The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has ignited controversy by offering a T-shirt commemorating the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games, a tournament infamously used as a propaganda tool by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime. The item, part of the IOC Heritage Collection, has sparked debate over whether sporting history can ever be separated from the political realities that framed it.
Currently listed as “out of stock” on the official Olympic website, the T-shirt features the original 1936 poster designed by Franz Würbel. The artwork depicts a crowned athletic figure above the Olympic rings and the Brandenburg Gate, accompanied by the text “Germany Berlin 1936 Olympic Games.” The IOC frames the Heritage Collection as a tribute to the aesthetic and cultural history of the Olympics, describing each edition of the Games as reflecting “distinct historical moments when the world gathered to celebrate humanity.” Critics argue that this framing risks obscuring the oppressive political context of the Berlin Games, which occurred just three and a half years after the Nazi seizure of power.
The 1936 Olympics were carefully orchestrated by Hitler to project an image of a strong, unified Germany. Nazi ideology was subtly woven into the pageantry, emphasizing the supposed superiority of Aryan athletes. At the same time, Jews and other marginalized groups were systematically excluded from competition. Hundreds of Roma residents in Berlin were forcibly detained, and overt antisemitic propaganda was temporarily minimized to avoid international criticism.
Despite the regime’s intent to glorify its ideology, African American track and field star Jesse Owens emerged as the defining figure of the Games. Winning four gold medals, Owens directly challenged the Nazi narrative of racial superiority on the global stage. Christine Schmidt, co-director of the Wiener Holocaust Library in London, noted that while the sporting achievements were remarkable, they cannot be disentangled from the broader historical context. According to Schmidt, the Berlin Games allowed the Nazi regime to improve its international image even as persecution of Jews and other minorities escalated.
Scott Saunders, chief executive of the International March of the Living, reinforced this concern, highlighting that the Berlin Olympics effectively legitimized Hitler’s government during a period of intensifying antisemitic oppression. Saunders emphasized the enduring risk of sanitizing history, cautioning that sport can be manipulated to normalize exclusion and hatred if lessons from the past are ignored.
In defending the Heritage Collection, the IOC emphasized that it celebrates 130 years of Olympic art and design, spanning every edition of the Games. The organization acknowledged the political controversies surrounding the 1936 Olympics but also underscored the athletic achievements of the event: 4,483 athletes from 49 countries competed across 149 events. The IOC noted that historical context is addressed at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne and explained that production of the 1936-themed T-shirts was limited, accounting for their current unavailability.
The controversy underscores a broader tension between preserving Olympic history and confronting the darker chapters embedded within it. While the IOC emphasizes artistic and athletic heritage, critics argue that selling merchandise linked to the Berlin Games risks trivializing the suffering and systemic persecution orchestrated by the Nazi regime. The debate raises fundamental questions about how institutions remember and present history when its symbols intersect with oppression and propaganda.
