1936 Winter Olympics

Organization and politics

While the 1936 Summer Olympics held in Berlin months later have attracted extensive examination for the Nazi Party's spectacles and the accompanying racial controversies, including the exclusion of most Jewish athletes and Jesse Owens's achievements, the Winter Games took place five months earlier and saw some of the same efforts by Adolf Hitler's propaganda machine.

Winter sports were only accepted by the Nazi Party because the Italian dictator Mussolini promoted skiing. The middle class was encouraged to visit ski resorts. In 1936 more than 550,000 winter sports tourists visited Italy. Stylish skiing with Aryan looks was graphic designed by the propaganda artist Ludwig Hohlwein. Globally, there had been efforts to initiate boycotts from different countries, and a number of Jewish athletes faced pressure not to participate in an event held in a nation ruled by a blatantly antisemitic regime.

The Nazis took steps to soften the appearance of their harsher policies before visitors from other nations arrived, such as removing antisemitic signage that was common in Germany, and – under pressure from a potential American boycott and Olympic officials – allowing the Jewish athlete Rudi Ball to play on Germany's ice hockey team. German troops moved back into the demilitarized Rhineland for the Winter Games. A few weeks before the Games began, William L. Shirer, the Berlin correspondent for the Universal wire service, wrote a series of articles describing preparations for the competition. He concluded, "that the Nazis at Garmisch had pulled down all the signs saying that Jews are unwanted (they're all over Germany) and that the Olympic visitors would thus be spared any signs of the kind of treatment meted out to Jews in this country."

None of the member nations boycotted the Winter Games, and 49 in all participated, the greatest number at that time. The Games were completed with a minimum of political controversy, although the Canadian skiing team raised their arms in what appeared to be a Nazi salute as they entered the opening ceremonies. The German crowd erupted in applause at the salute, which was later explained as the "Olympic Salute" that was identical to the Nazi version but with the arm extended laterally instead of forward.

However, even Shirer was impressed by the effectiveness of the Nazis' efforts, writing:

Twelve days after the Games closed, Hitler sent German troops to remilitarize the Rhineland, his first territorial violation of the Treaty of Versailles and a critical test of European resolve to resist Germany's military expansion. None of the Western powers lifted a finger and Europe's first steps towards World War Two were taken.

Highlights

• German skier Willy Bogner took the Olympic oath during the opening ceremonies.
• Alpine skiing made its first appearance in the Winter Olympics as the combined, which added a skier's results in both the downhill and slalom. German athletes Franz Pfnür and Christl Cranz won the men's and women's alpine events, respectively.
• Ivar Ballangrud won three out of the four speed skating races.
• Sonja Henie won her third consecutive gold medal in woman's figure skating.
• Switzerland won the four-man bobsled competition with a time of 5:19.85.
• Great Britain upset 1932 gold medalists Canada in ice hockey when Edgar Brenchley scored the winning goal within the last 90 seconds.
• Norway won the overall games with a total of seven gold medals, five silver medals and three bronze medals.
• The 1936 Winter Olympics presented the largest and heaviest medals ever awarded to athletes: 100 mm diameter, 4 mm thick and weighing 324 g.

Sports

Medals were awarded in 17 events contested in four sports (eight disciplines).

Skating

Skiing

Demonstration sports

• Military patrol
• Ice stock sport

Venues

Main article: Venues of the 1936 Winter Olympics

• Große Olympiaschanze – Cross-country skiing, Nordic combined, Opening and Closing Ceremonies, and Ski Jumping.
• Gudiberg – Alpine skiing (combined – slalom)
• Kreuzjoch – Alpine skiing (combined – downhill)
• Kreuzeck – Alpine skiing (downhill finish line)
• Olympia-Kunsteisstadion – Figure skating and Ice hockey
• Riessersee and surrounding areas – Bobsleigh, Ice hockey, and Speed skating

Participating nations

A total of 28 nations sent athletes to compete in Germany. Australia, Bulgaria, Greece, Liechtenstein, Spain and Turkey all made their Winter Olympics debut, and Estonia, Latvia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Yugoslavia returned after having missed the 1932 Winter Olympics.

Number of athletes by [[National Olympic Committee]] (from highest to lowest)

Medal count

Main article: 1936 Winter Olympics medal table

Podium sweeps

References

Notes Citations

References

1. (2003). "The Nazi Olympics: Sport, Politics, and Appeasement in the 1930s". University of Illinois Press.
2. (10 February 2015). "Modernist 1930s Posters Calling Skiiers to the Mountains of Europe". SLATE.
3. Marsha Lederman, "A Glimpse of Canada at the 1936 Nazi Games," ''The Globe and Mail'', October 13, 2009
4. "The Nazi Olympics -1936 Berlin Olympic Games".
5. (12 February 2014). "So This Happened: Hitler’s Winter Olympics in Photos". New York Magazine.
6. William L. Shirer, ''Berlin Diary'', ©1941 reprinted 2011 by Rosetta Books, entry for January 23, 1936
7. Lederman, "A Glimpse of Canada at the 1936 Nazi Games"
8. (2014-02-12). "So This Happened: Hitlers Winter Olympics in Photos".
9. Shirer, ''Berlin Diary'', undated entry February 1936
10. (2014). "Triumph: Jesse Owens And Hitler's Olympics". Head of Zeus.