Anton Rippon

This is an account of the infamous Olympic Games of 1936, covering the run up to the Games, their duration and (briefly) the aftermath. When the IOC awarded the Games to Berlin, they awarded it to a democracy, albeit one that was weak and tottering. This was a remarkable advance, as Germany had been barred from the Olympics after the First World War until 1928 (the 1916 Games would have been in Berlin). After Hitler came to power, there were attempts to get the Games moved or cancelled, but unsuccessfully; ironically the most plausible alternative venue would have been Barcelona (three other German cities were also possibilities, Cologne, Nuremberg and Frankfurt). If they had been held in Barcelona, they would have had to be cancelled at the last moment as the Spanish Civil War broke out just before the Berlin Games began, and some unofficial counter-Olympics being held in the Spanish city had to be called off. There were fierce arguments in the USA about whether to boycott the Games, especially after Hitler marched into the Rhineland in early 1936, though in the end the American Athletics Union voted narrowly to attend, the arguments turning on such dubious concessions such as Hitler reluctantly agreeing to remove anti-Jewish posters (though only for the two weeks of the Games), and the oft-heard refrain that sport and politics cannot and should not mix, which in practice has proved impossible to observe across the decades. Some, such as the black sprinter Ben Johnson, argued against a boycott on the grounds that the plight of German Jews was no worse than that of blacks in the American south. Nevertheless, it is striking that many people put forward strong arguments not to attend, and the evil nature of Hitler's regime was much more widely known and understood at this early stage than is sometimes assumed.

Hitler was keen to use the Games as a showcase for the new generation of German youth he was aiming to forge in his own twisted version of the Aryan ideal (having in 1931 denounced the Olympics as "an invention of Jews and Freemasons" and an event "inspired by Judaism which cannot possibly be put on in a Reich ruled by National Socialists"). In the end, Germany won the largest haul of medals, some way ahead of the US, but of course the US winners included most famously quadruple gold medallist Jesse Owens, and other black athletes such as Cornelius Johnson, gold medallist in the high jump. Owens was wildly popular with the German crowd (but this was also the same crowd that also applauded and heiled Hitler whenever their Fuhrer appeared). Contrary to the oft-told story, Owens was not actually personally snubbed by Hitler refusing to shake his hand, though Johnson could be described as having been snubbed as the Fuhrer left the stadium before his awards ceremony, and did not personally meet either man, whereas he did meet many medallists from Germany and other north European countries in particular. Owens was also snubbed back in the USA, even by a liberal President like FDR, as well as by the athletics establishment, and passed over for sportsman of the year awards. From Hitler's point of view, the Games were a success as most of the attendees, while taken aback by the militarism of the Games and of Berlin society in general, came away with a strong impression of German belief in their own strength and perceived invincibility (and unaware of the existence of Sachsenhausen concentration camp a short distance away from the stadium). And the rest, as they say, is history.

This book has a great many interesting photographs, but also quite a large number of often egregious typos.… (more)