© Getty Images

1936 Summer Olympic Games -

The 1936 Summer Olympic Games opened in Berlin, Germany, on August 1. The event was held in a tense, politically-charged atmosphere and was fraught with controversy.

© Getty Images

An event inherited from the Weimar Republic -

Berlin was chosen as the venue for the Olympics before the Nazi Party had risen to power. The Olympic torch relay arrived in the city on August 1, before the Opening Ceremony.

© Getty Images

Spectacle of Nazi propaganda -

Hitler had become chancellor only two years earlier. He immediately recognized the significance of such a global event and his regime took full advantage of the worldwide publicity to transform the 1936 Games into a spectacle of Nazi propaganda.

© Getty Images

The first political Olympics -

The Nazis' persecution of Jews had sparked a widespread movement in the US and a number of other nations to boycott the Olympics. Eventually, however, the decision was made to participate. Pictured are American athletes passing through the Olympic Village escorted by German military officers, who welcomed the group.

© Getty Images

Plagued by strife and intrigue -

Boycotts, racial and religious strife, and international intrigue plagued the 1936 Summer Olympic Games. The German public, though, were largely unaware of the underlying political current, or chose to ignore it, as Berlin prepared to host the world's most prominent festival of sport, albeit with swastikas fluttering in the wind alongside the five interlaced rings of the Olympic flag.

© Getty Images

Third Reich and Olympic movement -

Everywhere in Berlin the city's streets were decorated with symbols of the Third Reich and those of the Olympic movement. The juxtaposition was quite bizarre.

© Getty Images

Behind the scenes -

Work behind the scenes included holding language lessons for Olympic Games referees, conducted by Nazi Party officials.

© Getty Images

The visual effect -

Berlin's most recognized landmarks were festooned with the party's insignia, again placed side by side with the Olympic emblem. The historic Brandenburg Gate was used to impressionable visual effect.

© Getty Images

Jackboot environment -

To showcase its military might, the German Army took to the streets, marching in uniformed step as much for the cameras as for curious onlookers.

© Getty Images

Banners and pennants -

Flying above Tauentzienstraße, in the city center, hundreds of pennants were hoisted to promote the Games, and the regime.

© Getty Images

Motorcade -

On the day of the Opening Ceremony, streets were cleared for Hitler's motorcade as it made its way to the Olympiastadion. The dictator was greeted along the way by hundreds of onlookers lining Unter Den Linden, each with right arms extended in the Nazi salute.

© Getty Images

The Führer opens the Games -

The Brandenburg Gate provided another opportunity for photographers to capture a moment where the Führer was freeze-framed against an iconic structure, seemingly being used to convey a message of international cooperation and peace while espousing Aryan superiority.

© Getty Images

Building popular support -

It was by no means a given that the Nazis under Hitler would want to host the Games. It took propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels to recognize the benefits. He saw it as an opportunity to build popular support for the regime, especially among young people for whom sport and fitness was very much part of the Aryan ideal.

© Getty Images

Violation of Olympic rules -

Ultimately, Hitler regarded the 1936 Games as an opportunity to promote his government and ideals of racial supremacy and anti-Semitism. To that end, Jewish athletes from Germany were not allowed to participate, a clear violation of Olympic rules.

© Getty Images

The Games commence -

Hitler officially opened the Games by announcing in German: "I proclaim open the Olympic Games of Berlin, celebrating the Eleventh Olympiad of the modern era."

© Getty Images

Carefully worded statement -

The sentence was written by International Olympic Committee President Henri de Baillet-Latour to prevent Hitler from turning the speech into a propaganda event. Pictured is the Führer standard, risen only when the Nazi leader was present in the stadium.

© Getty Images

Rich in symbolism -

The pomp and ceremony that was the Parade of Nations allowed Hitler to ascertain the Nazi regime's international prestige. Native composer Richard Strauss took the stage to conduct the musicians in a new Olympic hymn of his own composition before the Olympic torchbearer appeared. The sequence was rich in symbolism  and glorified not only Hitler but the German nation itself.

© Getty Images

Introduction of the torch relay -

The 1936 Summer Olympic Games introduced the torch relay by which the Olympic flame is transported from Greece. The idea was conceived by German sports administrator Carl Diem, the chief organizer of the 1936 Games. Goebbels thought it was a wonderful way to publicize the Games.

© Getty Images

More controversy -

But even this ceremony was mired in controversy. The torch was made by Krupp, the German steel company that produced weapons and infrastructure for the Nazis in defiance of the Versailles Treaty.

© Getty Images

Mapping the future -

The route from Olympia, Greece, to Berlin passed through seven countries, all of which would be later occupied by Germany or its allies.

© Getty Images

Racial superiority -

Running parallel to the Games were a series of exercise demonstrations presented by German youths at the Maifeld in the Olympiapark. These coordinated exhibitions of physical prowess played into the Nazis' vision of racial superiority.

© Getty Images

Growth of the Nazi movement -

Inside the stadium too, spectators were regaled by German precision gymnastic performances. Goebbels wanted to emphasize the fact that German youth was vital to the growth of the Nazi movement.

© Getty Images

Defying the myth of Aryan supremacy -

American Jesse Owens was one of the many black athletes who participated in the Berlin Olympics. Owens defied the myth of Aryan supremacy by winning four track and field gold medals. For his part, Hitler failed to acknowledge Owens' success.

© Getty Images

Protesting on the podium -

American high jumpers Delos Thurber, Cornelius Johnson, and Dave Albritton gathered on the winner's podium and gave the American flag salute (or Bellamy salute), characterized by an upward palm, rather than a Nazi salute in protest at Hitler's failure to congratulate the medalists, two of whom were black.

© Getty Images

Refusing the Nazi salute -

On other occasions, non-German athletes refused to salute altogether rather than follow those from the host nation in raising their right arms in acknowledgement of the regime.

© Getty Images

Masking hostility -

Berlin streets, meanwhile, had been sanitized. Signs banning Jews from public places had disappeared. The German public had been ordered to be gracious towards foreigners, especially black athletes. The veneer of normality, however, masked an inherent hostility towards "undesirables."

© Getty Images

Fascist sympathizers -

Among the athletes, the Nazi regime had its sympathizers. Italian Ondina Valla was the first Italian woman to ever win an Olympic gold medal. She won it in the 80 m hurdles event. For the fascist government, she was the ideal icon of the healthy, strong national youth. International media defined her as "the sun in a smile."

© Getty Images

First televised Olympics -

The 1936 Berlin Olympics were the first to be televised, affording the Nazi regime further political capital. Radio broadcasts reached 41 countries. Pictured: a German technician checks the "television canon," a huge electronic camera built by Telefunken, which broadcast the Games live for the first time, eight hours each day.

© Getty Images

Filmed for posterity -

The 1936 Summer Olympic Games were captured for posterity by German filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl, who was commissioned by the German Olympic Committee to document the event. Her film, titled 'Olympia,' while universally admired for its aesthetics and technical innovation, remains infamous due to its political context and propaganda value.

Sources: (NPR) (Britannica) (Holocaust Encyclopedia) 

See also: 30 fascinating facts you didn't know about the Summer Olympics

© Getty Images