Two years later, in 1933, Hitler came to power. But first, we need you to sign in to PBS using one of the services below. When war broke out in 1939, the prints of Olympia were seized from the German embassy in London. Julius (ed. The 1936 Nazi Olympics "Documentary Trailer (2017) - YouTube On December 4, ... the Fleet Air Arm's most decorated living pilot, stated in a BBC documentary: "I actually witnessed Hitler shaking hands with Jesse Owens and congratulating him on what he had achieved". The result was a cinematic coup, but with sinister overtones The Nazi government commissioned and financed the films. Leni Riefenstahl was the Nazi regime’s most artistic propagandist. The crowd is ecstatic, as is Hitler himself, who is shown applauding his champion. On the 1st August 1936, 100,000 spectators watched as Hitler and the Olympic delegates arrived at the Olympic opening ceremony in Berlin. A defiant Riefenstahl told reporters that she did not believe such things could have happened. Five days later came the horrors of Kristallnacht. Another of Riefenstahl's fleet of cinematographers, Hans Scheib, was responsible for the technically brilliant close-up filming of athletes and spectators in the crowd, achieved with a 600mm Leica lens. He composes himself. 'The English attack, but the Germans are still in the lead," says the commentator as two Olympic rowing fours skim over the rippling water. So besotted was Morris with this "perfect German woman" that he agreed to run another 5,000m the following day, just for her cameras. One of antiquity's most famous statues, Myron's Diskobolos, dissolves into nude Teutonic decathlete Erwin Huber recreating the discus-throwing pose. But, only two weeks after the closing ceremony of the Berlin Games, Hitler secretly instructed his chief aides to prepare for war while the IOC continued courting the Nazi regime. A powerful documentary that stands the test of time to show the extreme gift of one of history's best female directors. Jesse Owens narrates about his 1936 triumph and tells with pride that the flag of the US team was the only one not to be dipped as the athletes passed the Führer. She is also remembered for Olympia, her documentary of the 1936 Olympics. PBS is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization. Copyright © 2021 Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), all rights reserved. A woman under the Nazi regime in Germany, who became one of Adolf Hitler's most prized talents, Leni Riefenstahl created powerfully moving and beautifully visual films showcasing the 1936 olympics which were held in Berlin, Germany during the Nazi regime. Olympic Hockey. The Reich’s security agencies took extensive measures to ensure that there would be no significant signs of political protest. But Germany is stronger. Then it is Owens's last jump. Though these sporting images might in themselves have been neutral, their compilation in Riefenstahl's Olympia subtly underlined a tenet of all authoritarian regimes: that individuals must be turned into machines that act as required, but do not think. But, not only construction workers paid for the Olympic megalomania with their lives - in an effort to “clean up” the Olympic host city, 600 Sinti and Roma were deported out of Berlin and later died in Nazi extermination camps. Hitler delivered what he had promised to the IOC – the greatest Games ever. Sprints. Stephen Hopkins’ 2016 film race dramatises moments from the 1936 Berlin Games – including Jesse Owens’ victories (Credit: Alamy) Olympia Part I: Festival of the Nations and Part II: Festival of Beauty, both released in 1938, represent a tremendous aesthetic and technical cinematic achievement. A… But first, we need you to sign in to PBS using one of the services below. Photograph: The Kobal Collection/www.kobal-collection.com. The name “Leni Riefenstahl” brings to mind the chilling iconography of her propaganda film, Triumph of the Will. ), Global Olympics: Historical and Sociological Studies of the Modern Games. Olympian ideals of peaceful competition and internationalism repulsed the Nazis – as did the prospect of Jewish, Slav or black athletes competing against whites. It is the opposite. But Riefenstahl's Olympia will not go away. At no point do the sportsmen and women in Olympia speak. The only shot that might have raised Nazi eyebrows is when Owens wins the long jump. Glickman was involved in a historic event at the 1936 Berlin Olympics—which has since become obscured—and he will forever be inextricably tied to the emergence of … Villa Mon Repos, former IOC Headquarters in Lausann. Riefenstahl claimed that Goebbels did not want her to show black athletes in the final film but, in the context of Hitler's remarks, it is hard to argue that there was anything subversive about the way she depicted them. Wagner. Clip | 3m 45s It is these staged shots, not Morris's competition run, that have ended up in the film. This timely documentary on the 1936 Berlin Olympics coincides with the official opening of the Rio Summer Games. It's 8.06m, a new Olympic record (Owens already held the world record, having jumped 8.13m in 1935). Beneath his toothbrush moustache, Hitler still smiles. Riefenstahl's inclusion of the occasional German defeat fits squarely with Goebbels' instructions to the German press during the Games, which were to create an impression of Nazi fairmindedness by reporting foreign as well as German victories. This film chronicles the story of how the Nazis and the IOC turned, to their mutual benefit, a small sports event into the modern Olympics. Being treated as less than fully human was, of course, nothing new to Owens. Jesse Owens (C) atop the podium for the long jump at the Berlin 1936 Olympics, alongside Luz Long (R). The saga of the 1936 Olympic games began on 26 May 1930. Olympia is such a striking piece of Nazi pageantry that it is easy to forget Adolf Hitler had not wanted to host the Olympics. Her timing could hardly have been worse. Ken Burns and Lynn Novick explore the writer and his enduring influence. 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.Having rejected a proposed boycott of the 1936 Olympics, the sponsoring athl… Wild though she may have been, the films are utterly compliant. There is perhaps no more famous attempt to create an Olympic legacy than Riefenstahl's Olympia. Owens displaying excellent form during his victory in the long jump at the Berlin Olympics. By creating an account, you acknowledge that PBS may share your information with our member stations and our respective service providers, and that you have read and understand the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. President Franklin D Roosevelt refrained from sending black athletes the conventional telegram of congratulation on their victories, prompting Owens to declare: "Hitler didn't snub me – it was FDR who snubbed me.". Even when the German consul in New York told her the stories were true, she vowed to brazen it out in the US until "this damn Jewish thing is no longer in the headlines". After being commissioned by the 1936 Olympic Committee to create a feature film of the Berlin Olympics, Riefenstahl shot a documentary that celebrates the human body by combining the poetry of bodies in motion with close-ups of athletes in the heat of competition. Film Features Interviews With 1936 Olympians, As Well As Historians David Clay Large and Pellom McDaniels III and the music of Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman and Andra Day. Olympia was the first documentary feature film ever made of the Olympic Games and it pioneered many groundbreaking techniques such as slow motion footage, varied camera angles, tracking shots and extreme close-ups, which have since become standards of the film industry.. Still, the German National Olympic Committee persuaded Hitler that even a Games that included non-Aryan athletes could be turned to Germany's advantage. "It is impossible to work with this wild woman," he wrote on one occasion. The grand themes and controversial issues from the 1936 Games have continued to this day: monumentality, budget overruns, collusion with authoritarian regimes, corruption, and even bribery. The result was a cinematic coup, but with sinister overtones, Female athletes at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, captured by director Leni Riefenstahl in her film Olympia. Riefenstahl, too, hoped Olympia would take her to Hollywood. Ullstein Bild/Sueddeutsche, Zeitung Photo/Scherl. This was when the German Olympic Committee. The victorious boat glides past the spectator stands, and the four German athletes stick their arms out straight, just above head-height, in a proud Nazi salute. READ: Hitler’s Other Olympics The German Boxing Association expelled amateur champion Erich Seelig in April 1933 because he was Jewish. When Germany could not repeat its rowing victory over England on the battlefields of the second world war, the way Germans viewed the Olympic heritage of Berlin changed. Avery Brundage being elected as President of the Amateur Athletic Union in 1935. Henri de Baillet-Latour at IOC-Congress in Berlin, 1930. 'The Boys of '36'—airing Tuesday on PBS—follows the University of Washington rowers who struggled through the depression and won gold in Berlin. Arnd Krüger, The Nazi Olympics of 1936, in Kevin Young and Kevin B. Wamsley (eds. Riefenstahl was commissioned to direct what was originally supposed to be one film. Teil … The film was released in two parts: Olympia 1. Jesse Owens at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Use one of the services below to sign in to PBS: You've just tried to add this video to My List. The Olympics have always been controversial: Rio’s infrastructure problems and the zika virus in 2016; political boycotts of Los Angeles in 1984 and Moscow in 1980; apartheid South Africa being banned from participation from 1964 to 1992; and, perhaps the most famous of all, the 1936 Berlin games, held under Hitler’s Nazi government and chock full of drama and controversy. The story of nine working-class young men from the University of Washington who took the rowing world and America by storm when they captured the gold medal at the 1936 … “More Than Gold: Jesse Owens and the 1936 Berlin Olympics,” a one-hour documentary on the track and field legend, will air on NBC on Sunday. met with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Berlin to petition for the hosting rights to XI Olympic games; other applicant cities were Barcelona, Istanbul, Frankfurt am Main, and Nürnberg.. Of note is that Berlin was supposed to host the games in 1916, but these were canceled due to WWI. A story of how the Nazis and the IOC turned a small sports event into the modern Olympics. Featuring never-before-seen archival footage and research, "The Nazi Games" reveals how the Olympic Games were shaped by the collaboration of interests between Hitler and ambitious Olympic gentlemen. The Nazi obsession with race is constantly restated. What was groundbreaking in the 1936 Olympic Games? In her memoirs, she wrote that Morris, who took gold in the decathlon, pounced on her during the medals ceremony. Hitler's Olympic charade: New documentary tells how the Nazi dictator turned the 1936 Berlin Games into a weapon for war The Olympics are weeks away but 80 years ago the outlook was different Lands lightly in the sand. The Olympic bell, featuring a German eagle clutching the five rings in its talons, still tolls. In the spirit of "make do and mend", army editors snipped out the Nazi bits, and recut Riefenstahl's footage of athletes into shorts to use as information films during the physical training of British recruits. Berlin train station construction caved in at the "Hermann-Goering-Strasse" with the Brandenburg Gate in the background. Interracial sporting competition was banned in the American south, so none of the American Olympic Committee's qualifying events could be held in states such as Owens's native Alabama. (Seelig later resumed his boxing career in the United States.) After initial distrust, both the IOC and the Nazis found common ground in turning the 1936 Games into the biggest Olympic Games show the world had ever seen. PBS' American Experience is gearing up for the summer Olympics. For two weeks in August 1936, Adolf Hitler's Nazi dictatorship camouflaged its racist, militaristic character while hosting the Summer Olympics. "Never before had I experienced such passion," she remembered breathlessly. e. Olympia is a 1938 Nazi German propaganda sports film written, directed and produced by Leni Riefenstahl, which documented the 1936 Summer Olympics, held in the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, Germany. Hitler officially promised that Jews would not be excluded from Germany’s Olympic team, and the IOC decided not to control it. With Jesse Owens, Kai Long, Jack Beresford, Gudrun Diem. Despite multiple recuttings by Riefenstahl to minimise or remove the overtly Nazi footage, Olympia remains the permanent legacy that the Olympics would surely rather forget. For two weeks in August 1936, Adolf Hitler's Nazi dictatorship camouflaged its racist, militaristic character while hosting the Summer Olympics. She was, he declared, the "perfect German woman". For a moment, he makes direct eye contact with the camera, and smiles a bashful, slightly goofy smile. For the period of the Games, Berlin turned into a Potemkin village. Featuring never-before-seen archival footage and new research, The Nazi Games: Berlin 1936 reveals how the Olympics, as we have come to know them, were shaped by the collaboration of interests between Hitler and ambitious Olympic planners. On 4 November 1938, she arrived in New York to promote Olympia. 1936 Berlin Summer Olympics. We can remove the first show in the list to add this one. Mon, Apr 12, 2021 LOGIN Subscribe 49 nations agreed to take part in the Berlin Games – more than ever before. Third Reich, 1933 - Raid in the barn quarter of Berlin. Berlin 1936 Olympic Games, athletic festival held in Berlin that took place August 1–16, 1936. Tactfully, Riefenstahl does not show Hitler's reaction to Owens's spectacular achievement. Olympia is the documentary directed by Leni Riefenstahl about the Olympic Games held in Berlin during the summer of 1936.. In a film that permits its subjects little by way of individualism, this looks almost like an acknowledgement that he is a human being. "People whose antecedents came from the jungle were primitive, Hitler said with a shrug; their physiques were stronger than civilised whites.". Their brief affair was useful when she realised she had neglected to film Morris's victory in one decathlon event: the 5,000m run. In the last of three jumps, Long hits 7.87m: a new European record. Flies. In 1936, Berlin hosted the Olympics and Hitler asked director Leni Riefenstahl to film them. Ullstein Bild/IMAGNO/Austrian Archives (S). They were intensely controversial before they took place. Documentary Explores Historic Berlin Olympics and Intersection of Sports, Culture and Race in Turbulent Years Leading up to WWII. This was the Berlin Olympics of 1936, immortalised in two films by the controversial director Leni Riefenstahl. His starring role in Olympia inspired Morris to dream of silver-screen stardom; but his 1938 performance in Tarzan's Revenge put a stop to that. At his alma mater, Ohio State University, he was not allowed to live on campus. In April 1933, an “Aryans only” policy was instituted in all German athletic organizations. The Berlin Games were the 10th occurrence of the modern Olympic Games. Theodor Lewald with Earl Henri de Baillet-Latour. Olympia did not endure as a monument to the glory of the Nazi superman, but as an all-too-permanent embarrassment. Olympia's opening layers the inevitably Wagnerian score of composer Herbert Windt over cinematographer Willy Zielke's tracking shots of ancient Greek monuments. After the splendid Olympics, the world was willing to believe that Hitler was rather an angel of peace than a war monger. Only the outbreak of World War II prevented the 1940 Winter Games, under the swastika flag, from taking place. But, the president of the American Olympic Committee, Avery Brundage, successfully discredited the boycott movement as a “Jewish conspiracy.” Thus, a first, large-scale Olympic boycott was avoided. The reels were signed over to the British Army Kinema Corporation. The first part, Fest der Völker, begins by tracing the link between past and present with images of ancient Greece such as the Parthenon, the Erecteion and its porch of caryatids, ionic columns with fluted shafts, friezes and sculptures. 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