. By dismissing a boycott to the Olympics in Berlin, the power of Nazi rule was not only accepted, but augmented among the many nations who participated in the Summer Games. Many countries, most importantly the United States, had the opportunity to boycott the games, but on December 8th, 1935, the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) denied the opposition to having the Games in Berlin by two and a half mere votes. As a result, many of Hitler’s Nazi and “pro Aryan” ideals were spread using the Olympic Games as the primary vehicle to shuttle its propaganda, which consequently affected many of the Nazi Party’s appalling actions in the future.

One of Hitler’s means of racial promotion was to only let Germans (Aryans) participate on the German National Team. Hitler and his party believed that anyone not Aryan, according to the Reich, was an “inferior” human. Additionally, even after the Games were over, tools such as Leni Riefenstahl’s film, Olympia, were used by the Nazi Party to further promote their radical ideals. Overall, Hitler’s regime pumped over twenty million Reichsmarks, equivalent to eight million U.S. dollars into the proliferation of Nazi propaganda. By being allowed to boast obviously bogus claims and ideals, Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels was able to boost Nazi beliefs not only domestically, but on an international stage. Inevitably, had the IOC boycotted the Olympics and disallowed this extremist behavior, the Nazi Party’s future atrocities and gain in influence could have been curbed significantly.

Timeline Leading Up to the Berlin Olympics

1916

The Olympics were originally planned to be held within Berlin in 1916 officially the Sixth Olympic games. However with the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided to take the drastic step of canceling the Sixth Olympiad all together. While offers to host the Olympics else where (including Chicago, London, and Madrid) rolled in the IOC deemed their cancelation to be final.

1930-1931

After almost a decade after the end of the First World War, Germany is once again awarded the Olympics, this time Berlin is selected to be the host for the 1936 Olympics. For a self-proclaimed non-political organization, the IOC had obviously political intentions with the placement of the Eleventh Olympiad as a means to signify the reemergence of Germany as on the world stage after their defeat in WWI.

While the rise of the Nazi Empire could have hardly been accurately predicted, we postulate that had the IOC put more effort into researching the German population and mentality, instead of trying to reenergize a nation, that they might have been able to detect the dangerously fast rising German nationalism and pre-empted any future debates of boycott after Hitler's rise to power.

1933 - 1935

Rise of the Third Reich

Adolf Hitler become Chancellor of Germany in early 1933. Initially Hitler was not all together interested in making the Olympic Ceremonies a large affair. However his Minister of Propaganda Goebbels convinced him of the potential of the Olympics to spread the ideals of the Third Reich while simultaneously showing the superiority of the Aryan race.