1936 Olympics Research Paper

The Olympics have been around since ancient Greece, but the more modern summer Olympic games are not so old with the first one taking place in 1896 in the famous Athens, Greece. Just before the Nazis had risen to control Germany, Berlin was chosen to host the 1936 summer Olympic games. Choosing Berlin as the host country for where the games were to be held became a highly controversial decision just a couple years later because that was when Germany was being controlled by Hitler’s Nazi regime. The games were typically an entertaining event for all to watch and enjoy. However, Hitler had a separate agenda for the 1936 Olympic games, wanting to use them as propaganda to promote his Nazi ideals to the world and to encourage athletics within

This raises the question: why did the 1936 Olympic games promote more tension and further provoke major nations into starting the second World War? My thesis is that Hitler was enraged when his German athletes were defeated in the Games on his own soil, particularly by African-American competitors which drove him to further institute his ideals on his Nazi soldiers. This was a contributing factor to the world-wide hate and tension between nations that led to the second World War just years later. Others argue that western societies could’ve boycotted the location of the Olympics in order to prevent Nazi Germany from using the games for propaganda. However, Hitler’s plan to prove German dominance actually failed when African-American athletes like Jesse Owens conquered track and field events and it was the defeat by African-Americans rather than the use of propaganda that facilitated the coming World War. This is a significant topic because it will show that a strong sense of nationalism, which is the main focus in the Olympics, leads to a polarization effect between the most dominant nations and in the case of the 1936 Games it facilitated the second World War and brought gave African-Americans opportunities they were not

The games are generally thought of as a great event that brings all nations and races together to set aside different cultural beliefs to just focus on the love of sports and to provide a great show for all spectators. However, Hitler’s intended to use the Olympic games as propaganda to promote his Nazi culture and to spread his ideals to the Aryan race and recruit more of the German youth (Kass 225). Prior to the Berlin games, the Olympics were already a large spectacle that would attract large crowds and get a lot of attention. This is why the Hitler saw it as a perfect opportunity to show other nations how strong the Germans were in order to prove their dominance over other nations not by means of war but by showing they are truly the most advanced and superior country in the world. He knew he had to make it the biggest Games to date to show his nation’s superiority. Hitler was determined to prove German dominance in multiple ways, first by hosting the most popular and elaborate Olympics yet, and then by showing the world that his German athletes were superior to the rest of the world. He wanted to make sure that the 1936 Olympics would be a huge spectacle that no one could compare to the Berlin Olympics were the first to be televised to get more viewers watching his German dominance and the passing of the torch from Greece was