Carney 4/3/15 The Politics of the Olympics of 1936 In the precarious time period between the World Wars, it would be assumed that a peaceful, nation-unifying event such as the Olympics would be just the escape the world needed from the politics that dominated every aspect of life. Instead of an escape from politics, however, the 1936 Nazi Games became controlled by politics and was a vehicle for every country’s agenda, especially the rising Nazi party in Germany. The Nazi Games, inspired by the past,
films captured the Nazi ideals by specific use of camera angles, shots, and content. Riefenstahl’s footage portrays Hitler as a ‘deific Führer’, which would have added to the already growing opinion of Hitler as the saviour of Germany. The source also disregards any possibility of Riefenstahl not producing these films under Joseph Goebbels’ (and therefore Hitler’s) orders, and it therefore disregards the possibility of the films being anything other than propaganda pieces for the Nazi regime. The source
Nazi Olympics Jesse Owens, Louis Zamperini, and many others were the stars of the Olympic Games of 1936. Jewish discrimination and Nazism were raging all through Europe, but that did not stop Jews from competing. Hitler thought the games would be a perfect opportunity to show off Nazism and Nazi Germany. He thought that the games would only be a German showcase, so he could show off all of Germany’s talent, but other countries dominated in sports. Jews even dominated in some sports. Jesse Owens