The official online fan shop of the Olympic Games has been selling T-shirts with designs from the Berlin Olympic Games in 1936, which were used by Adolf Hitler and the Nazis for propaganda. There are calls in Germany for the sale of the shirts to be stopped, but the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has defended it as being part of its Heritage Collection, celebrating styles from all editions of the Games. The T-shirts, which are emblazoned with the original poster design for the Berlin Olympics by Franz Würbel, are currently out of stock.
The 1936 Games were used by Hitler as a chance to promote his ideals of racial supremacy and to glorify Nazi Germany on an international stage. The 1936 Olympic Games were a central propaganda tool of the Nazi regime, Klara Schedlich, spokesperson for sports policy for the Green Party faction in the Berlin House of Representatives, told the German press agency, DPA. She accused the IOC of clearly not reflecting sufficiently on its own history and said the choice of image is problematic and unsuitable for a T-shirt, without context.
The IOC told the BBC that while it of course acknowledges the historical issues of Nazi propaganda it wants to also remember that the Berlin 1936 Games saw 4,483 athletes from 49 countries compete in 149 medal events. They have made an Olympic Heritage Collection available to the public that celebrates 130 years of Olympic art and design, featuring emblems, pictograms, posters and mascots from all editions of the Olympic Games.
Additionally, they highlighted remarkable achievements, including Jesse Owens, an African-American athlete who won four gold medals at the 1936 Games, which defied Nazi racial myths.
The historical context surrounding the Berlin Games was further examined at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, with limited production and sale of the controversial T-shirts.
The 1936 Games were used by Hitler as a chance to promote his ideals of racial supremacy and to glorify Nazi Germany on an international stage. The 1936 Olympic Games were a central propaganda tool of the Nazi regime, Klara Schedlich, spokesperson for sports policy for the Green Party faction in the Berlin House of Representatives, told the German press agency, DPA. She accused the IOC of clearly not reflecting sufficiently on its own history and said the choice of image is problematic and unsuitable for a T-shirt, without context.
The IOC told the BBC that while it of course acknowledges the historical issues of Nazi propaganda it wants to also remember that the Berlin 1936 Games saw 4,483 athletes from 49 countries compete in 149 medal events. They have made an Olympic Heritage Collection available to the public that celebrates 130 years of Olympic art and design, featuring emblems, pictograms, posters and mascots from all editions of the Olympic Games.
Additionally, they highlighted remarkable achievements, including Jesse Owens, an African-American athlete who won four gold medals at the 1936 Games, which defied Nazi racial myths.
The historical context surrounding the Berlin Games was further examined at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, with limited production and sale of the controversial T-shirts.
