On Tuesday, Berlin mayor Kai Wegner will present a plan to bid for the 2036 Olympic. If successful, to borrow German philosopher Karl Marx, history would repeat itself…after one hundred years. In 1936, Adolf Hitler turned the Games into history's most sophisticated propaganda exercise.
As Berlin prepares its second act, The Olympiastadion, renovated but unchanged in soul, remains the focal point. It still echoes with applause—the site of last year’s Euro final and Hertha Berlin’s weekly battles—and also with memories of legends like India’s Hockey wizard Dhyanchand, America’s black athlete Jesse Owen, and Germany’s Lisa Riefenstahl’s masterful cinematography.
The Olympiastadion/ File picture
Berlin’s Olympiastadion—built under the watchful eyes of Adolf Hitler and standing as a monument to uncomfortable truths—created propaganda and also showed how sports can become resistance.
Hitler was skeptical about hosting the Games. But Nazi officials, who understood the power of global spectacle, convinced him of the propaganda potential.
Hitler threw considerable resources behind the Games. They constructed a 100,000-seat stadium and commissioned filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl to capture Nazi greatness. But athletes turned it into a theatre of resistance.
Jesse Owens arrived in Berlin as a 22-year-old sprinter from Ohio State University. Over four days in August, he dismantled the Nazi’s Aryan race supremacy ideology one race at a time.
Four gold medals. Four world records. Each victory became a quiet refutation of everything the regime represented.
According to reports, Hitler, who was congratulating athletes for their performances, turned away and returned to the stands when he saw the Black American athlete.
Following the Games, White House met the athletes, where they receive praise from the US President. According to the Lincoln archives, Black athletes were not invited to the gathering in 1936 and President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s snub impacted Owens more.
“Hitler didn’t snub me. It was (Roosevelt) who snubbed me. The president didn’t even send me a telegram.” Owens later said.
Owens was not alone.
Major Dhyanchand/ File
India's hockey team led by Major Dhyan Chand, reached the Games final. Opponent was Germany.
“The boys were a bit nervous. The Germans were prepared to die for Hitler. What will happen if the home team lost in front of him was unimaginable.” Swami Jagan Nath, manager of the Indian Hockey team, told the Sportstar in 2020.
India demolished Germany 8-1 in the final. The wizard of hockey scored three goals.
There is an apocryphal story about Dhyanchand’s refusal to Hitler. And there are two views.
Hitler was supposed to witness the final. As things turned out rains caused the final to be postponed to the next day and Hitler did not turn up. But he sent Herr Hesse (Rudolf Hess, known as deputy Fuhrer). He was also a very respected and feared man," Swami Jagan Nath said to Sportstar.
But, former India hockey coach Saiyed Ali Sibtain Naqvi told the IANS about the final: “Hitler had saluted Dada Dhyanchand as he offered him to join the German Army. It was during the prize distribution ceremony and Dada was silent for a few seconds, even the packed stadium went completely silent and feared that if Dhyanchand refused the offer then the dictator might shoot him. Dada had narrated this to me that he replied to Hitler with closed eyes but in a bold voice of an Indian soldier that 'India is not for sale'.”
Is this an urban myth? Was it Rudolf Hess who offered Dhyanchand to join the German army? Or is it true, and Dhyanchad snub Hitler? Whatever it was, this story about the 1936 Olympics is discussed a hundred years later.
Leni Riefenstahl/ Wikipedia
The 1936 Games was used to showcase the power and the Reich. And behind the lens, Leni Riefenstahl, probably the best sports broadcaster and documentary filmmaker of the twentieth century, and hired by the Nazis to shoot the Games, excelled in that work.
One year ago, she had written and directed Triumph of the Will, the most infamous of Nazi propaganda film.
Her technical brilliance, which captured somersaults of athletes, in live and slow motion, weaved the athletic achievement with propaganda, making it impossible to separate its artistic legacy from politics.
“Riefenstahl’s films were acclaimed for their rich musical scores, for the cinematic beauty of the scenes of dawn, mountains, and rural German life, and for brilliant editing,” says the Britannica.
In Olympia, Festival of Nations, Reifenstahl compared modern Olympians to classical Greek heroes and provided coverage of some of the games' most celebrated moments, including Owens winning a then-unprecedented four gold medals.
Berlin’s 1936 Games were a contradiction. Deeper than the modern renovations and fresh paint, lies the memory of 1936 as Berlin prepares to pitch for the 2036 Games.