Hitler's Olympics

by Christopher Hilton

  The flame reached Jütebog towards dawn and then at 8 a.m. a tiny place called Trebbin, the last staging post before Berlin – 40 to go.

  Berlin seethed under an overcast sky and suddenly, at 8 a.m., two military bands struck up along Unter den Linden. The Canadian team noted that ‘the opening ceremonies began with the thudding of drums and the blare of brass bands. Berlin troops poured through the Brandenburg Gate to the Armory [down ] the Unter den Linden for a great parade, performing the ceremony of “The Great Awakening” by marching round the central streets of the city – with colors flying and stirring music.’6

  Would the weather ruin the day? A south-easterly wind dragged cloud over and brought showers which might develop into more persistent rain or a downpour.

  At 9 a.m. entry to the Reich Sports Field was forbidden.

  Between 9.15 and 10.30 a hundred vans brought 20,000 carrier pigeons in cages to the stadium.

  At 9.30 – the flame still out in the country, the runner jogging steadily towards Berlin’s outskirts – a column of cars drew up outside the Adlon Hotel to take the IOC members to church: Catholics to St Hedwig’s for mass, Protestants to the Evangelical Cathedral for a sermon.

  Werner Schwieger, the gymnast, had received his Olympic pass a few days earlier.

  I can’t remember where it was issued but I do remember I had to deliver a passport photograph. It was a picture of me wearing my sports club’s badge at my jacket’s lapel. At first sight it looked like a party badge with a Nazi symbol or a swastika on it and a woman there said ‘You know, we are not allowed to use pictures with swastikas as passport photographs’, but it was not because I wasn’t a member of the Party. First of all I got the participants’ pass and then came the torch run, the dates given to us for the performances, the badge and so on.

  For the torch run we were taken into the country outside Berlin by lorry and dropped off one at a time. You stood there until the torch was handed over to you, and you ran to the next man – great to be given a chance to take part. It was a country road lined with trees and there weren’t many people watching. I took the torch – it wasn’t heavy – and handed it over. Then the lorry brought us home. Was I allowed to keep the torch? Of course not.7

  All approaches to Unter den Linden and the Via Triumphalis were closed to traffic. Spectators, some of whom had camped out all night to secure their vantage point, stood ten deep in places.

  The famous thoroughfare was afire with flags and banners, some flying from four lines of poles running the whole length of the route, others waving from windows or from the top of houses. The red of the Nazi banner predominated. The huge crowd – there must have been half a million in Unter den Linden alone – were good humoured and comparatively quiet, but there were cheers for various prominent personalities. When the members of the International Physical Education Students’ Camp marched down the Linden from the Lehrter station, the biggest cheer went to the Indians in their pink and grey turbans.8

  At 9.45 a.m. three overland trains and three underground ones brought 28,000 members of the Hitler Youth to six stations. They marched in columns four abreast for their rendezvous at the Lustgarten beside the Armoury.

  At 10.45 a.m. a guard of honour – infantry, navy and air force detachments – marched from the Brandenburg Gate to the Lustgarten.

  Few police were present to control the crowd. The authorities had, apparently, forgotten that they were not dealing solely with the highly disciplined people of Berlin, but with hundreds of thousands of less disciplined foreigners. Gen. Goering’s appearance, for instance, caused the crowd to sweep away the containing police and practically block Unter den Linden…. The General, dressed in an air force uniform, waved gaily to the crowd as he drove by. The cheers he received were by far the loudest accorded to any of the Nazi leaders. Then came Dr. Goebbels in brown storm trooper’s uniform, with his arm held rigidly in the ‘Old Party Members’ version of the Nazi salute – bent back at the elbow. Herr Rudolf Hess, Herr Hitler’s deputy, and Herr Baldur von Schirach were also loudly cheered.9

  The flame arrived at the outskirts of the city at 10.38 a.m. It had 1 hour and 52 minutes to reach the Lustgarten.

  After the church services, Baillet-Latour, Lewald, Tschammer und Osten and other dignitaries went to the low stone war memorial on Unter den Linden – a brief walk from the Lustgarten – and laid wreaths to commemorate the dead of the First World War. The assembly stood in an arc round them, the Germans giving the Nazi salute as an infantry batallion marched past. The dignitaries were cheered as they walked back towards the Lustgarten: the Old Museum, a heavy building fronted by pillars, faced it, the Lustgarten actually the long, broad paved area in front of it stretching down to Unter den Linden. They went to the oval room where Goering and other government ministers welcomed them. Baillet-Latour made the formal reply.

  Meanwhile at 11.55 a.m., the 28,000 members of the Hitler Youth moved into position on the Lustgarten. For some reason the German Organising Committee – or more likely Nazi politicians – had wanted the Lustgarten to be deserted when the dignitaries entered and full of men in formation when they came out. It had to be impressive, perhaps genuinely breathtaking – planning, organisation, discipline, speed; and, for those who thought about these things, ominous.

  Within six years Germany would control all the countries the flickering flame of international peace had passed through except Austria, which it swallowed whole.

  At noon every controller, supervisor, fire inspector and post office official had taken up their places at the Reich Sports Field and the stadium. The booths and stands sold only programmes, guide books and Hitler memorabilia no Olympic merchandise on this opening day.

  Kansas student Esther Myers found the stadium ‘Oh, magnificent. They had spared no amount of money to make it into the most beautiful spot you could imagine. By the time we got there the Games were just opening and I remember banners from the countries. They wanted you to know they were welcoming you. They were so gracious to us, oh my, yes. There were guns constantly but we never felt threatened.10

  ‘Halfway down from the top was an area where they had the places to eat…. There were souvenir shops — pictures of Berlin, pictures of Hitler, pictures of the German countryside, that sort of thing.’11

  In the Lustgarten, von Schirach gave an address of welcome, seemingly oblivious to the ranks of uniformed men in front of him and saying German youth had been wrongly described as militaristic. ‘We serve no warlike aims but only those of peace. My comrades, consider the Olympic Games a safeguard of peace. In this spirit I bid you welcome in a peaceful, honourable Germany.’ Tschammer und Osten spoke and so did Goebbels.

  The last runner – a strong young German – brought the flame up the Wilhelmstrasse, the long, straight avenue lined by many embassies and ministries as well as the Reich Chancellory. As Goebbels finished speaking the runner reached the intersection with Unter den Linden and turned right. ‘The flame could be seen approaching over the countless heads of the assembled Hitler Youths, and cheers rang out as it came closer.’12 ‘The final transfer of the torch took place half way down, and the runner, preceded by the cars of film operators, bore it on through the now wildly cheering crowds.’13 When the runner reached the Lustgarten he went to a temporary altar beside the Old Museum and the IOC members watched him light it. A band played Deutschland über Alles and the Horst Wessel Lied. The runner ran back across Unter den Linden to the Royal Palace where another altar stood and he lit a second flame there. It would burn throughout the Games.

  At 1 p.m. the artillery regiment deputed to fire the salute at the Opening Ceremony arrived at the stadium and spectators with tickets were allowed in.

  The IOC members and the other dignitaries walked to the area in front of the Palace where a motorcade waited to take them to Wilhelmstrasse, the Chancellory and lunch with Hitler. They looked, as someone observed, ‘strangely civilian in their morning dress among so many uniforms’.

  At the Olympic Vill
age a vast fleet of military buses – 170 of them: the Indians were on number 150 – took the competitors to the stadium. Each bus bore the national flag of the team it carried. The Indians boarded at 1.15 and, all along the route, would find crowds cheering and waving.

  At the Chancellory, Baillet-Latour made a diplomatic and effusive speech to Hitler who stood before him in light jacket, dark trousers and wearing a black swastika armband. Then the 150 guests sat down to lunch in the new state dining room.

  That was 1.30. At that moment the first buses pulled up at the stadium. ‘Male athletes of all the nations, led by their officials, came in by bus from the Olympic Village and from Grunau, and the women athletes from their living quarters at Friesenhaus. They formed up in columns facing from both sides a wide central laneway, their ranks extending back horizontally to right and left’14 – twenty-six nations on the north side, twenty-seven on the south. The women began arriving from the Friesenhaus at 2.30.

  The last athletes from the Village were due at 3 p.m. By then, their lunch with Hitler over, the dignitaries would be taking their places in the stadium.

  American diver Velma Dunn remembers, ‘we had to wait outside the stadium for a long time but that’s true of every Olympics.’15

  The Zeppelin Hindenburg circling low over Berlin, headed towards the stadium.

  By now the stadium was full. From 3 p.m. the Olympic Symphony Orchestra – formed by members of the Berlin Philharmonic, the National and other orchestras – gave a concert. At 3.18, while they played, Hitler’s motorcade left the Chancellory, moved up Wilhelmstrasse, passed through the Brandenburg Gate and onto the Via Triumphalis. Hitler stood stiff and upright. His Mercedes was followed by four others with guards in them. Those Mercedes ran at either side of the avenue close to the kerb. The motorcade travelled fast.

  At 3.30, the loudspeakers along the way announced excitedly that Hitler was on his way and the concert ended.

  ‘Punctually at 4 o’clock the two German national anthems – Deutschland über Alles and the Horst Wessel song – came through the loudspeakers and stilled the crowds, with their arms outstretched in the Nazi salute. While the last notes of the Horst Wessel song still rang on the air, the sacred flame was seen once more coming from the Lustgarten. There was one change of relay, and then it passed through the Brandenburg Gate towards the stadium followed all along the route with deafening cheers.’16

  Once the flame had passed, the crowds dispersed to find something to eat and drink, but they came back to see the Hindenburg ‘nosing its way low over the city’.

  A little rain fell.

  The layout of the area from road to stadium was impressive. Hitler would walk through the tall Bell Tower – so sheer and tall it loomed – and find, spread before him, the vast May Field where the athletes were now assembled country by country. He would walk along the passage left between them to the stadium, entering by the Marathon Gate and ascending tiers of stone steps. He would pass the crucible that would cradle the Olympic flame and then descend more tiers of stone steps to the centre of the stadium.

  At 3.52 p.m., Hitler came through the Bell Tower and passed four field guns ready to fire the salute. A loudspeaker bayed ‘We await the Führer every moment. Never would this great field have been built except for the Führer. It was created by his will.’ He reached the May Field.

  Pat Norton and the other three Australian swimmers ‘stood without rest for two hours before entering the stadium but the air of excitement and noise among the teams drove our tiredness away. While we were making friends with the only girl in the Argentinian team of ninety men [Campbell], who were standing next to us, the teams suddenly became quiet at the sight of Hitler and his entourage striding down between the teams. He looked neither to the left nor right and gave no sign of greeting or welcome. It was my first direct look at the man who was the talk of the world, and a more uninspiring-looking person would be hard to find.’17

  Hitler walked down the passage accompanied by a group of dignitaries. Riefenstahl had laid track down one side of the passage so a camera could stay abreast of Hitler as he walked.

  ‘We had to wait for Hitler to enter – the teams were lined up either side,’ British competitor Violet Webb recalled. ‘The diplomats came through and some countries gave the salute but we were told not to.’

  Hitler reached the steps.

  The loudspeaker bayed: ‘We can see the Olympic Stadium where 100,000 persons wait feverishly for the moment when the Führer will appear. We can well understand the expectancy of the 100,000 awaiting the moment when the Führer will enter the stadium. Attention! The Führer now enters the stadium!’ Then thousand upon thousand voices raised the Sieg Heil! and drowned out the loudspeaker while the orchestra played Wagner’s ‘Hymn of Praise’. Violet Webb remarked that as Hitler ‘went into the stadium you would have thought that God had come down from heaven’.18

  Hitler descended the first set of steps, crossed the running track, walked briskly for some distance, recrossed it and ascended to his box in prime position in the grandstand.

  Back on the Via Triumphalis a lone cyclist, evidently unaware that the avenue had been cleared, cycled home between the astonished ranks of police and storm troopers – the whole route double- and triple-lined with uniformed men standing elbow to elbow – and got a bigger ovation than the runner with the torch. The Berliners had not lost their sardonic wit or their sense of irony.

  Esther Myers found herself ‘ten, fifteen feet maybe from Hitler. We had wonderful seats. They passed out our tickets and it just happened that I got an awfully good one. First he came and then following him was the stodgy little, fat mayor of Berlin a few steps behind, never level with him. They paused on the steps so that people could take their pictures. Things happened so fast that he wasn’t there very long. Hitler happened to turn, strictly controlled but he knew how to turn! He stood there and people were taking pictures like crazy and going “Heil Hitler.” He was an average sized man and he made quite an imposing looking figure there on the steps. He wasn’t a particularly good looking man but a uniform makes most people look pretty good. And it did.’19 (Her father thought she had lost her senses when she told him that.)

  ‘Before the Opening Ceremony,’ Dorothy Odam said, ‘there was mass hysteria when Hitler arrived in the stadium, but we had to wait for an hour before we could enter. It was so hot that they had to bring us refreshments.’20

  The Canadian Official Report noted that the teams ‘assembled in line at the mouth of the tunnel ready to enter the stadium. A German carrying a banner was allotted to each nation, the cards bearing the names of the countries in German. The nations marched in alphabetical order, according to German spelling, with Greece at their head…. It was fortunate for us that they spelled our name “Kanada” because alphabetically it brought us in the centre of the line that eventually stretched across the full length of the field facing Hitler, where we could see and hear the ceremony perfectly. The marching order for each national group was banner bearer, flag bearer, officials, women athletes and men athletes. Many dipped their flags, they all gave their particular national salute before the tribune of honor at the top of the first tier of the stadium, where Hitler and his guests stood, with Hitler saluting each team in turn.’

  The space between the successive countries was regulated at the mouth of the tunnel. The banner with the national name on it went first with a gap of 15 feet to the athlete who carried the national flag and another 15 feet to the team itself. The distance between the teams measured exactly 20 yards – military precision.

  When each team emerged from the tunnel it followed the procession along the track past the boxes where Hitler and the dignitaries stood, went around the end of the track and back along the far side, turned left to the infield and crossed that, maintaining the column formation, to a position facing the boxes. By the end, competitors covered the entire infield and formed a vivid, living landscape of national colours. From start to finish the procession took 45
minutes.

  At 4.14 p.m., when the Olympic bell had been rung, Spyridon Louis, who won the first modern Games marathon, led the Greek team in. He faltered ‘a little now and then but was still stepping out bravely’. The Greeks wore modern blue coats and white flannel trousers. They did give a stiff arm salute but was that the Olympic or Nazi version?21

  The Afghans wore turbans and did give the Nazi salute.

  The Argentinians wore naval caps.

  The Australian team, wearing cricket caps emblazoned with kangaroos, heard the French were not going to give the salute, so they didn’t.

  The Belgians looked picturesque in grey flannels.

  Bermuda, carrying their flag with the British Union Jack on it, wore white sun hats and did give the Nazi salute.

  Bolivia did give the Nazi salute.

  Bulgaria’s team of twenty-seven goose-stepped by to loud applause and did give the Nazi salute.

  The Chinese, surprisingly tall, wore American-style straw hats. Rather than give the salute they placed these hats over their hearts.

  The Colombians wore blue blazers and grey trousers, and did give a kind of Nazi salute.

  The lone Costa Rican had to carry the flag himself and got a huge cheer although, holding the flag, he could not give any salute at all.

  The Czechoslovaks were received in almost total silence.

  The Daily Express noted that ‘the entry of the gladiators would have been more impressive if it had not turned into a rather amusing game of lottery. After the sixth delegation had passed the saluting point, ninety per cent of the crowd were principally concerned with how the remainder would salute.’

  The Danes wore rose and white.

  The Egyptians wore red fezzes.

  The Estonians did give the Nazi salute.