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A Most Contentious Contest: Politics and Protests at the 1936 Berlin Olympics

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Sport, Protest and Globalisation

Part of the book series: Global Culture and Sport Series ((GCS))

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Abstract

Despite claims from Olympic organizers and advocates that the enterprise they cherish is invariably “above politics,” the modern Olympic movement has from the outset been rife with nationalistic rivalries, ethnic and religious antagonisms, ideological posturing, and racial prejudice. In other words, for all the talk about “international brotherhood” and “peaceful competition among the youth of the world,” the Olympic festivals have always mirrored the contentious political and social realities transpiring in the world outside the athletic arena. Yet no single modern Olympiad has betrayed this state of affairs more prominently than Berlin 1936, those infamous “Nazi Games,” which took place against a turbulent backdrop of epic ideological conflict, deep economic depression, and agonizing worries about a possible new military conflagration on the horizon. If we contend, variously, that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) reached bottom, say, when opting for Moscow in 1980, or deciding for Bei**g in 2008, or in handing the 2014 Winter Games to Sochi, Russia, it would behoove us to recall what transpired in the Nazi capital and around the world in the summer of 1936. One of the less researched aspects of the 1936 Games is the number of protests and boycott campaigns that they provoked.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    On the 1936 Olympics, see, inter alia, Large, D. C. (2007) Nazi Games: The Olympics of 1936. New York: W.W. Norton; Mandell, R. D. (1987) The Nazi Olympics. Urbana: University of Illinois Press; Hart-Davis, D. (1986) Hitler’s Games. London: Century.

  2. 2.

    Two years later the IOC awarded the 1936 Winter Games to Bavaria’s Garmisch-Partenkirchen, but in this essay we are concerned primarily with the Berlin Summer Games.

  3. 3.

    A reference to the Treaty of Versailles of 1919, under which Germany had been compelled to disarm and to pay reparations to the victor nations of the First World War.

  4. 4.

    Haller, G. (1933) “Der Olympische Gedanke,” Nationalsozialistische Monatshefte 3 (1933): 388–396.

  5. 5.

    Hart-Davis (1986), p. 45.

  6. 6.

    Teichler, H.-J. (1991) Internationale Sportpolitik im Dritten Reich. Schlondorf: Verlag Karl Hoffmann, pp. 45–47.

  7. 7.

    “Neger haben auf der Olympiade nichts zu suchen,” Der Völkische Beobachter, 19.8.32.

  8. 8.

    Large (2007), pp. 63–64.

  9. 9.

    Teichler (1991), pp. 45–47.

  10. 10.

    “Brundage’s Views Stir Berlin Press,” New York Times, 26.4.33.

  11. 11.

    Lennartz, K. (1994) “Difficult Times: Baillet-Latour and Germany, 1931–1942,” Olympika 3 (1994): 101.

  12. 12.

    For example, US Major League Baseball operated an unofficial color bar which stood until 1946. Moreover, when the African American heavyweight Joe Louis fought German Max Schmeling for the world boxing title in June 1936, six weeks before the Berlin Olympics, lynching (murder by hanging) of black people in southern and rural parts of the USA was still common and African Americans were treated as second-class citizens even in areas without official segregation.

  13. 13.

    Gottlieb, M. (1972) “The American Controversy over the 1936 Olympic Games,” American Jewish Historical Quarterly 61 (March 1972): 184–185.

  14. 14.

    The best study on Brundage’s views regarding the Olympics and politics is Guttmann, A. (1984) The Games Must Go On: Avery Brundage and the Olympic Movement. New York: Columbia University Press.

  15. 15.

    Teichler, H.-J. (1989) “Zum Ausschluss der deutschen Juden von den Olympischen Spielen 1936,” Stadion 5,1 (1989): 47–48.

  16. 16.

    Large (2007), pp. 77–78, 88–89.

  17. 17.

    “Bremen Rioters Cheered by 20,000,” New York Times, 9.8.35.

  18. 18.

    “U.S. Will Compete in 1936 Olympics,” New York Times, 27.11.34.

  19. 19.

    Sherrill lamented the “disproportionate representation” of Jews in Washington, who he said were “raising hell” against him and the American pro-Berlin faction in general. See “Mahoney in Clash with General Sherrill,” New York Times, 24.10.35

  20. 20.

    Aufzeichnung űber den Empfang [Sherrill’s] am 24.8.34, 4508, Politisches Archiv des Auswärtigen Amts, Berlin.

  21. 21.

    Large (2007), pp. 86–87. See also Mogulof, M. (2001) Foiled: Hitler’s Jewish Olympian. New York: RDR Books.

  22. 22.

    “Governor Earle Urges Ban on Olympics,” New York Times, 7.9.35.

  23. 23.

    On Owens, see Large (2007), pp. 88–90; and Schaap, J. (2008) Triumph: The Untold Story of Jesse Owens and Hitler’s Olympics. New York: Mariner Books.

  24. 24.

    Large (2007), pp. 101–106.

  25. 25.

    On the Canadian boycott movement, see Menkis, R. and Harold Troper (2015) More Than Just Games: Canada and the 1936 Olympics. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

  26. 26.

    Kidd, B. (1980) “The Popular Front and the 1936 Olympics,” Canadian Journal of the History of Sport and Physical Education 11, no. 1 (1980): 1–8.

  27. 27.

    Large (2007), pp. 106–109.

  28. 28.

    Large, D. C. (2012) Munich 1972: Tragedy, Terror, and Triumph at the Olympic Games. Lanham: Rowan & Littlefield, p. 170.

  29. 29.

    Krűger, A. (1972) Die Olympischen Spiele 1936 und die Weltmeinung. Berlin: Bartels & Wernitz, p. 194.

  30. 30.

    Reichssicherheitshauptamt, Olympische Spiele, R58, 2320, Bundesarchiv Berlin.

  31. 31.

    Preussische Geheime Polizei, Tätigkeit der Politischen Polizei, 18.7.36, R58, 2320, Bundesarchiv Berlin.

  32. 32.

    Large (2007), p. 222.

  33. 33.

    Ibid., pp. 258–259.

  34. 34.

    “The First Muslim Female Olympian Snubbed Adolf Hitler,” The Daily Beast, 26.1.14.

  35. 35.

    Mandell (1987), pp. 228–229; Large (2007), p. 233; Olympic File, NAACP, Box 384, Library of Congress.

  36. 36.

    Preussische Geheime Polizei, Tätigkeit der Politischen Polizei, 18.7.36, R58, 2320, Bundesarchiv Berlin.

  37. 37.

    Wippermann, W. and U. Brucker-Boroujedi (1987) “Nationsozialistische Zwangslager in Berlin III. Das ‘Zigeunerlager’ Marzahn,” in Ribbe, W. ed., Berlin Forschungen II. Berlin: Historische Kommission zu Berlin, p. 191.

  38. 38.

    Rűrup, R., ed. (1997) 1936: Die Olympischen Spiele und der Nationalsozialismus. Berlin: Argon Verlag, p. 131.

  39. 39.

    Dodd, M. (1939) Through Embassy Eyes. New York: Harcourt, Brace, p. 212.

  40. 40.

    Large (2007), p. 331.

  41. 41.

    On the World Labor Carnival, see Shapiro, E. S. (1985) “The World Labor Carnival of 1936: An American Anti-Nazi Protest,” American Jewish History 74 (1985): 260–72.

  42. 42.

    Ibid., 271.

  43. 43.

    As late as the Sochi Winter Games of 2014, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney invoked the ’36 Berlin Olympics’ legacy of “undercutting the Olympic message” in arguing that Vladimir Putin’s Russia was a bad choice for any Olympic festival. See “Names and Faces,” San Francisco Chronicle, 1.6.14.

  44. 44.

    Bosworth, R.J.B. (2011) Whispering City: Rome and its Histories. New Haven: Yale University Press, p. 256. On the Rome Games, see also Maraniss, D. (2008) Rome 1960: The Olympics that Changed the World. New York: Simon and Schuster.

  45. 45.

    Andreotti, G., “L’Anno dei giuochi olimpici,” Studi romani, 8, January–February 1960, pp. 10–11. Quoted in Bosworth (2011), p. 256

  46. 46.

    L’Unità, 9.11.60. Quoted in Bosworth (2011), p. 258.

  47. 47.

    Large (2012) Munich 1972, pp. 22–3.

  48. 48.

    Ibid., pp. 114–115.

  49. 49.

    Vance is quoted in Smith, G. (1986) Morality, Reason and Power: American Diplomacy in the Carter Years. New York: Hill & Wang, 227.

  50. 50.

    Large (2007), p. 343.

  51. 51.

    Ibid., pp. 338–339.

  52. 52.

    A good study of Brazil’s preparations for the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympics is Zirin, D. (2014) Brazil’s Dance with the Devil: The World Cup, the Olympics, and the Fight for Democracy. Chicago: Haymarket Books. In May 2015 the New York Times could note that “killings by police are surging as the authorities clamp down in preparations for the Olympics next year.” “Despair, and Grim Acceptance, Over Killings by Brazil’s Police,” New York Times, 22.5.15.

References

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  • Teichler, H.-J. (1991). Internationale Sportpolitik im Dritten Reich. Schlondorf: Verlag Karl Hoffmann.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of European Studies, University of California Berkeley, Moses Hall 207, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA

    David Clay Large

  2. Departamento de Negocios Internacionales, Carrera 49 N 7 sur 50, Medellín, Bl 26, Colombia

    Joshua J. H. Large

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  1. David Clay Large
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Sport, Leeds Beckett University, Leeds, United Kingdom

    Jon Dart

  2. Carnegie Faculty, Leeds Beckett University, Leeds, United Kingdom

    Stephen Wagg

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Large, D.C., Large, J.J.H. (2016). A Most Contentious Contest: Politics and Protests at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. In: Dart, J., Wagg, S. (eds) Sport, Protest and Globalisation. Global Culture and Sport Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-46492-7_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-46492-7_4

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