The Berlin Games and the Boycott

Stout, James

doi:10.1007/978-981-13-8071-6_2

The Berlin Games and the Boycott

James Stout³

Chapter
First Online: 10 July 2019

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Part of the book series: Mega Event Planning ((MEGAEP))

Abstract

Having established the background that made Catalonia uniquely suited to a celebration of cross-class sporting solidarity, this chapter establishes the specifics of the movement to boycott the Berlin games. Through examining the process which awarded the games to Berlin rather than to Barcelona and the ensuing political debates in pivotal nations (the USA, UK, Spain, and France), the chapter will show how the movement to boycott the Berlin games united various political groups who would not usually make common cause and provided a platform for the growth of the Popular Front and anti-fascism.

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Notes

1.
The committee included five counts and one marquis.
2.
“International Olympic Committee. Meeting of 1931 (Fourth Year of the Ninth Olympiad). Barcelona, 25th–26th April.” Bulletin Officiel Du Comité International Olympique 18 (July 1931).
3.
Vanguardia, December 5, 1914.
La Vanguardia, July 6, 1917.
4.
David Goldblatt, The Games: A Global History of the Olympics (WW Norton & Company, 2018).
5.
Los Angeles Times, January 8, 1932.
6.
Diem was not himself a Nazi; indeed, his wife was from a Jewish family. However, he had been integral to the securing of the games for Berlin before the Nazi takeover of power. He retained his position as secretary general of the Organizing Committee even after the regime change. Dr. Thomas Lewals, an equally experienced sports administrator, was removed as president of the German Olympic Committee on account of his Jewish heritage.
7.
The New York Times, October 5, 1936, quoted in Kanin, D. B. A Political History of the Olympic Games. Westview Pr, 1981.
8.
One athlete who would have been legally considered half-Jewish (Mischling) under German law was allowed to compete. Helene Mayer, one of the greatest fencing athletes of all time, had a Jewish father and was permitted to compete for Germany. She won a silver medal and gave the Nazi salute on the podium.
9.
David Goldblatt, The Games: A Global History of the Olympics (WW Norton & Company, 2018).
10.
B. J. Keys, Globalizing Sport: National Rivalry and International Community in the 1930s (Harvard Univ Pr, 2006). Pp. 87
11.
Brundage went on to chair the IOC where he would condemn the 1968 Black Power salute as “the nasty demonstration against the American flag by negroes.” Guttmann, A. 2002. The Olympics, a History of the Modern Games. Univ of Illinois Pr, pp. 245.
12.
Avery Brundage. Fair Play for American Athletes. American Olympic committee, 1934.
13.
Carolyn Marvin, “Avery Brundage and American Participation in the 1936 Olympic Games,” Journal of American Studies, 16, no. 1 (April 1982). Pp. 7.
14.
Carolyn Marvin, “Avery Brundage and American Participation in the 1936 Olympic Games,” Journal of American Studies, 16, no. 1 (April 1982).
15.
The New York Times November 21, 1933.
16.
For example, see The New York Times December 4 and 7, 1935.
17.
Stephen R Wenn. 1991. “A Suitable Policy of Neutrality? FDR and the Question of American Participation in the 1936 Olympics.” The International Journal of the History of Sport 8 (3):319–35.
18.
Brundage once noted that he himself was a member of a sports club where Jews were not permitted to be members. Keys, B. J. The dictatorship of sport: nationalism, internationalism, and mass culture in the 1930’s: a thesis presented at Harvard University.
19.
Carolyn Marvin. “Avery Brundage and American Participation in the 1936 Olympic Games.” Journal of American Studies, 16, no. 1 (April 1982). Pp. 8
20.
German Newspapers such as Volkischer Beobachter had suggested that, after the 1932 games, it was important to exclude black participants Wiggins, David K. 1983. “The 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin: The Response of America’s Black Press.” Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport 54 (3):278–92.
21.
David K Wiggins. 1983. “The 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin: The Response of America’s Black Press.” Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport 54 (3):278–92.
22.
The New York Amsterdam News Aug 24, 1935 pp1; ProQuest Historical Newspapers New York Amsterdam News: 1922–1993.
23.
The New York Amsterdam News Aug 24, 1935 pp1; ProQuest Historical Newspapers New York Amsterdam News: 1922–1993.
24.
Although there were very clear attempts to prevent the undermining of eugenic arguments by black athletes, basketball players were limited to a maximum height, for instance, Holmes, J. Olympiad 1936: blaze of glory for Hitler’s Reich. Ballantine Books.
25.
Baltimore Afro-American October 21, 1933.
26.
Carolyn Marvin. “Avery Brundage and American Participation in the 1936 Olympic Games.” Journal of American Studies, 16, no. 1 (April 1982). Pp. 13.
27.
Allen Guttmann. The Games Must Go on: Avery Brundage and the Olympic Movement. New York: Columbia University Press, 1984. Pp. 72.
28.
The letter is included in a telegram from the British embassy in Washington to the British Foreign Secretary. Osborne, Francis D’Arcy. “Letter from Sir Francis D’Arcy Godolphin Osborne, Minister at the British Embassy in Washington to Sir Samuel Hoare, the Foreign Secretary,” October 25, 1935. National Archive.
29.
Eddy Sherwood. “Germany in Olympic Dress.” The Christian Century, September 2, 1936.
30.
The Christian Century, October 14, Volume XII-2003, 1936, p. 1347.
31.
“AAU Votes for Full Olympic Game Participation to End 3-Day Debate,” Democrat and Chronicle, December 9, 1935.
32.
David Maraniss. Rome 1960: The Olympics That Changed the World. 1st Simon & Schuster hardcover ed. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2008.
33.
David Clay Large. Nazi Games: The Olympics of 1936. 1st ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 2007.
34.
Edward S. Shapiro, “The World Labor Athletic Carnival of 1936: An American Anti-Nazi Protest,” American Jewish History 74, no. 3 (1985): 255–273.
35.
Bruce Kidd. 1980. “The Popular Front and the 1936 Olympics.” Canadian Journal of the History of Sport and Physical Education 11 (1): 1–18.
36.
Sport, December 5, 1934.
37.
A Gounot. “El Proyecto de La Olimpiada Popular de Barcelona (1936), Entre Comunismo Internacional y Republicanismo Regional.” Cultura, Ciencia y Deporte, no. 3 (2005): 115.
38.
COOP, “Press Service. English Edition, No. 5,” June 1, 1936.
39.
David Clay Large. Nazi Games: The Olympics of 1936. 1st ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 2007, 151.
40.
COOP, “Press Service. English Edition, No. 6,” June 18, 1936.
41.
COOP, “Letter to Sir Walter Citrine, Secretary, Trades Union Congress General Council,” June 18, 1936, Archives of the Trades Union Congress.
42.
EA Montague. Manchester Guardian, December 5, 1935 as quoted in Paul A. Spencer, “A Discussion of Appeasement and Sport as Seen in the Manchester Guardian and the Times,” Australian Society for Sports History Bulletin 2 (1996): 3–19.
43.
Francis D’Arcy Osborne. “Letter from Sir Francis D’Arcy Godolphin Osborne, Minister at the British Embassy in Washington to Sir Samuel Hoare, the Foreign Secretary,” October 25, 1935. National Archive.
44.
Edward Phillips. “Telegram from Sir Edward Phillips,” November 7, 1935.
45.
Wigram was one of the first in the Foreign Office to raise the alarm about Nazi Rearmament. He died in late 1936, with the cause of death listed as “pulmonary embolism.” A letter from Winston Churchill suggests he died in the arms of his wife, but others have suggested suicide. His family did not attend his funeral, lending some credibility to this theory.
46.
Edward Phillips. “Telegram from Sir Edward Phillips, British Ambassador to Germany and minutes of subsequent meeting” November 11, 1935. National Archive and Edward Phillips. “Telegram from Sir Edward Phillips,” November 7, 1935.
47.
David Clay Large. Nazi Games: The Olympics of 1936. 1st ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 2007.
48.
“El Estado Niega Toda Subvencion a La Participacion de Espana En Los Juegos Olimpicos.” ABC. June 28, 1936.
49.
“Los Espanoles Concurrian a Los Juegos de Berlin.” ABC, July 5, 1936.
50.
ABC, July 4th 1936.
51.
“El Estado Niega Toda Subvencion a La Participacion de Espana En Los Juegos Olimpicos.” ABC. June 28, 1936.
52.
William Baker, “New Light on the Nazi Olympics,” Journal of Sport History 8 (1981).
53.
B. J Keys. 2006. Globalizing Sport: National Rivalry and International Community in the 1930s. Harvard Univ Pr.
54.
X. Pujadas and C. Santacana, “The Popular Olympic Games, Barcelona 1936: Olympians and Antifascists,” International Review for the Sociology of Sport 27, no. 2 (1992): 142.
55.
AEP, “Berlin Una Altra Vega,” Butlleti D’Informacio De La Seccio De Gimnas i D’Esports De L’Ateneu Enciclopedic Popular, April 1936.
56.
Among other positions, he had served as director of the Catalan Athletics Federation and editor of sports publications including La Jornada Deportiva, La Raça, and Sports.
57.
“Esport I Ciutadania.” l’Acció. July 11, 1936.
58.
COOP. “Manifest, Programa,” 1936.
59.
“Press Service. English Edition, No. 6,” June 18, 1936. Archives of the Trades Union Congress.
60.
“Esport I Ciutadania.” l’Acció. July 11, 1936.
61.
COOP. “Manifest, Programa,” 1936.
62.
David Goldblatt, The Games: A Global History of the Olympics (WW Norton & Company, 2018).

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San Diego Mesa College, San Diego, CA, USA
James Stout

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Stout, J. (2020). The Berlin Games and the Boycott. In: The Popular Front and the Barcelona 1936 Popular Olympics. Mega Event Planning. Palgrave Pivot, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-8071-6_2

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-8071-6_2
Published: 10 July 2019
Publisher Name: Palgrave Pivot, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-13-8070-9
Online ISBN: 978-981-13-8071-6
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)

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