Olympic Games of 1936 (Summer)
The 1936 Summer Olympic Games, officially known as the XI Olympiad, took place in Berlin, Germany, from August 1 to August 16. They were notable for being held under the regime of Adolf Hitler, which raised significant international debate about a potential boycott due to the political climate of the time. Ultimately, 49 nations participated, with Spain being one of the notable boycotters. This edition of the Olympics introduced the torch relay, which began in Olympia, Greece, and was a significant innovation in Olympic tradition.
The Games featured 3,963 athletes, including a notable representation of African American athletes from the United States, who excelled particularly in track and field events. Jesse Owens emerged as a prominent figure by winning four gold medals, showcasing extraordinary performances that challenged prevailing racial ideologies. Germany topped the medal table, with a total of 89 medals, while the United States secured 56 medals, highlighting a competitive Olympic spirit. Additionally, the 1936 Games marked the first extensive use of television to cover the event, allowing a broader audience to engage with Olympic competitions. The lasting legacy of these Games is tied to both their athletic achievements and the socio-political context in which they were held, occurring just before the onset of World War II.
Olympic Games of 1936 (Summer)
The Event International multisport event held every four years
Dates August 1-16, 1936
Place Berlin, Germany
In 1931, the International Olympic Committee selected Germany as the host nation for the Winter and Summer Olympic Games of 1936. In 1933, Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany. With the transition of Germany from a democracy to a one-party dictatorship, many nations considered boycotting the Olympic Games.
On August 1, 1936, the Games of the XI Olympiad opened officially. Presiding at the Opening Ceremony was Chancellor Hitler. After Hitler came into power in Germany in 1933, considerable worldwide debate about boycotting the 1936 Olympic Games occurred. Avery Brundage, president of the American Olympic Committee, opposed a boycott, and in 1934, he visited German sports facilities, assuring the American public that the United States should send a team to Berlin to participate in the Olympics. On December 8, 1935, the Amateur Athletic Union voted that American Olympians would not boycott the 1936 Games. In the end, forty-nine nations attended the 1936 Olympic Games, including teams from France and Great Britain; Spain boycotted the Games, however.
Innovations
Although the Olympic flame was used for the first time in the 1932 Los Angeles Olympic Games, the torch relay was introduced in 1936. Beginning in Olympia, Greece, the torch was carried through seven countries to the Berlin stadium, where 100,000 spectators awaited its arrival during the Opening Ceremony on August 1, 1936. More than four million tickets were sold for the Olympic competitions. To provide an opportunity for a wider audience to view the contests, live television was utilized for the first time; seventy hours of coverage was broadcast to twenty-five viewing centers in Berlin.
Two sports were introduced: field handball and basketball. Both sports were played outdoors. Americans ensured the inclusion of basketball as an Olympic sport after it had been an exhibition sport in the previous Olympics. The game was played on a clay tennis court and included no dribbling. The United States beat Canada for the gold medal by a score of 19 to 8. Two demonstration sports were introduced: gliding and baseball. Two American baseball teams demonstrated the sport on August 12, 1936, at the Olympic Stadium before 100,000 spectators.
The International Olympic Committee commissioned filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl to film the 1936 Olympic Games. Riefenstahl utilized techniques in her documentary that became common in the film documentation of sports. In 1938, her documentary entitled Olympia was released.
Medal Standings and Athletic Achievements
A total of 3,963 athletes (3,632 men and 331 women) participated in the 1936 Olympic Games. Germany had the largest representation with 348 athletes, and the United States sent the second largest team, consisting of 312 athletes. Germany won the most medals, with a total of eighty-nine: thirty-three gold, twenty-six silver, and thirty bronze. The United States came in second with a total of fifty-six medals: twenty-four gold, twenty silver, and twelve bronze.
Among the American contingent of athletes were eighteen African Americans, sixteen of them men, three times the number that participated in the 1932 Los Angeles Games. African American athletes won fourteen medals, accounting for one-fourth of the total medals won by the United States, and dominated many of the track-and-field events. Cornelius Johnson won gold in the high jump, setting an Olympic record of 6 feet 8 inches. Archie Williams won the gold in the 400-meter event with an Olympic record of 46.5 seconds, and John Woodruff won the gold in the 800-meter event.
The performances of Jesse Owens received the greatest attention during the Berlin Games. Owens won four gold medals. In the 100-meter race he achieved a wind-assisted world record of 10.2 seconds; American Ralph Horace Metcalfe won the silver. In the 200 meters, Owens set an Olympic record of 20.3 seconds, missing the world record of 20.2; Matthew “Mack” Robinson, the brother of Jackie Robinson, won the silver. In the long jump, Owens, who was the world-record holder, set an Olympic record. Also, Owens was on the 400-meter relay team that set an Olympic record. Owens’s performance in the 1936 Olympic Games stands out as one of the greatest in Olympic history, and he is considered one of the top athletes of the twentieth century.
Track-and-field events were dominated by athletes from the United States. Of the twenty-two events for men, American athletes won twelve gold, seven silver, and four bronze. High-jump and decathlon events were swept by American athletes; Glenn Morris won the gold in the latter. Among the six track-and-field events for women, Helen Stephens, an eighteen-year-old from Missouri, won two gold medals.
In swimming and diving, American Jack Medica won the 400-meter freestyle with an Olympic record, and world-record-holder American Adolph Kiefer of Chicago was victorious in the 100-meter breaststroke. However, Rie Mastenbroek of the Netherlands emerged as the dominant swimmer, compiling three gold medals and a silver medal. In diving, American women won both springboard and platform events. Of the six medals in women’s diving, athletes from the United States were awarded five medals. At the age of thirteen, Marjorie Gestring won the gold medal in springboard diving; she remains the youngest female gold medalist in the history of the Summer Olympic Games.
Several Olympic feats during the 1936 Olympic Games withstood time. The Egyptian weightlifter Khadr El Touni set a record that lasted sixty years. Kristjan Palusalu of Estonia won a gold medal in two heavyweight wrestling classes: freestyle and Greco-Roman. This feat has never been duplicated in Olympic competition.
Impact
The 1936 Berlin Olympic Games introduced several innovations and extraordinary athletic feats, most notably by Owens. However, the Games will always be remembered as taking place during Hitler’s dictatorship. Three years after the Berlin Olympic Games, World War II began. The 1940 Olympic Games, originally scheduled for Tokyo and later moved to Helsinki, and the 1944 Olympic Games, scheduled for London, were canceled. The Olympic Games did not resume until 1948 in London.
Bibliography
Eisen, George. “The Voices of Sanity: American Diplomatic Reports from the 1936 Berlin Olympiad.” Journal of Sport History 11, no. 3 (1984): 56-78. Reviews accounts of American diplomats stationed in Germany prior to the Olympic Games of 1936.
Espy, Richard. The Politics of the Olympic Games. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979. Provides a historical account of the political, economic, social, and philosophical forces that have influenced the conduct of the Olympic Games.
Kass, D. A. “The Issue of Racism at the 1936 Olympics.” Journal of Sport History 3, no. 3 (1976): 223-235. Presents the arguments for and against an American boycott of the 1936 Olympic Games.
Mandell, Richard D. The Nazi Olympics. New York: Macmillan, 1971. Utilizing primary and secondary historical sources, provides a detailed account of the conflict of Olympic ideals and Nazi ideology during the 1936 Olympic Games.
Senin, Alfred E. Power, Politics, and the Olympic Games. Champaign, Ill: Human Kinetics, 1999. Chapter 4 is devoted to reviewing the social and political forces that shaped the Berlin Olympics.
Walters, Guy. Berlin Games: How the Nazis Stole the Olympic Dream. New York: HarperCollins, 2006. Includes interviews of surviving participants from all over the world.