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Olympic Pride
Nationalism at the Berlin and Beijing Games
I
n the Olympic Games of the modern era, host
nations have always had reasons to celebrate their
national pride, but none more so than Germany in
1936 and China in 2008.
By 1936, Germany had recovered from losing
World War I (WWI), and had a prosperous economy.
When Adolf Hitler and his Nazi party won the German
general election in March of 1933, they inherited something they didn’t really want—the 1936 Olympic Games.
The Games had been awarded to Berlin at a meeting of
the International Olympic Committee (IOC) two years
earlier. The selection was seen as an opportunity to welcome Germany back into the international community
after its defeat in WWI.
The Nazi party initially reacted by referring to the
Olympic Games as merely “infamous festivals dominated
by Jews.” Hitler and his followers had little interest in
anything Olympic at that time. But that all changed in October of 1933, when Hitler decided to inspect the Olympic
stadium, which was being renovated for the upcoming
Games. Several high-ranking German officials, including
Dr. Theodor Lewald, the head of the German Olympic
46
TOM ECKER
TOM ECKER is the author of the book Olympic Facts and Fables . He has extensive experience coaching track and field, coaching Western Kentucky University before serving as
the National Coach of Sweden for two years.
Ecker has traveled the world researching the
Olympics and is the author of seventeen other
books.
Organizing Committee, accompanied him.
The stadium had been built in 1913 to host the 1916
Olympics, which were canceled because of WWI. When
Hitler arrived that day, the stadium was undergoing an
expansion, increasing its capacity from 80,000 to 85,000
spectators. When Hitler noticed that the workers were
excavating the floor of the stadium, he asked Lewald why
the workers were digging down. When Lewald answered
it was to provide more seating, Hitler made a surprising
statement:
H A R V A R D I N T E R N A T I O N A L R E V I E W • Summer 2014
Photo Courtesy Reuters