“Berlin Games: How the Nazis Stole the Olympic Dream”, by Guy Walters

 

384 pages, William Morrow, ISBN-13: 978-0060874124

This was another one of my Dad’s books, as should be no surprise by now, seeing as he was a student of the Games of the XI Olympiad, or Olympische Sommerspiele 1936, or The Nazi Olympics. Berlin Games: How the Nazis Stole the Olympic Dream by Guy Walters is another history of the 1936 Olympics, and the author managed to pen a page-turner. Walters is a British author, historian and journalist and, although he is known more for his writings about the Second World War, his work here is a tour de force that successfully combines the political and athletic stories of the 1936 Olympic Games into one seamless whole. However, while it is certainly natural to be repulsed by the Nazi regime that put on these games, Walters would have been better served telling a straightforward narrative of the games and their political and cultural environs, rather than constantly interjecting his disgust for all things Nazi.

Another issue is that Walter often strays from his tale of the ’36 Games by including a plethora of athletic contests that, as far as I could tell, had nothing to do with his ostensible main point (perhaps to show the development of international competition?). Rather, a discussion on how this hijacking by a gang of goose-stepping thugs of what should be an international celebration of peace and friendly competition forever tainted the Olympic ideal. While later generations haven't done much better – the XXII Summer Games from Moscow, the capital of the Evil Soviet Empire, was another travesty or, more recently, the XXIX Summer Games from Beijing, the modern-day capital of oppression and the XXIV Olympic Winter Games, likewise from Beijing, which are going on as I type – this original corruption of the Olympic ideal set the stage for later political leaders making peace with dictators in the misguided notion that the tyrants of the world can be bought.

The main strength of this book is its cast of fascinating figures. Berlin Games follows Nazi leaders such as Hitler and Goebbels in their attempt to stage the 1936 Olympics as state propaganda, athletic leaders such as the American Avery Brundage (future president of the IOC) who resisted the social pressure to boycott the Berlin Olympics, and of course the athletes. Obviously, the story of Jesse Owens contradicting Aryan racial myths with his stellar performances, winning four gold medals by the end of the games, receives a fair amount of coverage, but numerous other athletes with interesting stories to tell were also present. These include the German wrestler Werner Seelenbinder, whose quest it was to win a medal in order to snub the Nazis on a grand stage; Helen Stephens, the track star who resisted romantic requests from both Hitler and Hermann Goering; and Helene Mayer, a Jewish fencer who competed for the Nazis despite the persecution she suffered because of her background. An excellent addition to anyone’s library on the Olympics, Berlin Games entertains as it informs.