26 August - 1 September
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EXPLORE / TŪHURA learning intentions:
- We are EXPLORING to analyse the connections between the Olympic Games and the concept of a united world.
Berlin 1936: The Backstory
The bidding for these Olympic Games was the first to be contested by IOC members casting their votes for their favourite host city.
There were many other cities around the world that wanted to host this Summer Olympics, but they did not receive any IOC votes.
The other cities competing to hold the games were: Alexandria, Barcelona, Buenos Aires, Cologne, Dublin, Frankfurt, Helsinki, Lausanne, Nuremberg, Rio de Janeiro, and Rome.Berlin won the bid to host the Games over Barcelona, Spain, on 26 April 1931, at the 29th IOC Session in Barcelona.
The vote occurred in 1931 during the Weimar Republic era, before Adolf Hitler rose to power in 1933.
When Berlin was chosen as the host city for these Olympics few imagined that within such a short period of time they would be imbued with so much political significance given to them by the emergence of Hitler and the Nazi Party.
To outdo the Los Angeles, USA games of 1932, the Nazis built a new 100,000-seat track and field stadium, six gymnasiums, and many other smaller arenas.In many ways it was the first modern Olympics.
It was the first to be televised
It was the first to have a torch relay
It was the first to use the Olympics rings as a symbol extensively
Many of the traditions of the modern ‘Olympic’ Games originated with the 1936 Berlin Olympics.
The Logo of the Berlin Olympics was the ‘Olympia Glocke’ – the Olympic Bell – to be tolled at the opening and closing of the Games.
One of the ‘secrets’ of the London 2012 Games, revealed at the opening ceremony, was a huge bell tolled as the games were opened.
The Original ‘Olympia Glocke’ survived the 1939-1945 war, and still exists, and can be seen outside the Berlin ‘Olympic Stadium’.
