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When the modern Olympic movement was launched in Paris in 1894, the goal was to create a global festival of sport that would unite athletes and nations in the spirit of sportsmanship and goodwill. The Olympic movement went on to achieve that lofty goal, but its founders could never have imagined that the Games could be used in equal measure to further mankind's darkest ambitions. The XI, XII, & XIII Olympiads, the eleventh volume in The Olympic Century series, begins with the story of perhaps the most controversial Games ever held - Berlin 1936. The volume documents how the Nazi dictator Adolph Hitler tried to use the Olympics as a global stage to demonstrate the might of his fearsome Third Reich and to promote his hateful theories on racial superiority. But flying in the face of Hitler's propaganda machine, there was the singular triumph of the black American Jesse Owens, the grandson of slaves, who made a mockery of the very idea of a "master race" by dominating the Games with four gold medals.Following Berlin, the focus of the book shifts to the years just before and during World War II, when summer and winter Olympiads in 1940 and 1944 were sacrificed as the world plunged into darkness. After the war, the question remained whether enough goodwill existed among nations to sustain the modern Olympic movement. But the book ends on a hopeful note in 1948 at the Winter Games in St. Moritz, Switzerland, where a 20-year-old figure skater from Canada named Barbara Anne Scott charmed the crowds with her beauty, grace and precision and reminded the world of what the Olympics can be.Juan Antonio Samaranch, former President of the International Olympic Committee, called The Olympic Century, "The most comprehensive history of the Olympic games ever published".

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Publié par	Warwick Press Inc.
Date de parution	18 novembre 2015
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781987944105
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	10 Mo

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THE OLYMPIC CENTURY THE COMPLETE HISTORY OF THE MODERN OLYMPIC MOVEMENT VOLUME 11
THE XI, XII XIII OLYMPIAD
BERLIN 1936 ST. MORITZ 1948
by George M. Constable
W
Warwick Press Inc. Toronto
Copyright 1996 WSRP
The Olympic Century series was produced as a joint effort among the International Olympic Committee, the United States Olympic Committee, and World Sport Research Publications, to provide an official continuity series that will serve as a permanent on-line Olympic education program for individuals, schools, and public libraries.
Published by:
Warwick Press Inc., Toronto
www.olympicbooks.com
1st Century Project: Charles Gary Allison
Publishers: Robert G. Rossi, Jim Williamson, Rona Wooley
Editors: Christian D. Kinney, Laura Forman
Art Director: Christopher M. Register
Picture Editors: Lisa Bruno, Debora Lemmons
Digital Imaging: Richard P. Majeske
Associate Editor, Research: Mark Brewin
Associate Editor, Appendix: Elsa Ramirez
Designers: Kimberley Davison, Diane Myers, Chris Conlee
Staff Researchers: Brad Haynes, Alexandra Hesse, Pauline Ploquin
Copy Editor: Harry Endrulat
Venue Map Artist: Dave Hader, Studio Conceptions, Toronto
Fact Verification: Carl and Liselott Diem Archives of the German Sport University at Cologne, Germany
Statistics: Bill Mallon, Walter Teutenberg
Memorabilia Consultants: Manfred Bergman, James D. Greensfelder, John P. Kelly, James B. Lally, Ingrid O Neil
Office Staff: Diana Fakiola, Brian M. Heath, Edward J. Messier, Brian P. Rand, Robert S. Vassallo, Chris Waters
Senior Consultant: Dr. Dietrich Quanz (Germany)
Special Consultants: Walter Borgers, Dr. Karl Lennartz, Dr. Dietrich Quanz, Dr. Norbert Mueller (Germany), Ian Buchanan (United Kingdom), Wolf Lyberg (Sweden), Dr. Nicholas Yalouris (Greece).
International Contributors: Jean Durry (France), Dr. Fernand Landry (Canada), Dr. Antonio Lombardo (Italy), Dr. John A. MacAloon (U.S.A.), Dr. Jujiro Narita (Japan), C. Robert Paul (U.S.A.), Dr. Roland Renson (Belgium), Anthony Th. Bijkirk (Netherlands), Dr. James Walston (Ombudsman)
International Research and Assistance: John S. Baick (New York), Matthieu Brocart (Paris), Alexander Fakiolas (Athens), Bob Miyakawa (Tokyo), Rona Lester (London), Dominic LoTempio (Columbia), George Kostas Mazareas (Boston), Georgia McDonald (Colorado Springs), Wendy Nolan (Princeton), Alexander Ratner (Moscow), Jon Simon (Washington, D.C.), Frank Strasser (Cologne), Val ry Turco (Lausanne), Laura Walden (Rome), Jorge Zocchi (Mexico City)
All rights reserved. No part of The Olympic Century book series may be copied, republished, stored in a retrieval system, or otherwise reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means whatsoever without the prior written consent of the IOC, the USOC, and WSRP.
eBook Conversion: eBook Partnership, United Kingdom
ISBN 978-1-987944-24-2 (24 Volume Series)
ISBN 978-1-987944-10-5 (Volume 11)
CONTENTS
I FLAME OF PEACE, FLAME OF WAR
II DEUTSCHLAND UBER ALLES
III THE WAR YEARS
IV RENEWAL
Appendix
Acknowledgments
Photo Credits
Bibliography
Index
BERLIN, GERMANY AUGUST 1, 1936
CITYWIDE CELEBRATION
Nazi authorities enthusiastically backing the Berlin Games wanted all Berlin, not just the 110,000 people at the Olympic stadium, to feel part of the Games opening ceremony festivities. So, for August 1, planners developed an all-day celebration that lasted well into the night.
The morning phase showcased German youngsters. Children from every Berlin school district gathered on playing fields to run races, perform gymnastics, and play soccer and tennis matches. The climax was a massive demonstration at the Lustgarten that included a rally of Hitler Youth, with speeches by Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels and other prominent Nazi officials.
The opening ceremony itself began at 3 p.m. in the Olympic stadium. There were 50 delegations in the Parade of Nations. The French team won approval with its straight-armed salute (right) to Adolf Hitler as it passed his seat in the reviewing stand. The crowd went wild, inferring a Nazi greeting, but French officials quickly claimed a misunderstanding: Their athletes had given an Olympic salute, not a fascist one. (In fact, some historians suggest that the Nazis adapted their infamous Sieg Heil gesture from the Olympic salute, first used at Stockholm 1912.) After the remaining teams settled onto the infield and Theodor Lewald, organizing committee president, greeted the crowd, Hitler declared the Games open. A German wrestler, Rudolph Ismayr, took the athlete s oath.
The long-running gala picked up again at 9 p.m. when spectators returned to the Olympic stadium to watch the Festival Play. A precursor to pageants that would mark later opening ceremonies, the play featured student groups performing musical numbers and yet another series of athletic demonstrations-all to glorify the youth of Germany. The day s events served their purpose:
Berliners returned home charged with enthusiasm for the upcoming Games.
FLAME OF PEACE, FLAME OF WAR
BERLIN 1936
June, as always, brought a sensuous softness to Berlin in the summer of 1936, and July was gentler still. People strolled in the sun, gossiped outside the shops, picnicked in parks. But for all the quiet pleasures of the season, there was something unsettling in the air that summer, a sense of vast forces gathering. Far from Germany, armies were on the move: Japan had wrested Manchuria from China and was eyeing additional territory; Italy s fascist dictator, Benito Mussolini, had just seized Ethiopia. Close to home, Greece and Austria were roiled by political storms. And in Germany itself, a dark dreamer ruled. Chancellor Adolf Hitler and his minions in the National Socialist Party believed that history was turning and that they were the pivot. Their country had suffered a bitter defeat in the First World War, then lapsed into debility and drift. Now, said the Nazi leaders, the years of weakness were over. A new Germany had arisen, and the international community would have to acknowledge its greatness.
A significant step in that direction was about to happen. On August 1 the Games of the XI modem Olympiad would open in Berlin. More than 150,000 foreign visitors were expected, along with about 700 foreign journalists, and Hitler was determined that they be dazzled by the Third Reich, as he called his dominion.
Creating impressions of grandeur and potency was one of Hitler s foremost talents, and he didn t hesitate to spend freely in the cause. Even before the Games got under way, the bill for hosting the Olympics approached an unprecedented $30 million. The finest sports arenas in Olympic history were built for the occasion. Transportation systems were upgraded, thoroughfares were widened, and communications facilities improved. Berlin was brought to a high polish by cleaning crews and set aflutter with the new national flag bearing the Nazi swastika. The Games would launch with lavish and spectacular ceremonies, including a multinational pageant beginning at the very font of Olympism, in the hills of the Peloponnesus in Greece.
Below: A sketch from Carl Diem s diary explains the origin of the torch relay. While studying a book on antique monuments, Diem saw an illustration of winged runners adorning the entrance to the Academy in Athens. They were lighting torches at the altar of Eros, god of love. Later research led Diem to a passage in the Actor ad Herrenium, an anonymous treatise written in 80 BC, describing a torch run.

That particular ceremony was conceived by Carl Diem, the man with the primary responsibility for organizing the Berlin Games. Diem, general secretary of the Berlin Olympic Organizing Committee, was a respected member of international sport circles-and a man with an acute sense of drama. His rite would draw its power from fire, an element woven deep into the ancient tapestries of both Greek and Teutonic myth. The sacred flame would ignite from the focused rays of the sun in the ruins of ancient Olympia, then be borne to Berlin by a relay of runners--conveyed from torch to torch along a route extending almost 2,000 miles across Europe. By this transfer of fire from the oldest Olympic site to the newest, the past would touch the present. A spirit would move across the ages.
The logistics were prodigiously complicated. On its way to Berlin, the flame would travel through seven nations: Greece, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Austria, Czechoslovakia, and finally Germany itself. The national Olympic committees in the seven countries were charged with recruiting local runners, but Diem kept close control of all the preparations, shaping his mobile fire festival with Germanic precision. He decided that each torchbearer would run exactly one kilometer, and by means of a careful survey carried out in 1935, he determined that a total of 3,075 runners would be needed. In a directive he wrote, The symbolic act of handing on the fire is planned by us as follows: We will give to all participating countries the number of torches they require, together with reserves. Every runner will be provided with a torch, and a second will remain at the hand-over point as a standby. Diem reckoned that, allowing for mountains and other barriers, runners should make an average time of five minutes per kilometer. The whole project will be spoiled, he cautioned, if the fire arrives too late.
The relay would require 11 days, with the flame reaching the Berlin stadium at exactly 5:20 on the afternoon of August 1. Taking no chances on tardiness, Diem built reserve time into the schedule-two-hour periods when the flame would rest in a bowl on an altar in towns along the way. During these respites local officials could give speeches, and the populace might sing, dance, or hold parades in tribute to the Olympic spirit.
Below: An announcement describing the torch run traces the route of the relay from Olympia to Berlin.