For the first time, the XI Olympic Games of 1936 in Berlin were used as a powerful ideological mouthpiece, the main image project of the Nazi
IIIReich. Never before have the Olympics been held with such pomp - only at holiday events 20 million Reichsmarks were spent - a record amount of money. About 4 million fans came to the games, and radio reporters from 41 countries worked in Berlin. 49 countries and 4066 athletes took part in the games; in addition to sports records, they set new record- by the number of participants. The former modesty of the Olympics was forever over.
Although the lighting tradition Olympic flame existed since 1928, but for the first time the fire was brought to Berlin precisely from the Greek Olympia by runners passing the torch, like baton- The Olympic torch relay began with the 1936 Games.
For the first time the opening of the Olympics was broadcast on television in live- Twenty-five large screens were installed in various places in Berlin, and people could freely watch the Olympic Games.
1. Games are in question.
After the First World War, Germany was not allowed to attend the Olympic Games of 1920 and 1924. On May 13, 1931, the International Olympic Committee decided to hold the 1936 Games in Germany - such a step would help the country in crisis return to the fold of civilization. However, in 1933, Hitler's Nazis came to power, and the following year, serious debate broke out around the world over the advisability of holding the Games in Berlin. They were especially violent in the USA - Jewish and Catholic, secular and religious organizations - the main athletes of the future Olympics were categorically against it. However, in Germany itself the Olympic Games were considered “overrun by French, Belgians, Poles and Negro-Jews (!).” The fate of the Olympics was becoming uncertain. Back in 1932, the newspaper "People's Observer" (Völkischer Beobachter) wrote in its comments on the 10th games of 1932 in Los Angeles:
“Negroes have nothing to do at the Olympics [...] Today, unfortunately, there are often cases when a free person is forced to challenge the palm of a forced black, a Negro. This is an unprecedented insult and dishonor to the Olympic idea, and the ancient Greeks would have turned over in their graves, if they knew what modern people have turned their sacred national Games[...] The next Olympic Games will take place in 1936 in Berlin. We hope that those in positions of responsibility know what their duty is. Blacks must be excommunicated. We are waiting for this"
.
Four years later, such “talk in the ranks” ceased in Germany.
2. Preparation.
Hitler perfectly understood the opportunity to demonstrate to the world a new, revived and, most importantly, peace-loving Germany. The goal was ambitious - to eclipse all previous games both in the scope of the competition and in the number of participants and spectators. In addition to the German Olympic Committee, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Propaganda were involved in the organization of the Olympics, and a whole army of special emissaries was sent abroad to attract foreign tourists.
Large-scale construction work began. Based on the previously built sports complex"Olympia Park", built before the First World War, when Germany was going to host the failed VI Olympic Games of 1916, a grandiose project for that time was developed. The plan included the construction of an 86,000-seat stadium, a separate hockey stadium, a riding arena, swimming pool, open sports arena and the Olympic Village with 140 cottages.
It wasn't just the builders who were preparing. Branches of the NSDAP, the German Ministry of the Interior and the Berlin police issued a lot of orders and regulations, which ordered, from June 1 to September 15, to remove all anti-Semitic slogans, and it was forbidden to use prisoners in work carried out near roadways. On July 16, 1936, an anti-Gypsy raid took place, about 800 Gypsies - residents of Berlin and its environs - were arrested and placed in a special camp Marzahn (Berlin-Marzahn). They didn’t forget about the burghers - “every house owner must keep the front garden in impeccable order.”
In Berlin, all signs of anti-Semitism completely disappeared, members of the IOC audit commission were able to meet with Jewish athletes, who, naturally, assured them of their complete freedom to play sports in the new Germany. Two weeks after the end of the games, everything will return to normal.
3. Construction.
The development of the project and construction of the Olympic complex was carried out by the architect Werner March ( Werner Julius March) between 1934 and 1936, the construction of the stadium alone cost 77 million marks. The original design of the stadium had a metal frame, but Hitler, who preferred other materials, succeeded in replacing the metal with natural stone, which gave the appearance of the stadium an antique character. Here the “Theory of the Value of Ruins” of the Fuhrer’s favorite architect Albert Speer played a role, according to which “modern buildings assembled from building structures [...] were not very suitable to become a “bridge of tradition”, which, according to Hitler, should have been transferred to future generations: it is inconceivable that rusting heaps of rubble would evoke the heroic inspiration that delighted Hitler in the monuments of the past [Therefore, it was necessary] to create such structures, the ruins of which in centuries or (as we hoped) in millennia would correspond to the Roman ruins." .
The theory was tested in 1945 - the stadium building survived.
4. Opening.
“On August 1, to the solemn ringing of the Olympic bell, Hitler opened the games, surrounded by kings, princes, ministers and numerous honored guests. When the former Olympic champion Marphonian from Greece Spyridon Louis handed him an olive branch as a “symbol of love and peace,” the choir sang the anthem written by Richard Strauss and flocks of doves of peace soared into the sky. This picture of a reconciled planet created by Hitler fit well with the fact that some of the teams entering the stadium (including the French who had just been subjected to provocation) raised their hands in the air as they passed by the stands. a fascist salute, which they later, making up for points in terms of resistance, willingly declared the “Olympic salutation.”
Joachim Fest, "Hitler. Biography", book. 6, ch. 2.
5. Game statistics.
The Olympics lasted from August 1 to August 16, 1936.
Number of athletes - 4066 (3738 men, 328 women). 129 sets of medals were played in 19 sports. The number of participating countries is 49. Afghanistan, Bermuda, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Liechtenstein and Peru were represented for the first time - the USSR did not participate in the Olympic movement until 1952.
6. Awards.
7. Awards are not for everyone.
The first two degrees were awarded for exceptional merits in organizing the games, the 3rd for merits during their holding. Both German and foreign citizens were allowed to receive the award.
The number of those awarded 1st and 2nd degrees is 767 people, 3rd - 3,364.
8. Book “Olympia 1936”
Album "Olympia" -1936", published in a circulation of 600 thousand copies (series "Z igaretten - Bilderdist ", published for propaganda purposes. Contrary to what is constantly stated, black athletes are set up as examples for German youth.
Most of the b/w photographic materials about the Olympics are from the album.
9. Leni Riefenstahl. "Olympia"
The Olympic competitions became the material for the creation of a masterpiece of documentary filmmaking - the film by Leni Riefenstahl ( Leni Riefenstahl) “Olympia” (Olympia, 1938).
Film Awards:
1938
- German state prize;
1938
- The main prize of the Venice Film Festival (which was previously modestly called the “Mussolini Cup”) for the best film; also prizes in Sweden and Greece;
1938
- Gold medal of the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games from the International Olympic Committee (which Leni Riefenstahl received only in 2001, at the age of 99).
1948
- Gold medal of the Olympic Committee (and this was after the war);
1948
- Olympic diploma from the Lausanne International Film Festival;
1956
- Included in the top ten best films of all time (I don’t know why).
Nevertheless, I recommend watching it - you won’t regret it.
10. Achievements.
The show shown at the Olympics36 was a huge success with spectators. Germany celebrated its victory at the XI Olympics - German athletes won the largest number of medals, German hospitality and brilliant organization received universal recognition from the guests. Many newspaper reports echoed the laudatory articles from the New York Times. , who noted that the games “brought Germany back into the fold of nations” and even made it “more humane.”
They swallowed the bait completely.
11. Mythology of the Olympics.
A legend persistently associated with the 1936 Olympics is that Hitler refused to shake the hand of Jesse Owens, a black American athlete who won 4 gold medals. Some go even further, reporting that after his victory in the race, Hitler allegedly defiantly left Olympic Stadium. Alas, this is not true. It's simple - before the procedure for awarding the winners, the Olympic Committee told Hitler that when presenting medals to the winners, he must either shake hands with everyone or none. The Fuhrer chose the second option*.
________________________________________ _____________
*- from the book Georges Bernage, "Berlin. 1945"
, Heimdal, 2005
In the photographs of the album " Olympia -1936", pages 17, 23, 26, 27 and 29, the camera focuses on black athletes.
12. "Defeat? No!"
The victories of African-American athletes have always been presented as a complete defeat of the bad Nazi racial ideology before democracies Western civilization(and this despite the discrimination against blacks in the then America of the 30s). They say that the Olympic Games were supposed to be held under the sign of the superiority of the Aryan race and demonstrate to all honest people the correctness of their racial theories. For goodness sake, to achieve this, you need to win ALL OLYMPIC MEDALS in all sports - no one ever set such a crazy task for the German national team.
What a Jesse Owens!
The main task of the games is to demonstrate the advantages of totalitarianism against the backdrop of the crisis of the 30s, to gain the souls of future fellow collaborators, to recruit a potential “fifth column” before the coming conquest of Europe, and if possible, the rest of the racially inferior world. The second goal is to attach a beautiful sports display to the huge arsenal of weapons that Germany was already turning into.
And both tasks were brilliantly accomplished.
13. XIIOlympic Games "40.
Germany attacked Poland on September 1, 1939 - just three years later, the “hospitable” and “peace-loving” organizer of the Olympic Games unleashed World War II. The next Olympics were planned for Tokyo. Instead of the promised sports competitions, On December 7, 1941, the Japanese staged Pearl Harbor in America.
14. Photos of the Olympics.
49 countries. 4066 athletes (331 women). 19 sports. Leaders in the unofficial team competition: 1. Germany (33-26-30); 2. USA (24-20-12); 3. Hungary (10-1-5)
Eleven cities on three continents applied for the organization of the Games of the XI Olympiad in 1936: nine European, four of them from one country - Germany: Berlin, Cologne, Nuremberg and Frankfurt am Main; the capital of Hungary is Budapest, the capital of Italy is Rome, the capital of Ireland is Dublin and two cities from other parts of the world: Egyptian - Alexandria and Argentinean - Buenos Aires. For the first time, so many cities competed for the honor of organizing the Olympics. In 1932, the IOC granted the right to host the Olympics to Berlin. Let us remember that this happened a year before the Nazis came to power in Germany.
But intensive preparations for the Games began already under the Nazi regime. However, even before the start of the Games it became obvious in what atmosphere they would be held. The German leadership decided to prove to the whole world the correctness of its racial theories. The Olympics were supposed to be a triumph for blond "supermans." They were the ones who were supposed to be the most capable, strong, fast, and dexterous. To achieve this, absolutely every means was used. Berlin is decorated with imperial luxury. Centuries-old linden trees were dug up from Unter den Linden Boulevard and replaced with a forest of silk banners with swastikas, and the trees were replanted in a circle around the newly built Olympic Village, which later became a model for all subsequent ones. Olympic villages. The stadium was built new, with the latest technology, for 100 thousand seats.
In order to eclipse all previous Games in terms of the scope of the competition and the number of participants, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Propaganda were placed at the service of the Olympics. To attract foreign tourists, a whole army of special emissaries was sent abroad. As a result, the Olympics were a colossal success with spectators: about 4 million fans came to see them. Journalists from 41 countries worked in the German capital. The convening of various events in Berlin was timed to coincide with the Olympic Games. international congresses and meetings. On the streets and squares of the German capital there are flags with swastikas and five olympic rings. The Nazis took every measure to turn the Olympics into a powerful propaganda demonstration. The American magazine Christian Century wrote at the time that “the Nazis are using the fact of holding the Olympics for propaganda purposes to convince the German people of the power of fascism, and foreigners of its virtue.”
A record number of athletes (4066) from 49 countries attended the XI Olympic Games. Afghanistan, Bermuda, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Liechtenstein, and Peru were represented for the first time. For the first time, the Olympic Games were broadcast on television. Twenty-five large screens were installed in various places in Berlin, and people could freely watch the Olympic Games. A torch relay and a grand parade of participants were held. The winner of the marathon competition of the 1st Olympics, Spiridon Louis, was invited as a guest of honor.
The hosts fielded the largest team - 406 people. They participated in all types of programs and decided to take first place in the unofficial team competition at any cost. The Games program included sports that are widespread in Germany: handball, kayaking and canoeing, and sports competitions were resumed. women's gymnastics. An art competition was also organized, in which the majority of gold medals (5 out of 9) were awarded to German participants. All this allowed the German team to take overall first place in the number of medals won.
Despite the overall success of the German team, the Olympic Games rejected Nazi racial theory. After all, the Berlin Olympics, according to the Nazis, was supposed to be a demonstration of the overwhelming superiority of athletes of Aryan origin. But these plans were not destined to come true. On the USA track and field team, ten blacks placed six first, three second and two third. The famous black athlete, the great sprinter of all time, Jesse Owens, was recognized as the hero of the 1936 Games, and the XI Olympic Games are called the “Jesse Owens Olympics.” The capital of Nazi Germany was forced to give the laurels of the best athlete in the world to a black athlete.
Legends began to form about Jesse Owens even in those years when he participated in competitions. Because, perhaps, it was not in history athletics no one who could compare with him. At the Berlin Olympics, he won four gold medals, and this is considered the pinnacle of his sports career.
But before that, Jesse had one more day that brought him world fame. Within 45 minutes on May 25, 1935, while competing in the town of Ann Arbor (Michigan), Owens set five world records and repeated another record. Events unfolded like this: 15 hours 15 minutes - Owens repeats the world's highest achievement in the 100-yard dash - 9.4 seconds; 15 hours 25 minutes - in his first and only attempt at the long jump competition, he flies 8 m 13 cm; 15 hours 45 minutes - 20.3 seconds. at a distance of 220 yards in a straight line, and as the race progressed, Owens also set a record for 200 m; 16 hours - 22.6 sec. at 220 yards with hurdles, plus, again, he also has a record at a two-hundred-meter distance. And all this in 45 minutes! The world has never seen anything like it!
When James Cleveland Owens, the tenth child, was born into a large black family in Cleveland, Alabama, nothing seemed to foretell that he would become a great athlete. IN early childhood the boy did not stand out in anything, except, perhaps, for his impeccable muscles and amazing self-control. At the age of fourteen, in school, without any understanding of light technology athletics, he ran 220 yards in 22.9 seconds. This was an amazing result for a beginner, and coach Charles Riley even decided that his stopwatch was broken. When James was fifteen years old, he jumped 185 centimeters in height and 680 centimeters in length. But his sporting interests were not limited to athletics. He played football and baseball well and was captain of the school basketball team. When successes came in sports, offers began to come from various universities: everyone wanted to get a talented athlete. In the fall of 1933, Owens entered Ohio State University.
Owens arrived in Berlin already in a halo of glory and, naturally, aroused special interest. He competed in the 100-meter race in Berlin four times and was always first.
Preliminary races were held on Sunday. Jesse repeated the world record of 10.3 seconds. In the quarterfinals, he ran the 100m dash in 10.2 seconds with a tailwind. The victorious final took place on Monday. Prelims in the 200-meter dash and long jump are on Tuesday morning. Owens casually breaks two Olympic records.
That evening, Hitler appears on the podium. He hopes to see the handsome blond German athlete Lutz Long on the top step of the podium, whose battle with Owens in the long jump was very stubborn. In the last, fifth attempt, Long makes a magnificent jump - 7 meters 87 centimeters. The Olympic record set by Owens this morning was broken by 4 centimeters. To the roar of wild applause, Long stands tall and raises his hand in a Nazi salute to the Fuhrer. But Owens jumps after that. Run-up and fantastic result- 8 meters 6 centimeters! New olympic record! The thunder of applause shakes the stadium.
Wednesday is the final of the 200m race. No one doubted Jesse Owens' victory. And before the start he goes to shake hands with his opponents and wish them happiness in a good way. Once again, the audience sees this cat-like leap, a rapid forward rush, after which it seems that his opponents are standing still. The result is 20.7 seconds. New Olympic record.
And on Sunday, in the 4 x 100 meter relay final, Jesse earned his fourth gold medal, setting a new world record with his teammates of 39.8 seconds, which would not be broken until twenty years later. The Fuhrer left the stadium in irritation when he saw that a black athlete had won his fourth gold medal - more than all German athletes combined.
In August 1936 there was not a person in Berlin who did not know this name. The Germans pronounced it with playful delight, not Owens, but O, Vance!, not Jesse, but Wessy. Fair-haired Aryan boys tremblingly handed him papers for autographs and followed on his heels. His shy smile and his gentlemanly attitude towards his opponents captivated the Berliners.
If you touch overall results in athletics, the US athletes won by a clear margin. American team received 14 gold medals, and the German only 5. All short running disciplines The Americans won, and the long (3000 hurdles, 5000 and 10000 meters) Finnish athletes won. The winner of the marathon was the Japanese athlete Kitei Son (in fact, it was the Korean athlete Sohn Kee-chung. In Berlin, he was forced to compete using a Japanese name, since Korea was occupied by Japan). Another very prestigious one gold medal along with the world and Olympic record in the decathlon went to the American Glenn Maurice.
All 5 gold medals for German athletes in athletics came from throwers. For men, they won the shot put (Hans Welke), javelin (Gerhard Steck) and hammer (Karl Hein) competitions. In women Olympic champion became Gisela Mauermeier in the discus throw and Tilly Fleischer in the javelin throw. To win, they needed to finish the competition with Olympic records.
In his book Mein Kampf, Hitler gave a clear advantage to boxing: “No other sport is so capable of developing aggressiveness, speed of decision-making and strengthening the body, making it strong and agile.” However, in Berlin, German boxers stood on the podium only twice.
But in rowing, 5 out of 7 gold medals were won by German athletes. The Germans lost to the US team in the eight-man race, winning only bronze. Another misfire of the German rowers occurred at the double sculls competition. The Englishmen Jack Beresford and Leslie Southwood excelled there. The German team received silver here. They had a clear advantage in equestrian sports and in modern pentathlon.
Three gold medals in cycling were on the account of the Frenchman Robert Charpentier - for the 100 km road race in the individual and team championships, as well as for winning the team pursuit race at a distance of 4000 m.
In fencing, the medals were shared between the teams of Hungary and Italy. The Italians won both individual and team competitions in foil and epee fencers, and the Hungarian team and its representative Andrew Kabos became champions in saber fencing. The hero of the fencing tournament was the Italian athlete G. Gaudini, who received two gold medals for victories in personal and team competitions foil fencers and became a silver medalist as part of the saber fence team. This athlete successfully competed at the Olympics in 1928 - gold and bronze medals, and in 1932 - three silver and bronze medals; in the period from 1929 to 1938 he became the world champion in foil fencing 10 times, of which twice in personal championship.
But the Hungarian team won the water polo competition in a bitter struggle with the German team. Can you imagine the emotions in the stands and in the pool?
The Americans won both the men's and women's diving events. They won five out of six medals, losing only one bronze medal in diving from the tower. The women's ski jumping was won by 13-year-old Majori Gestring. She became the youngest Olympic champion.
Swedish wrestler Ivar Johansson, winner of the 1932 Olympics in two types of wrestling, won the classical style championship in Berlin. Estonian heavyweight Christian Palusalu won two gold medals, he won the tournament in Greco-Roman wrestling and a freestyle wrestling tournament.
The Indian field hockey team won the third Olympics in a row (1928, 1932 and 1936). In its composition, Richard Allen and Dhyan Chang (1906-1979) became three-time Olympic champions. After the latter's death in 1980, India Post commemorated his outstanding achievement by issuing a postage stamp.
Despite the high sports results and the wide participation of athletes, the XI Olympic Games were held in a difficult atmosphere. This fact is also recognized by the IOC. Its newsletter, dedicated to the 60th anniversary of the Olympic movement, said: “A strong spirit of militarism and Nazism dominated these Games.” · The political content of the 1936 Games set a precedent for the Cold War Olympic Games, which largely contributed to the same goal: political differences between East and West turned the Games of a number of Olympics from 1952-1988 into a kind of platform for demonstrating the superiority of their own "system and political ambitions.
Garmisch-Partenkirchen (Germany)
The last pre-war White Games are considered successful from an organizational point of view and controversial from a political point of view.
In 1936, both the Summer and Winter Olympics were held by Hitler's Nazi regime, which used sports forums to promote their ideas. The International Olympic Committee resisted the pressure of the Nazis sluggishly, and if history summer games in Berlin is still accompanied by a scandalous train, the action at the Bavarian resort in Garmisch-Partenkirchen was extremely successful for the hosts. Collaboration with Hitler in the 1930s is a disgraceful stain on the reputation of the Olympic movement, so chronicles tend to focus on the sporting aspects of the 1936 White Games and say almost nothing about the atmosphere around the competition.
| Z | WITH | B | Total | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Norway | 7 | 5 | 3 | 15 |
| 2 | Germany | 3 | 3 | 0 | 6 |
| 3 | Sweden | 2 | 2 | 3 | 7 |
| 4 | Finland | 1 | 2 | 3 | 6 |
| 5 | Switzerland | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 |
Venue: Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany
February 6 - 16, 1936
Number of participating countries - 28
Number of participating athletes - 668 (80 women, 588 men)
Medal sets - 17
Winner overall standings— Norway
Three main characters of the Games according to SE
Ivar Ballangrud (Norway),
skating
James Foster (Great Britain)
hockey
Franz Pfnur (Germany),
alpine skiing
THE JEWISH QUESTION
Germany received the Olympics (at that time the summer and winter Games were distributed in one bottle) back in 1931, during the Weimar Republic, and this decision of the IOC at first did not carry any serious risks. But starting in 1933, when Hitler became Chancellor and the Nazis began to seize power, the Olympic bosses had plenty of opportunities to stop and not get involved in a project that was starting to smell more and more bad every day.
However, IOC President Henri de Bayeux-Latour was content with only written guarantees from the German authorities, who promised to protect the Olympics from propaganda of a “political, racial, national and religious nature.” And the founder of the Olympic movement, Pierre de Coubertin, according to some sources, generally spoke extremely favorably of the German organizing committee, protecting it from attacks with his authority.
When in 1935, one of the English journalists photographed a notice on the street of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, “Jews have no place here,” and this photograph was replicated in newspapers around the world, a scandal erupted. Some sports figures started talking about boycotting the Games, but Bayeux-Latour quickly agreed with the Germans that all anti-Semitic inscriptions would be removed during the Olympics. In addition, the German national hockey team demonstratively included a player of Jewish origin, Rudolf Bahl, in its roster. Shortly before the 1936 Games, he emigrated to France, but the Germans persuaded him to return and then used this precedent to create the illusion among foreigners that there was no persecution of Jews in the Third Reich. Although, just in case, foreign photographers were prohibited from working at the Olympics.
The boycott idea fizzled out. Only a few athletes refused to go to the Winter Games, among the most famous were speed skaters - American Jack Shea (champion of Lake Placid 1932) and Norwegian Bernt Eversen (champion of St. Moritz 1928), as well as French figure skaters Andre and Pierre Brunet (two-time Olympic champions). Moreover, only Shi motivated his decision with the “Jewish question.” Brunet simply ended his amateur career, and Eversen, along with another former Norwegian Olympian Haakon Pedersen, chose to compete at Winter Spartakiad workers, which took place in February 1936 in Oslo and brought together proletarians from Norway, Finland, Sweden and the Soviet Union.
THE FURER FACTOR
THE NORWEGIANS ARE BACK
Debut in Olympic program Alpine skiing is another historical event of Garmisch-Partenkirchen 1936. True, it was overshadowed by a scandal related to the exclusion of mountain resort instructors from the Games, who for some reason were registered as professionals. As a sign of protest, the strongest ski teams of Switzerland and Austria boycotted the Olympics at that time. However, some of the Austrians still competed at the Olympics under the German flag, and one of them, Gustav Lanschner, even won a silver medal.
But the successes of the hosts on the mountain slopes paled before the feat of figure skater Ernst Bayer, who took second place among single skaters and became first in the pairs competition in a duet with 15-year-old Maxi Herber. Moreover, Bayer was twice the age of his partner.
In the absence of Jack Shea, Bernt Eversen, as well as the strong Soviet speed skater Yakov Melnikov (winner of the workers' Olympics in Oslo), the Norwegian Ivar Ballangrud had no equal on the ice track at the 1936 Olympics, adding four Garmisch awards to the three medals of St. Moritz and Lake Placid. -Partenkirchen - three gold and one silver. The successes of Ballangrud and 10 more medals earned by the Norwegians in cross-country skiing, ski jumping and combined events allowed the founders winter sports easily regain the first place in the team standings, lost four years earlier in Lake Placid.
And the main sports sensation of the last pre-war Winter Games was brought by the hockey tournament, which the British team unexpectedly won. The architect of this success was Barney Ahern, Secretary General of the British Hockey Federation, who, on the eve of the Olympics, managed to obtain a list of all Canadian amateur players born in England and Scotland. Some of them agreed to represent their historical homeland in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, which they left as children. Fortunately, all residents of Canada were de jure subjects of the English crown. As a result, the Maple Leafs, who had come for another easy victory, faced a more than combat-ready team, in which almost all the hockey players studied hockey in Canada.
The decisive match was the second round, in which Great Britain beat Canada with a score of 2:1 - Edgar Brenchley scored the decisive goal two minutes before the end of the match. According to the regulations, the result of this match was taken into account in the final round, which for some reason the Maple Leaves did not know about. The US team had a chance to take gold from the British, but even three overtimes did not help the Americans break through the islanders' goalkeeper James Foster (the Glasgow native missed only three goals in seven matches at the Olympic tournament!). The States had one last chance in the match with Canada, but the “Maple Leaves” did not want to cede the Olympic title to their neighbors, sending the “British werewolves” to first place. This was the last title in the history of the British hockey team - after the war, this country will finally disappear from the world elite.
Three weeks after the end of the Olympics in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, German troops will enter the Rhineland demilitarized zone, marking the beginning of the world's slide into World War II. More than ten participants in the 1936 Winter Games from the German and Finnish national teams would die a few years later on the Eastern Front - mainly on the territory of the Soviet Union and Poland.
Oleg SHAMONAYEV
FIGURES AND FACTS
At the IV Winter Olympic Games, 6 of the 28 participating countries were debutants - Australia, Bulgaria, Greece, Spain, Liechtenstein and Turkey. Thus, of the five Olympic continents, only Africa was not represented by athletes: 24 countries participated from Europe, 2 from America, 1 from Asia and Australia and Oceania.
After missing the 1932 Games, Holland, Latvia, Estonia and Yugoslavia again took part in the competition.
17 sets of awards were awarded in 8 sports. For the first time at the games there were competitions in skiing: medals were played for men and women in combination - downhill and slalom. And to the program cross-country skiing a 4x10 km relay was added.
Finland won the first Olympic ski relay. The Norwegians came second, the Swedes rounded out the top three. The most interesting was the fight on last stage. The Norwegians were more than a minute ahead of the Finns. However, Finnish skier Kalle Jalkanen closed the gap with an incredible effort and then overtook Norway's Bjarne Iversen. As a result, Jalkanen became the first hero of the White Olympics to have a postage stamp issued in his honor.
The hero of the Olympics was speed skater Ivar Ballangrud, who won gold at distances of 500, 5000 and 10,000 m and silver at 1500 m.
Norwegian Laila Shaw-Nielsen, being the current world record holder for speed skating at distances of 500, 1000, 1500, 3000 and 5000 m, could not take part in this event - women's disciplines were not yet included in the Games program. Then she took part in alpine skiing competitions and won bronze.
Norway's Sonja Henie won her third Olympic Games in a row in the women's figure skating. Shortly after the Games, she joined American professional ice ballet.
The hockey competitions brought together a record number of teams for the Olympics - 15. Moreover, the teams of Italy, Japan and Latvia competed at Winter Games for the first time. Because of large quantity It was decided to hold the competition participants in three stages.
IN hockey tournament lesions on preliminary stage Canada from Great Britain and the USA from Italy (both 1:2) became the first losses of North Americans from European teams in the history of the World Championships and Olympic Games.
The head coach of the British team was the future president of the International Ice Hockey Federation (from 1957 to 1975), John Ahern.
Hitler's state policy towards the Jews almost put an end to the Games in Germany, but the Fuhrer decided that a demonstration of the power and fortitude of the Aryans would be good propaganda for his ideas. Adolf unconditionally believed in the superiority of his athletes and allocated 20 million Reichsmarks for the Olympics.
The world community has serious doubts about the advisability of competitions of this level in Germany. They argued that the very idea of the Olympic Movement denied any restrictions on the participation of athletes on religious or racial grounds. But many athletes and politicians did not support the boycott.
In 1934, IOC officials visited Berlin, which, however, was thoroughly “cleaned” before this visit, removing all signs of anti-Semitism. The commission also talked with athletes of Jewish origin, who convinced the inspectors of their freedom. Although the IOC gave a positive verdict, many athletes did not go to these Games.
Numerous guests who visited Berlin during the Olympics did not notice the manifestations of German anti-Semitism, so carefully did Hitler hide all the posters, leaflets, and brochures with anti-Jewish content. The Aryan team even included one athlete of Jewish origin - fencing champion Helena Mayer.
The people of Berlin were hospitable to foreign Olympic athletes. The city was decorated with Nazi symbols, and numerous military personnel were hidden from prying eyes. Representatives of the world press wrote rave reviews about the organization of the Games in Berlin. Even the most suspicious and insightful could not discern the whole truth, and yet at that time the Oranienburg concentration camp was filling up in one of the suburbs of the German capital.
The opening ceremony of the Olympics was held pompously and on an unprecedented scale. The Fuhrer did his best and threw dust in the eyes of numerous guests of the capital. He personally released 20 thousand snow-white doves at the stadium. A huge zeppelin was circling in the sky with Olympic flag, the guns fired deafeningly. Athletes from 49 countries marched in front of stunned and joyful spectators.
Germany had the largest team - 348 athletes, 312 people were represented by the USA. Soviet Union did not take part in these Games.
The results of the XI Olympiad pleased Hitler. German athletes received 33 golds, leaving other athletes far behind. The Fuhrer received confirmation of the “superiority” of the Aryans. But the Jewish fencer also achieved success and took second place, other athletes of Semitic origin won medals and performed successfully. This conflicted with Hitler's ideas and was a tangible fly in the ointment that spoiled his joy.
Nazi dogma was also shaken by the undoubted success of a black athlete from the United States, a running and jumping specialist, Jess Owens. The American team won 56 medals, and 14 of them were won by African Americans. Jess took three gold medals at the Berlin Olympics and became a real hero.
Hitler refused to congratulate Owens or any other dark-skinned athlete. The successes of this athlete were hushed up in the German press; only the Aryans were extolled there. There is no denying the success of the German Olympians - they were amazing!
Time: August 2 - 9, 1936
Number of disciplines: 29
Number of countries: 43
Number of athletes: 776
men: 678
women: 98
Youngest participant: Ko Nakamura-Yoshino (Japan, age: 16, 104 days)
Oldest Member: Percy Wyer (Canada, age: 52, 199 days)
Medal winning countries: USA (25)
Medal-winning athletes: Jesse Owens USA (4)
The 1936 Olympics was a huge success with spectators: about 4 million fans came to see 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, and a full-length film was filmed documentary Leni Riefenstahl "Olympia"
A newsletter was issued every day and was received by 3,690 newspapers and magazines on different continents. The next flight across the Atlantic of the 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, which has existed since 1928, and for the first time the flame was carried from Olympia by runners passing the torch like a relay baton. This marked the beginning of the tradition of the Olympic Torch Relay.
The games set a new record for the number of participants.
In the unofficial team competition, German athletes won for the first time with 33 gold medals, 26 silver, 30 bronze.
Despite the success of the German team, the Olympics erased Nazi racial theories. For example, in track and field competitions, six first, three second and two third places were taken by black Americans, and best athlete The Games were announced by one of them - the great sprinter of all time, American Jesse Owens: he won the 100 and 200 m races, received the third gold in the 4x100 m relay, and the fourth in the long jump (he was the first in the history of athletics to overcome line 8 m - 8 m 06 cm).
The Berlin Games were called the “Jesse Owens Olympics.”
The Americans again won the high jump. 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 took bronze.
The pole vault competition was exciting. They lasted more than 12 hours. Only late in the evening, under the light of spotlights (which was a novelty then), was the name of the winner and the new Olympic record holder finally announced: American Earl Meadows jumped 4 m 35 cm. Suhei Nishida and Suoe Oe from Japan shared second and third places with an equal result - 4 m 25 cm. The announcement that the athletes decided to divide the medals by sawing them into halves caused excitement in the stadium.
