1936 Winter Olympics

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.

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.^[1]

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.^[2]

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. "I had written... 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."^[3]

 

None of the member nations boycotted the Winter Games, and 49 in all participated, the greatest number at that time.^[4] 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.^[5] 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.^[4]

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

This has been a more pleasant interlude than I expected. ... On the whole the Nazis have done a wonderful propaganda job. They've greatly impressed most of the visiting foreigners with the lavish but smooth way in which they've run the games and with their kind manners, which to us who came from Berlin of course seemed staged. I was so alarmed at this that I gave a luncheon for some of our businessmen and invited Douglas Miller, our commercial attaché in Berlin, and the best-informed man on Germany we have in our embassy, to enlighten them a little. But they told him what things were like, and Doug scarcely got a word in. ... Back to Berlin tomorrow to the grind of covering Nazi politics."^[6]

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.

• 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 won men's alpine and Christl Cranz won the women's alpine event.
• 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 (3.9 in) diameter, 4 mm (0.16 in) thick and weighing 324 g (11.4 oz).

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

•   Bobsleigh (2) (details)
•   Ice hockey (1) (details)
• Skating
  •   Figure skating (3) (details)
  •   Speed skating (4) (details)
• Skiing
  •   Alpine skiing (2) (details)
  •   Nordic skiing (details)
    •   Cross-country skiing (3) (details)
    •   Nordic combined (1) (details)
    •   Ski jumping (1) (details)

• Military patrol
• Ice stock sport

• 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

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.

IOC Letter Code	Country	Athletes
AUT	Austria	60
GER	Germany	55
USA	United States	55
TCH	Czechoslovakia	48
ITA	Italy	40
GBR	Great Britain	38
JPN	Japan	38
SUI	Switzerland	34
SWE	Sweden	32
NOR	Norway	30
CAN	Canada	29
FRA	France	28
BEL	Belgium	27
LAT	Latvia	26
HUN	Hungary	25
POL	Poland	20
FIN	Finland	19
ROM	Romania	19
YUG	Yugoslavia	17
NED	Netherlands	8
BUL	Bulgaria	7
EST	Estonia	7
ESP	Spain	6
TUR	Turkey	6
LIE	Liechtenstein	4
LUX	Luxembourg	4
AUS	Australia	1
GRE	Greece	1
Total	646

 

  *   Host nation (Germany)

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	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
6	Austria	1	1	2	4
7	Great Britain	1	1	1	3
8	United States	1	0	3	4
9	Canada	0	1	0	1
10	France	0	0	1	1
	Hungary	0	0	1	1
Totals (11 entries)		17	17	17	51

Date	Sport	Event	NOC	Gold	Silver	Bronze
13 February	Nordic combined	Individual	Norway	Oddbjørn Hagen	Olaf Hoffsbakken	Sverre Brodahl
15 February	Cross-country skiing	Men's 50 kilometre	Sweden	Elis Wiklund	Axel Wikström	Nils-Joel Englund

• 1936 Summer Olympics
• Olympic Games held in Germany
  • 1936 Winter Olympics – Garmisch-Partenkirchen
  • 1936 Summer Olympics – Berlin
  • 1972 Summer Olympics – Munich

• List of IOC country codes
• National Socialist League of the Reich for Physical Exercise

Notes

Citations

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to 1936 Winter Olympics.

• "Garmisch-Partenkirchen 1936". Olympics.com. International Olympic Committee.
• Complete official IOC report. In German
• The program of the 1936 Garmisch-Partenkirchen Winter Olympics

• Berlin Games – How Hitler Stole the Olympic Dream, by Guy Walters; ISBN 0719567831 (UK), ISBN 0060874120 (US)