Should The Purpose Of The 1936 Olympics

It’s 1931, and Germany is in a massive post World War I depression. The unemployment rate is at 70% and millions of Germans are jobless. People have lost hope and faith in their country, and Germany in itself is starting to lose respect worldwide. A glimmer of hope came when Berlin was chosen as the host city for the 1936 summer Olympics. This was two years prior to the appointment of Adolf Hitler as Chancellor, and Germany was still under the rule of President Hindenburg. In an attempt to rejuvenate Germany, Hitler vowed that he would give every German citizen what they wanted. As Chancellor, Hitler promises the unsatisfied Germans an improved life and a marvelous Germany. Infuriation among Germans about WWI as well as the huge reparations
($33 Billion) that Germany was forced to pay as a result of the Treaty of Versailles, had been perfect for Hitler’s ruthlessness. His Propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, believes that by hosting an event, like that of the Olympics, could give Germany the international recognition it deserves, with the intention of it representing the "New Germany" created by the Nazis.
To document the event, the German Olympic committee hired Leni Riefenstahl for $7 Million to create a film about the games, later titled Olympia. They hoped to use the Olympics to show off Aryan athletes and didn’t believe in promoting racial equality. The 1936 Olympics would come to be a significant event, not only in the history of athletics, but in political role that it would play in world history. On August 1st, 1936, the Berlin Olympics of 1936 had begun. With a total of 3,963 athletes competing from all over the world, Forty-nine athletic teams participated in the games, more teams than in any previous Olympics. These Olympics were the first to host the torch relay as well as the first to have it broadcasted on television. Some new sports, such as canoeing and field handball, as well as Basketball, now a popular olympic sport, had made its first olympic appearance in Berlin during the 1936 olympics. Team U.S.A. had a total of 312 athletes (none of which would accomplish nearly as much as Jesse Owens).
At this time, Adolf Hitler implemented an "Aryans only" policy, in an attempt to show how the Aryan race was superior to others. Shortly after Adolf Hitler became chancellor, excluding Jews from German sport/recreational facilities had become a common occurrence. Though, the banning of those who weren’t Aryan from the German Olympic team had been internationally criticized as it was considered a violation of the Olympic code of equality. A massive sports complex for the games, a new stadium called Reichssportfeld (now referred to as The Olympiastadion Berlin) and an Olympic village for housing the athletes had been created by the Nazis, with swastikas all across the monuments of Berlin. At this time, there had been separated sports facilities that were nowhere near as nice the Germans’, made specifically for the Jewish athletes. Excluding Jews from German sport/recreational facilities had become a common occurrence after Hitler became chancellor. This was, of course, part of a larger and more sinister plan to obliterate the Jewish population of Germany (as Hitler, in 1933, had declared for the construction of the Dachau Concentration Camp, which was the first Concentration Camp built by the Nazis; as well as establishing the Nuremberg Laws, in 1935, laws prohibiting Jewish people from marrying Germans and denying their Reich citizenship). Because of this, threats were made to boycott the Games from numerous countries around the world (such as Great Britain, Sweden, France, Czechoslovakia, and the Netherlands). These Boycott threats made the Nazi’s try to hide Germany’s blatant anti-semitism while hosting the Summer Olympics, as the majority of anti-Semitic signs were temporarily removed. Even with knowledge of Germany’s anti-semitism, the U.S. still decided to send its Jewish athletes. As expected, Hitler benched two American Jewish runners, Marty Glickman and Sam Stoller. Still, to mask this anti-semitism, Hitler had allowed Helen Mayer, a partially-jewish German athlete, to participate in fencing for Berlin; the only remotely Jewish person allowed to compete in the games. He did this for the goal of fooling those who didn’t know of Germany’s anti-jewish beliefs at the time. Besides for Helene Mayer, there were no other jewish athletes. Both Glickman and Stoller were replaced by two african american runners, Jesse Owens and Ralph Metcalfe.
This decision would turn out to be one of Hitler’s greatest mistakes during the games, as they both led team U.S.A. to winning gold in the 400 meter relay, setting a world record time of 39.8 seconds. During this time, Jesse Owens became friends with Luz Long, a German athlete, who attempted to help Jesse Owens by giving him tips, and was happy for him after his victory. Hitler showed a lack of sportsmanship in the games, as he (on the first day of competition), shook hands only with the German victors. As the Games proceeded, Jesse Owens set world records in four events: 200-yard low hurdles, the long jump, and the 100 and 220-yard dashes, all in a span of 45 minutes. Although many expected the people of Germany to be rooting for the German athletes, German fans supported Owens after he won gold. Adolf Hitler purposely had avoided acknowledging Owens' accomplishments. Partially due to the fact that Owens proved Hitler wrong, that the Aryan race was not superior, and got payback for the his Jewish teammates being revoked from team U.S.A. The Germans had defeated the U.S. (in terms of the overall medal count) with an 89-56 margin, keeping the Aryan Superiority complex still alive. Although Berlin won the most medals at the games, Jesse Owens proved to be the best athlete in the 1936 Olympics. The Germans intended the 1936 Olympic Games to be memorable for its athletes and
observers, but little did Germany know, none of which would be more memorable than Jesse Owens’ record-breaking performances in the games. Although, as the Games came to an end, the outcome of the Olympics didn’t matter in that Germany's policies of imperialism and the oppression the Jews faced was only increasing, eventually leading to World War II and the Holocaust.
The 1936 Berlin Olympics were the first, but certainly not the last, Olympic Games to involve politics. Examples of future political actions taken at Olympic games included:
The 1964 Olympics in Tokyo, South African teams had been banned from the Olympic games in protest of apartheid government. This Olympic ban was in effect until 1992.
The 1972 Olympics (also in Berlin), witnessed the Palestinian militant group, Black September, capturing and killing 11 Israeli Olympic athletes as a protest opposing the Israeli imprisonment of 234 Palestinians.
The 1980 summer Olympics (in Moscow, Russia), was the only U.S initiated boycott in history of the Olympics. Under President Jimmy Carter, the U.S boycotted the games in protest of the 1979 soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
The 2008 summer Olympics (in Beijing, China), as no boycott actually transpired, China’s treatment of the Tibetan, and overall human rights violations; people gained national recognition to a point where people protested.