The Other Nazi Olympics |
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The Summer Olympics held 90 years ago in Germany loom so large in memory—with Nazi-governed Berlin hosting, Adolf Hitler imperiously presiding, and U.S. sprinter Jesse Owens flouting Nazi racism by winning four gold medals—that the Winter Olympics from that same year has mostly faded to a historical footnote. Yet the Olympic Games that began on Feb. 6, 1936, were likewise hosted by Germany—and they offer an even more dramatic vantage point on Nazi ideology.
Before the sporting world congregated in Berlin, it came to the snow-enveloped Bavarian hamlet of Garmisch-Partenkirchen—just an hour and a half drive from the concentration camp of Dachau that was already fully operational. The Winter Olympics, only in its fourth iteration, lacked the eminence of the larger and time-honored summer games, with their Greek heritage. Yet the winter spectacle was meticulously orchestrated by the Nazis to showcase Germany’s ostensible civility—in other words, to mask its nefarious intentions—as well as to test-run for the Summer Games.
The Summer Olympics held 90 years ago in Germany loom so large in memory—with Nazi-governed Berlin hosting, Adolf Hitler imperiously presiding, and U.S. sprinter Jesse Owens flouting Nazi racism by winning four gold medals—that the Winter Olympics from that same year has mostly faded to a historical footnote. Yet the Olympic Games that began on Feb. 6, 1936, were likewise hosted by Germany—and they offer an even more dramatic vantage point on Nazi ideology.
Before the sporting world congregated in Berlin, it came to the snow-enveloped Bavarian hamlet of Garmisch-Partenkirchen—just an hour and a half drive from the concentration camp of Dachau that was already fully operational. The Winter Olympics, only in its fourth iteration, lacked the eminence of the larger and time-honored summer games, with their Greek heritage. Yet the winter spectacle was meticulously orchestrated by the Nazis to showcase Germany’s ostensible civility—in other words, to mask its nefarious intentions—as well as to test-run for the Summer Games.
The Winter Games were an add-on for Germany, which was awarded the summer event in 1931 (over Barcelona’s bid) before the Nazis took power two years later. Until 1925, post-World War I Germany had been excluded even from Olympic competition, and the award of the Games was recognition of democratic Germany’s reentry into the law-abiding international community.
At left, a publicity postcard for the 1936 Winter Olympic Games shows a ski jumper in front of the Bavarian Alps. At right, a sign........