The Berlin Olympics

Jesse Owens, Olympic games 1936
Photograph: AP

The summer of 1936 was no time to stir up a new anti-Semitic campaign. In August, the Olympic Games were due to be staged in Berlin. Sport would be turned into a vehicle of nationalist politics and propaganda as never before. With the eyes of the world on Berlin, it was an opportunity not to be missed to present the new Germany's best face to its hundreds of thousands of visitors. No expense or effort had been spared in this cause. The positive image could not be endangered by putting the 'dark' side of the regime on view.

With some difficulties, anti-Semitism was kept under wraps. Manifestations thought distasteful for foreign visitors, such as anti-Jewish notices – 'Jews not wanted here', and other vicious formulations – at the roadside at the entry to towns and villages, had already been removed. The anti-Semitic zealots in the Party had temporarily to be reined in. Other objectives were for the time being more important. Hitler could afford to bide his time in dealing with the Jews.

The whole of Berlin was wreathed in swastika banners on 1 August as the arrival of the Olympic torch signalled, amid spectacular ceremonial, the commencement of Hitler's Olym0pics. Overhead, the massive airship Hindenburg trailed the Olympic flag. In the stadium, a crowd of 110,000 people had assembled in great expectation. Over a million others, it was estimated, unable to get tickets, lined the Berlin streets for a glimpse of their Leader as a cavalcade of black limousines conveyed Hitler with other dignitaries and honoured guests to the newly-designed high temple of sport. As he entered the great arena that afternoon, a fanfare of thirty trumpets sounded. The world-famous composer, Richard Strauß, clad in white, conducted a choir of 3,000 in the singing of the national anthem, 'Deutschland, Deutschland über alles', and the Nazi Party's own anthem, the 'Horst-Wessel-Lied', before conducting the new 'Olympic Hymn' which he had composed specially for the occasion. As the music faded, the giant Olympic bell began to toll, announcing the parade of the competing athletes that then followed. Many national delegations offered the Nazi salute as they passed Hitler's dais; the British and Americans demonstrably refrained from doing so. All around the stadium, cameras whirred.

At last, the opening ceremonials out of the way, the Games were underway. During the following two weeks, a glittering display of sporting prowess unfolded. Amid the notable achievements in the intense competition, none compared with the towering performance of the black American athlete, Jesse Owens, winner of four gold medals. Hitler, famously, did not shake Owens' hand in congratulations. It was never intended that he should. Count Baillet-Latour, President of the International Olympic Committee, had politely informed Hitler that as a guest of honour of the Committee, if the most important one, it was not in line with protocol for him to congratulate the winners. That he would nevertheless have been prepared to snub Owens can be inferred from what he apparently said to Baldur von Schirach, the Hitler Youth leader, that the Americans should be ashamed at letting their medals be won by Negroes, and that he would never have shaken hands with one of them. At Schirach's suggestion that he be photographed alongside Jesse Owen, Hitler was said to have exploded in rage at what he saw as a gross insult.

Alongside the sporting events, the Nazi leadership lost no opportunity to impress prominent visiting dignitaries with extravagant shows of hospitality. Joachim von Ribbentrop, just appointed by Hitler to be the new Ambassador in London, entertained hundreds of important foreign guests in lavish style at his elegant villa in Dahlem. Reich Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels threw a huge reception with an Italian theme and spectacular firework display for over a thousand notable visitors – more than half of them from abroad – on the lovely Pfaueninsel (Peacock Island) in the Havel (the wide expanse of water to the north-west of Berlin), linked for the occasion to the mainland by specially built pontoon bridges.

Hermann Göring, head of the Luftwaffe and recognised as the second man in the state, outdid all others in his festive extravaganza. The well-heeled and highly impressionable Conservative MP, Sir Henry 'Chips' Channon, attended an unforgettable party: 'The end of the garden was in darkness and, suddenly, with no warning, it was floodlit and a procession of white horses, donkeys and peasants, appeared from nowhere, and we were led into an especially built Luna Park. It was fantastic, roundabouts, cafés with beer and champagne, peasants dancing and 'schuhplattling' vast women carrying bretzels and beer, a ship, a beerhouse, crowds of gay, laughing people, animals. … The music roared, the astonished guest wandered about. "There has never been anything like this since the days of Louis Quatorze", somebody remarked. "Not since Nero", I retorted …'

However magnificent the stadium, however spectacular the ceremonials, however lavish the hospitality, it would have been embarrassing for Hitler, and for national pride, had the German performance at the Games been a poor one. There was no need for concern. The German athletes – much to Hitler's delight – turned the Games into a national triumph. They won more medals than the athletes of any other country. This did nothing to harm the nation's belief in its own superiority.