The "Ebony Antelope" Gallops of Aryan Superiority

Berlin was the heart of Weimar Germany, and it was renowned for being a “happy and clean city” (Large 255.) On May 13 of 1931, The IOC (International Olympic Committee) awarded the 1936 Summer Games to Berlin. This was Germany’s return into the world after their defeat in World War I. In 1934, Adolf Hitler became the Fürher of Germany and ruled until 1945. The epicenter of Germany was being torn apart by Hitler’s adamant Anti-Semitic crusade. Thus, this led to a decrease in Berlin’s economical and intellectual sustenance due to the fact that the Jewish population accounted for the majority of it. Fights and public disputes were a daily occurrence in the streets of Berlin. On New Year’s Eve of 1933, a passerby on a bicycle shot a seamstress to death and shouted, “Heil Hitler!” before riding off. The “happy” city of Berlin was in great turmoil. By the beginning of 1935, Weimar Berlin had dug itself in a mile-deep hole filled with “cultural corruption and political disorientation” (Large 255). In 1933, the American Amateur Athletic Union was denied a boycott to have the 1936 Games moved to Rome or Tokyo. This boycott was later deemed “futile”, for the Germans revoked the ban on Jewish athletes participating in the Games soon after. Joseph Goebbles, the Reich Minister of Nazi Propaganda, and the rest of the Nazi regime was infuriated with Jewish athletes permitted to participate because mass numbers of Jews flowed in from surrounding provinces. Their infuriation was kept at bay for the sake of image for the coming Games. As the Eleventh Olympiad progressed in August of 1936, one athlete in particular thwarted the Nazi racial ideology of Aryan superiority. Jesse Owens, a black American athlete, won four gold medals and set numerous wo...

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...nningham, as well as their reception by the German people during their participation in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. It addresses the titanic fight between the fascist Nazis and democracy, and how politics and sports are inseparable. Walters used Jesse Owens: An American Life by J. William Baker in 1986, and The Berlin Olympics, 1936: Black American Athletes Counter Nazi Propaganda The Berlin Olympics, 1936: Black American Athletes Counter Nazi Propaganda by Franklin Watts in 1975. This source addresses the German public’s reaction to the arrival and performance of Jesse Owens, as well as the Nazis “hands-off” attitude towards Owens’ monumental feats. Views from both the radical Nazis and some of the neutral spectators create a complete compilation of German reactions overall.

Wels, Susan. The Olympic Spirit: 100 Years of the Games. Del Mar: Tehabi Books, 1995. Print.