page no. 12
Olympic Fire in Berlin 1936
Along the flame’s route to Berlin, ceremonies and festivities were held in its honour in the stopover cities. In Athens, for example, a ceremony attended by the King was held in the Panathenaic Stadium, a sports arena that was used for the first modern Olympic Games in 1896. In Budapest, it was on Heroes’ Square, in front of the tomb of the Unknown Soldier, that the flame was celebrated. The relay reached Berlin on 1 August 1936. Before joining the Opening Ceremony, the flame was used to light a cauldron that burned for the whole of the Games in the Lustgarten, in the city centre.
On 2 August, a flame was lit from that in the Olympic Stadium. It arrived in Kiel the next day, following a relay of 347km with 347 torchbearers. It burned on a boat in the city’s bay, where the sailing events were held.
In May 1934, the International Olympic Committee gave its approval to the idea of transporting a flame from Greece to Berlin. The route passed through the capitals of each of the countries visited.
On 20 July 1936 in Olympia, for this first Olympic torch relay, it was already a parabolic mirror which concentrated the rays of the sun that was used to light the flame.
August 1936
For two weeks in August 1936, Adolf Hitler's Nazi dictatorship camouflaged its racist, militaristic character while hosting the Summer Olympics. Softpedaling its antisemitic agenda and plans for territorial expansion, the regime exploited the Games to bedazzle many foreign spectators and journalists with an image of a peaceful, tolerant Germany.
Germany skillfully promoted the Olympics with colorful posters and magazine spreads. Athletic imagery drew a link between Nazi Germany and ancient Greece. These portrayals symbolized the Nazi racial myth that superior German civilization was the rightful heir of an "Aryan" culture of classical antiquity.
Concerted propaganda efforts continued well after the Olympics with the international release in 1938 of "Olympia," Leni Riefenstahl's controversial film documentary of the Games.