berlin olympics

[lauren07]

in 1936 were the berlin olympics a propaganda success?

[JK2]

"The 1936 Olympics, held in Berlin, are best remembered for Adolf Hitler�s failed attempt to use them to prove his theories of Aryan racial superiority. As it turned out, the most popular hero of the Games, was the African-American sprinter and long jumper Jesse Owens, who won four gold medals."

No, a propaganda failure.

[jno]

at the time they were run pretty efficiently and gave rise to an excellent film by Leni Riefenstahl (I know many people will disagree); and the athletes of the world were there giving Heil Hitler salutes. I don't think Owens' undoubted successes entirely outweighed this. Any Olympics that don't decend into total chaos make some sort of propaganda point. But remember they were not the huge mediafest sponsored by soft drinks that they are now. You wouldn't know who'd won anything till you got the evening paper or switched on the radio news, and you wouldn't see what they looked like till you went to see a newsreel at the cinema. So propaganda didn't function in quite the same way it does now.