In 1936, the Summer Olympics became a political event almost as much as a sporting competition. Since the Nazi's were in power in 1936, they used this event as a way to advertise the "good side" of their government. The Nazi's wanted to portray the success of the German athletes as the overall success of new Germany. Although the Nazi's wanted to succeed in the Games, they held some of their best participants out of the competition because they were Jewish. The American Olympic Committee also benched the only two Jewish American athletes, Marty Glickman and Sam Stoller, from running in the 4 × 100 relay. It was suspected that the American Olympic Committee leader, Avery Brundage, did not want to embarrass Adolf Hitler by having to Jews win gold medals.
American sprinter and long jumper, Jesse Owens, won 4 gold medals in the 1936 Games. He was a black American, something that did not make Hitler very happy. When Jesse Owens received one of his medals on the podium, Hitler made a statement by walking out of the stadium to show his disapproval of Owens. Even though Owens was an Olympic hero, when he returned to the US, he was still segregated and treated like every other African American. Many actions in the Olympic Games were leading up to the much larger event of WWII.
You do a very good job of summarizing the overall events that go on during these infamous olympics. Hitler saw the chance to host the Berlin olympics to showcase the Nazi party. He used them to try to project the audited image of new germany to translate athletes success into success of national socialism. Germany had the most gold medals during these olympics, so Hitler's vision of athlete domination was successful. During these olympics, a lot of political tension was forgotten in the moment. Shortly after the olympics had ended, our world got right back to panic and chaos as there had been before.
ReplyDeleteI think you did a very good job at highlighting some of the most important parts of these olympic games. Even though Hitler was trying to show the "good side" of Nazi Germany, he completely went against that by showing his disapproval of a black man winning so many medals in the olympics. I find it even more surprising that America was still against Jesse Owens after he helped lead his country to victory after winning 4 gold medals in the olympics. Owens proved himself to be an American idol, but he was still mistreated after doing so much for his country's name.
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