1. Because of the National Socialist regime in Germany, many countries boycotted the Olympics, the USSR team did not go, however, for other reasons. Nevertheless, 49 countries took part (12 countries more than in the previous 4 years earlier). An alternative "people's Olympics" in Barcelona was planned for this year, but it was not possible to hold it - the Civil War broke out in Spain. Many countries applied to participate in both games

2. Hitler himself was against the Olympic Games, the choice of venue was made even before he came to power in 1931. The Fuhrer had to be convinced, Goebbels' argument from the category worked: "Let's show the whole world the superiority of the Aryan race."

3. The large-scale infrastructure of Olympia Park was created from scratch, at the opening ceremony over the new stadium, which gathered 100,000 people, the world's largest zeppelin Hidenburg, carrying a flag with 5 rings, soared, 30,000 doves were released into the sky. The total capital investment in the Olympics, according to historians, amounted to 16.5 million marks (or 30 million US dollars at that time) - colossal funds at that time, of which only 6% (1 million marks) were “recaptured”.

4. At the time of the Olympics in Berlin, the Jewish question was “forgotten”, all anti-Semitic attacks in the German press and on the streets of the city were banned. Each time the IOC representatives visited, the city was cleansed of anti-Semitic propaganda, presenting Berlin as a peaceful place for all peoples. The effect of "Potemkin village" for the world community. By this time, the Nazis had already sent Jews to concentration camps. Shortly before the start, a large-scale “cleansing” of Romanian gypsies was also carried out in Berlin, a separate concentration camp was created for them

5. Although Jews were “cleaned out” in the German team, there were some exceptions - the father of the fencer girl Helene Mayer was of Jewish origin, her father later died in a concentration camp, and the girl migrated to the USA, changing her last name to Meyer

6. For the first time, the Olympic torch relay was held using the first Olympic torch in the history of the Games, for the first time the flame was lit in the homeland of the Olympics in Greece and delivered to Berlin through several European countries. More than 3,000 runners took part in the relay

7. For the first time in the history of gaming, a live TV broadcast was launched using Telefunken equipment, it seemed like a miracle in those days. The $7 million-equivalent Leni Riefenstahl film at the time introduced many technical innovations that are still used in sports reporting today.

8. There were many blacks in the US team who became winners in a number of competitions and dispelled the myth of the exclusivity of the Aryans. Black runner Jesse Owens from the USA won 4 gold medals at once. Hitler defiantly refused to greet the victors from other countries, so as not to have to shake hands with Negroes and Jews. US President Franklin Roosevelt also did not congratulate the 4-time champion of the 1936 Olympics, fearing deprivation of votes from voters from the southern states in the upcoming elections.

9. In the team standings, Germany took 1st place, USA 2nd, Hungary 3rd.

10. During the Second World War, a chic Olympic village built with the latest fashion with all amenities, a swimming pool, 30 km from Berlin (Wustermark) was used to accommodate the wounded of the Wehrmacht, and after the capture of Berlin for the conclusion of prisoners of war and interrogation by SMERSH scouts. Today the village is in ruins and in need of repair. Separate buildings have been restored, in particular the house-museum where the Olympic champion from the United States, African-American Jesse Owens stayed, regular tours for tourists are held there.

A distinctive feature of many totalitarian regimes is an increased attention to gloss and ceremonial. Ceremonies and holidays were of particular importance in Nazi Germany. Among all the solemn Nazi events, perhaps the most magnificent and spectacular was the Berlin Olympics in 1936.

Today, the historic Berlin stadium is perceived by many not so much as an arena for sports battles, but as a monumental reminder of the Nazi era. It was here, at the Olympiastadion, that Hitler held a grandiose propaganda campaign and, to the pompous music of Richard Wagner, opened the 1936 Summer Olympics in front of a 100,000-strong crowd.

The 1936 Berlin Olympics is probably the most controversial in the history of the Games. After the First World War, in 1920 and 1924, Germany was not allowed to participate in the Olympic Games. However, this unfortunate fact did not bother Hitler much - he was convinced that it would be simply humiliating for German athletes to compete with "inferior non-Aryans". Bruno Matlitz, a spokesman for the Nazi Party, reaffirmed this position in a letter to members of German sports clubs, describing the Olympics as "overrun by French, Belgians, Poles and Negro Jews."

Despite such Nazi beliefs, on May 13, 1931, the International Olympic Committee granted Germany the right to host the 1936 Games. This move was explained by the fact that at that time Germany was not yet under Nazi rule, and the IOC decided that such a step would help to return Germany into the ranks of civilized countries. Problems arose after 1933, when Hitler's pronounced nationalist and anti-Jewish views became state policy.

Goebbels made every effort to convince the Fuhrer to reconsider his attitude towards the Olympic Games. He argued that the holding of the Olympics would show the world community the renewed power of Germany and provide the party with first-class propaganda material. In addition, the competition will allow the undoubtedly strong German team to demonstrate "Aryan" athleticism to other nations. The Fuhrer was smitten. The Fuhrer agreed. 20 million Reichsmarks were allocated for the Games, i.e. 8 million US dollars.

However, in 1934, serious disputes flared up in the world about the advisability of holding the Games in Berlin. They were especially stormy in the USA. Jewish, Catholic, religious and secular organizations united in their condemnation of the German Games. As IOC President Avery Brundage said in 1933:

"The very foundation of the modern revived Olympic movement would be undermined if individual countries were allowed to restrict participation in the Games on grounds of origin, creed or race."

Emblem of the Berlin Olympics.

To the guests who visited Berlin in 1936, it seemed that German anti-Semitism was just a myth. All anti-Jewish posters, brochures and books temporarily disappeared from the streets and stalls. German newspapers were prohibited from publishing anti-Semitic stories and articles for the duration of the Games. The inhabitants of Berlin were even ordered from June 30 to September 1 to refrain from negative public statements about the Jews. In order to create an impression of the liberalism of the Third Reich, even one half-Jewish woman (very “Aryan” in appearance) was allowed to participate in the Games as part of the German team - fencing champion Helena Mayer.

The leadership and residents of Berlin showed generous hospitality towards the arriving athletes and guests. In particular, the consumption of eggs for Berliners has been temporarily cut so that guests can eat without restrictions. Laws against homosexuals were temporarily suspended. The entire city was lavishly decorated with swastikas and other Nazi symbols, giving it a festive and majestic air. Military mobilization was also hidden from prying eyes. Here is the Propaganda Ministry's instruction regarding the Olympic Village:

"The northern section of the Olympic Village, originally used by the Wehrmacht, should not be called barracks, it will now be called the "Northern section of the Olympic Village"

The world press was delighted. Only two or three of the most perceptive reporters were able to look behind the beautiful facade - but even they did not see the whole picture. In the northern suburbs of Berlin, the Oranienburg concentration camp was already filling up with Jews and other unwanted people.
The opening ceremony of the Games was well remembered by everyone who saw it. Cannons fired all over the city. Hitler personally released 20,000 carrier pigeons at the Sportpalast stadium. The Hindenburg zeppelin, almost 304 meters long, circled over the stadium with a giant Olympic flag in tow. In the middle of all this splendor, athletes from 49 countries of the world marched in front of the assembled crowds of spectators.

In general, the results of the XI Olympiad in Berlin were positive for the Reich. Huge financial investments in physical training and sports have paid off: the German team received 33 gold medals, leaving all other teams far behind. The Nazis believed that the racial "superiority" of the Aryans found another confirmation.
Nevertheless, while many Nazi prejudices seemed to be confirmed, some of them came into clear conflict with reality. Half-Jewish fencer Helena Mayer took second place, while Jewish athletes from other countries won gold and silver medals. In a paramilitary sport like fencing, Jewish dominance was very unpleasant for the Nazi leaders. But Mayer's invaluable contribution to Nazi propaganda more than made up for this nuisance. Standing on the podium, she gave the Nazi salute in all form, and at the reception in honor of the Olympic medalists, she shook hands with Hitler. She was captured in her documentary "Olympia" and Leni Riefenstahl.
In general, the awards were distributed as follows.

No. Country Gold Silver Bronze Total
1 Third Reich 33 26 30 89
2 USA 24 20 12 56
3 Hungary 10 1 5 16
4 Italy 8 9 5 22
5 Finland 7 6 6 19
6 France 7 6 6 19
7 Sweden 6 5 9 20
8 Japan 6 4 8 18
9 Netherlands 6 4 7 17

Olympic awards.

Project discussion.

This is what Berlin looked like in the year of the Games.

Erwin Kazmir, one of the best fencers in Germany.

Time spending: 2 - 9 August 1936
Number of disciplines: 29
Number of countries: 43
Number of athletes: 776
men: 678
women: 98
The youngest member: Ko Nakamura-Yoshino (Japan, age: 16, 104 days)
Oldest member: Percy Wyer (Canada, age: 52, 199 days)
Medal-winning countries: USA (25)
Athletes with medals: Jesse Owens USA (4)

The 1936 Olympics was a huge success for the audience: about 4 million fans came to it. Radio reporters from 41 countries worked in the German capital.
The opening of the Olympics was broadcast live on television for the first time, a full-length documentary by Leni Riefenstahl "Olympia" was shot.

Every day a newsletter was issued and received by 3,690 newspapers and magazines on different continents. Another flight across the Atlantic by a German airship took place a day later to deliver photographs of the closing of the Olympic Games to the United States.

The opening ceremony of the Games continued the tradition of lighting the Olympic flame since 1928, and for the first time the flame was brought from Olympia by runners passing the torch like a baton. This marked the beginning of the tradition of the Olympic Torch Relay.

The games set a new record for the number of participants.

For the first time in the unofficial team standings, German athletes took the lead with 33 gold medals, 26 silver, 30 bronze.

Despite the success of the German team, the Olympics crossed out Nazi racial theories. For example, in track and field competitions, six first, three second and two third places were taken by black Americans, and one of them was declared the best athlete of the Games - the great American sprinter of all time Jesse Owens: he won the 100 and 200 m races, the third " gold" received in the 4x100 m relay, and the fourth in the long jump (he was the first in the history of athletics to cross the line of 8 m - 8 m 06 cm).
The Berlin Games were called "Jesse Owens Olympics".

In the high jump, the Americans again became winners. The first two places were taken by long-legged black athletes Cornelius Johnson and Dave Albritton. Johnson jumped 2.03 m, setting an Olympic record, Albritton was only 3 cm behind him. American Delos Thurber received the bronze medal.

The pole vault competitions were exciting. They lasted over 12 hours. Only late in the evening, under the spotlights (which was then a novelty), the name of the winner and the new Olympic record holder was finally announced: the American Earl Meadows jumped 4 m 35 cm. Suhei Nishida and Suoe Oe from Japan shared the second and third places with an equal result - 4 m 25 cm. The revival at the stadium caused the announcement that the athletes decided to share the medals, sawing them into halves.

1936 Summer Olympics

The 11th Summer Olympics in 1936 will forever go down in history, not so much because of the Nazi government, which then reigned supreme over Germany, but because of the fact that Olympic sports were televised for the first time. TV shows were broadcast in three German cities (Berlin, Potsdam and Leipzig) in real time if the weather was good. In bad weather, the TV broadcast delay did not exceed 10 minutes relative to real time. In total, there were 33 television salons, where there were two televisions with a square screen, the length of which was 25 centimeters on a side. During the 1936 Olympic Games, 48 ​​sports television programs were shown, which were watched by approximately one hundred and fifty thousand people.

TV broadcast standard and technology used

For broadcasting television programs, an electronic system was used, which was invented by von Ardenne. She used progressive scan with a format of 180 lines at 50 frames per second. A public demonstration of this electronic television system was held in 1931, and in the spring of 1935, regular television broadcasts using it began in Berlin in order to organize a full-fledged broadcast on an electronic system for the opening of the Olympics. By August 1936, 33 television salons had been established, each with two square-screen televisions. Two types of cameras were used to show sports broadcasts: large and portable; in addition, a combined type cinema and television system was created, because the above-mentioned cameras had insufficient sensitivity for high-quality television broadcasts.

Operator at the Olympics in Berlin, 1936

Preparing for future shoots

Leni Riefenstahl - a wonderful classic and documentary filmmaker - in her famous memoir shed light on how future Olympics cameramen prepared for the upcoming filming. According to her, preparations for filming began in May, but the preliminary work was carried out for two years by a group of about twenty people. At first, the operators' training took place with television cameras that did not have film, just to learn not to lose sight of the athletes when they made quick and sharp movements. Without such preparation, good shooting simply would not have happened, therefore, only after numerous trainings, testing of three types of films began in order to find the best among them. Nevertheless, subsequently each operator chose the type of film to be used on his own, because it was not possible to find the best among them.

Leni Riefenstahl and camera assistant. Berlin Olympics, 1936. Massive tripods are designed to support the weight of this lens

Opening of the Olympic Games

At 6 o'clock in the morning, on August 1, 1936, a significant event occurred - the Berlin Olympics was launched. TV broadcasting of the most interesting events began, which were filmed by dozens of cameras and 60 cameramen: the appearance of a runner with a torch, the arrival of delegations from all participating countries, and much more. Some problems arose with sound recording, as two apparatuses had to be placed near the places for guests of honor, which caused displeasure of the SS men who tried to remove this sound recording equipment. With great difficulty, Leni Riefenstahl managed to defend her, selflessly protecting the two sound recording machines with her body.

Original technical solutions and shooting features

When all the obstacles were successfully overcome, painstaking video filming of the competition began. The film crew wanted to bring something new to the documentary and therefore constantly experimented with equipment. For example, an automatic mobile camera was created specifically for these games, which followed the sprinters running a hundred meters. Unfortunately, its use was prohibited by the judge of these competitions. Another interesting solution was the use of a balloon for survey surveys. But the main highlight was the use of small cameras when filming equestrian all-around and marathon; in the first case, they were attached to the saddles, and in the second case, they were in a special basket that the runners wore around their necks during their training. With the help of such cameras, we managed to get some unique shots, so this idea justified itself.

Summing up

The electronic television broadcasts of the Berlin Olympic Games were successful and appealed to many German viewers, so the transition to this format of television broadcasting began to occur in other countries, including Moscow. In the Soviet Union in the autumn of 1936, almost immediately after the end of the Olympics, preparations began for telephony throughout the country. Thus, the German experience of sports television broadcasting had a great influence on the development of modern television.

The other day British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson compared the upcoming World Cup in Russia with the Summer Olympics-36 in Nazi Germany. Despite the minister's not entirely diplomatic behavior, his statement is a good reason to recall the games that took place just three years before the start of World War II.

Games needed

Germany applied to host the 36 Olympics in the late 1920s. In addition to Berlin, nine other cities claimed the victory. Among them was Barcelona, ​​with which the German capital competed in the final. Finally, in 1931, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced the verdict - the Games will be held in Berlin.

Two years later, the Nazis came to power. They immediately raise the question of the advisability of holding competitions. Adolf Hitler considered the Olympics a "Jewish invention". German athletes, he declared, should not compete with representatives of "inferior peoples." In addition, at the last Games in Los Angeles, Germany took only ninth place in the team standings, and if so, then there was no point in holding the Olympics, the Fuhrer believed.

Reich Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels managed to convince Hitler. He proposed using the competition to improve the image of Nazi Germany abroad. In addition, he believed that the Games would help the development of sports, which, in turn, would have a positive effect on the health and fitness of soldiers. The war-oriented Führer found Goebbels' ideas enticing.

Hitler took personal control of the preparations for the Games and ordered more than 20 million Reichsmarks to be allocated for these purposes. The construction of the Olympic stadium for 86,000 seats, a swimming pool, an open arena, a village for athletes from 500 houses and other facilities has begun.

Games with a touch of Nazism

But the Third Reich did not miss the opportunity to show its true essence here. Soon the IOC began to receive complaints about the persecution of Jews in Germany. They were expelled from sports clubs, expelled from athletic associations. In addition, in 1935, the Nuremberg Laws were passed, which limited the rights of "inferior races." The IOC threatened Berlin with deprivation of the status of the Olympic capital, and in Europe and the United States a movement was launched to boycott the Games.

To understand the situation, the International Olympic Committee sent a delegation to Germany. The Nazis carefully prepared: the guests were shown the facilities under construction, the city infrastructure, in addition, they removed all anti-Semitic propaganda from the streets and even organized a meeting for visitors with Jewish athletes. The task was simple: to show that there were no oppressions in Germany. The delegation returned from Berlin impressed.

On a grand scale

The Olympiad was held from 1 to 16 August. More than four thousand athletes from 49 countries gathered in Berlin, polished to a shine. About four million fans came to support the athletes.

A couple of months before the start of the competition, beggars, gypsies and women of easy virtue were evicted from the city. In addition, Goebbels strictly forbade the publication of anti-Semitic articles in newspapers and magazines, and posters with such content were removed from the streets.

An amazing novelty awaited the guests of the competition: for the first time in history, the Games were broadcast live. To do this, 33 television salons were organized, in which there were two televisions that transmitted the picture in real time. During the Olympics, more than 150 thousand people visited them, the queues there were no less than those at the stadiums.

By the way, some athletes did join the boycott. But the majority went, not wanting to miss the chance that comes once every four years.

There were no Soviet athletes at the Olympics. Relations between the USSR and Germany were then extremely strained: there was a civil war in Spain, in which they were on opposite sides of the barricades.

The main myth of that Olympics was the story around the black American athlete Jesse Owens. It is believed that he allegedly angered Hitler by taking four gold medals, so the Fuhrer refused to shake hands with him like other winners.

However, everything was somewhat different. Hitler really did not want to shake hands with the "non-Aryans", so even before the start of Owens, he stopped inviting every victor to his box.

On the first day of the competition, the German athlete Hans Welke became the Olympic champion in the shot put. The Germans rejoiced. In March 1943, partisans in Belarus fired on a column of the Wehrmacht. The officer died - the same Hans Welke.

The Nazis carried out a bloody action of retribution. The nearby village of Khatyn, where the Germans believed the partisans were hiding, was destroyed and its inhabitants burned alive.

Who has won?

Germany confidently won the team event, taking 33 gold, 26 silver and 30 bronze medals - a total of 89 medals. The United States came in second with 24 gold, 20 silver and 12 bronze medals, with a total of 56 awards. Hungarians closed the top three with 10 medals of the highest standard. Goebbels stated that the results of the Games were clear evidence of the superiority of the Aryan race.

The Fuhrer himself was delighted with the Olympics, so much so that he intended to hold all the Games in Germany in general. The Germans applied for the winter competition, which was to take place in early 1940. IOC officials hesitated, but Berlin soon withdrew the application itself. And then no one thought about the Summer Olympics - the war was raging in Europe.