A commemorative T-shirt listed in the official Olympics online store that marks the 1936 Berlin Games under Adolf Hitler’s National Socialist government drew criticism in German media on Wednesday.
The shirt features a laurel-wreathed athlete, the Brandenburg Gate’s quadriga chariot, and basic details such as the dates and location of the Summer Games. It is one of a series of shirts representing each modern-era Games, but many commentators noted the sensitivity of highlighting the 1936 edition — widely regarded as the most politically charged Olympics — even though the garment contains no Nazi symbols or explicit references to Hitler’s regime.
The Games had been awarded to Germany before the Nazis came to power, yet hosting both the winter and summer events in 1936 gave the regime a highly visible international platform. New technologies such as television and radio expanded the reach of Nazi propaganda, and propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels made the Olympics a central propaganda project.
The 1936 Olympics also introduced the first modern Olympic torch relay — an element the International Olympic Committee (IOC) referenced online in 2020, drawing backlash after it included Nazi propaganda footage in its commemoration.
In the run-up to the Games, Nazi authorities sought to present a controlled, respectable image to foreign visitors: antisemitic slogans and graffiti were removed from public view, those labeled “undesirables” were relocated away from the capital, and the racist tabloid Der Stürmer toned down its rhetoric for the occasion. At the same time, broader signs of repression and militarization were already underway: Germany remilitarized the Rhineland, launched a four-year plan preparing the economy and armed forces for war, stripped Roma and Jews of voting rights that March, and appointed SS leader Heinrich Himmler as chief of German police. Internationally, the regime signed pacts with Japan and Italy in 1936 and aided General Francisco Franco’s nationalist forces in Spain’s civil war.
The Berlin Games were a mixed propaganda success. Germany topped the overall medal table, but the United States prevailed in several marquee track-and-field events. After leaving the stadium to avoid shaking the hand of U.S. high jumper Cornelius Johnson, Hitler was warned by the IOC that he must either congratulate all gold medalists or none; he thereafter chose to congratulate none. He therefore never shook the hand of Jesse Owens, the 22-year-old Black American who won four gold medals in Berlin (100 m, 200 m, long jump and the 4×100 m relay).
Edited by: Sean Sinico