In light of their status as the most successful Olympics up to that point in time, the 1936 Berlin Summer Games came very close to not taking place at all. Te International Olympic Committee (IOC) awarded the Games to the German capital over Barcelona in a close 1931 contest. Soon
thereafer, the ailing Weimar Republic sufered its fnal collapse, giving way to rule by the National Socialist Party. The Nazi party’s history was laced with contempt for the Olympic movement, stemming mainly from the Olympic ideals of world peace and international understanding, and speculation abounded that the Nazis would call the Games of of their own accord. At the same time, international fgures concerned with the fascists’ radical policies opened a dialogue that explored selecting a new host city or, if that efort failed, boycotting.
However, Adolf Hitler and his associates soon perceived the tremendous utility aforded by a staged gathering of athletes and spectators from all corners of the globe. Indeed, the modern Olympics are conspicuous examples of what sociologist Maurice Roche and others in his feld refer to as “mega-events,” occasions that “are large-scale cultural (including commercial and sporting) events which have a dramatic character, mass popular appeal and international signifcance,” and which “are typically organised by variable combinations of national governmental and international
non-governmental organisations and thus can be said to be important elements in ‘ofcial’ versions of public culture.”
One of the ways in which the Berlin Olympics built upon its 1932 Los Angeles predecessor was the scope of media coverage: the Games drew an unprecedented 3,000 or so journalists from television, radio, and print media, a fact that gave the Nazis’ mega-event a truly global reach.
