Jesse Owens’ Room, Meissen House, 1936 Olympic Village

75 years ago this week, Jesse Owens won four gold medals at the Berlin Games.

Jesse Owens’ Room, Meissen House, 1936 Olympic Village, Berlin 2010

During the Berlin Olympics, male competitors were housed in the Olympic Village, located about 14 km west of the Olympic Stadium. There were 140 houses for the athletes, and each house was named after a German city. Jesse Owens stayed in Meissen House. The white bungalows with red tile roofs contained 13 bedrooms, with two athletes per room. According to the official report of the 1936 Games, “the double-bed rooms were spacious, elegantly designed and lavishly decorated and furnished.”

Soon after he moved into the Olympic Village, Jesse Owens was visited by a German shoe manufacturer named Adi Dassler. Owens was persuaded by Dassler to compete wearing the athletic shoes that he was producing in a small company in Bavaria. This was the first sponsorship for an African-American athlete. As a result, Adi Dassler’s business expanded, and he eventually founded Adidas in 1948.

American Olympian Jesse Owens was born James Cleveland Owens, in 1913 in Alabama. The son of a sharecropper and the grandson of a slave, he went on to become the star of the Berlin Games. There he won four gold medals: the 100 metre sprint on August 3^rd; the long jump on August 4^th; the 200 metre sprint on August 5^th; and the 4 x 100 metre relay on August 9^th. Owens’ record of four gold medals at a single Olympic Games stood for almost 50 years, until Carl Lewis won gold medals in the same four events in 1984.

Italian Dining Room, House of Nations, 1936 Olympic Village

The Italian dining room, one of the largest in Berlin’s Olympic Village, catered to the 240 men on the Italian team.

Italian Dining Room, House of Nations, 1936 Olympic Village, Berlin 2010

The 1936 Olympic Village is located about 14km west of the Olympic Stadium, in the German countryside. This is where all the male athletes were housed, while the 328 female competitors were accommodated in Friesen House adjacent to the main stadium. In all, approximately 4,000 athletes from 49 nations took part in the Summer Games.

The village was laid out in the shape of a map of Germany with the House of Nations, or main dining hall, centrally located. This large, circular three-story building contained 38 separate dining rooms. The Italian dining room shown here is one of the two large halls located on the ground floor, and it catered to the 240 men on the Italian team.

The Olympic Village, constructed by the German Army under the direction of Captain Wolfgang Fuerstner, received high praise. However, Captain Fuerstner was demoted because of his Jewish ancestry, and tragically, two days after the Games, he went to his barracks and shot himself.

Following the 1936 Olympics, the village became home to a German infantry school, and the House of Nations was turned into a hospital. After WW II, the Soviet army took over the site and used it until 1992. Following their withdrawal, the village was abandoned. More recently, it has been protected by a preservation order, and DKB (The German Credit Bank) is now overseeing the historic restoration and sustainable development of the 1936 Berlin Olympic Village.

Architect, House of Nations: Georg Steinmetz Date: 1934-1936

Architect, Olympic Village: Werner March Date: 1934-1936

Swimming Stadium and Pool, 1936 Olympic Games

Perhaps the best-known account of the 1936 Summer Games is Leni Riefenstah’s film Olympia, with its celebrated diving sequence.

Swimming Stadium and Pool, 1936 Olympic Games, Berlin 2010

The swimming stadium is positioned just to the north of the 1936 Berlin Olympic Stadium. It is one of many competition venues located on the 130-hectare site of the Reichssportfeld.

Like the main arena, the swimming stadium is clad in limestone. It holds 6,500 spectators, but during the Olympics thousands more were accommodated on temporary stands. The stadium contains a swimming pool measuring 20 x 50 metres, and a 20 x 20 metre diving pool. Here, Marjorie Gestring of the United States won the women’s three-metre springboard diving event at the age of 13 years, 268 days. She was the youngest person to win a gold medal, and that record still stands today.

Another young swimmer, 15-year-old Austrian champion Ruth Langer, refused to compete in the 1936 Olympics. Although anti-Semitism was strong in Austria, officials had named Ruth, Judith Deutsch and Lucie Goldner to their swimming team. The three women, all Jews, refused to take part in the Olympics, saying: “We do not boycott Olympia, but Berlin.” However, there was no mass international boycott of the games.

Perhaps the best-known account of the 1936 Summer Games is the full-length film Olympia, directed by Leni Riefenstahl. The diving sequence shot at the swimming stadium is one of the most celebrated parts of this notorious film that was awarded a Gold Medal by the IOC. Although Riefenstahl was cleared by a denazification court in 1952 of charges of Nazi collaboration, she was haunted for the rest of her life by questions about her role in creating propaganda for Hitler and the Nazis.

Architect: Werner March Date: 1936

Cauldron, 1936 Olympic Stadium

The 1936 Berlin Olympics marked the first time that a torch relay was run from Olympia to the site of the games.

Cauldron, 1936 Olympic Stadium, Berlin 2010

The 1936 Olympic Games were the largest to date; they involved approximately 4,000 athletes from 49 nations, and 3.8 million spectators. It was the first time that the games received worldwide radio coverage, and there were TV broadcasts as well. The Nazis were masters of symbols, pageantry, communication and propaganda.

The Berlin Olympics also marked the first time ever that a torch relay was run from Olympia to the site of the games. The cauldron, located just inside the Marathon Gate of the Olympic Stadium, is Germanic in design with its clean, unadorned lines. Like all Nazi architecture, it is intended to look durable, permanent, timeless. Hitler decreed that the Olympic Stadium be constructed entirely of German materials, and this was true for the cauldron as well, which is made of steel on concrete.

Clearly visible in this photograph is the new roof of the stadium, added during the 2000-2004 modernization. The cantilevered construction is made up of a steel framework covered by a membrane, except for the outermost 13 metres which are glazed. Integral to this new roof are state of the art lighting and sound systems.

The renovated stadium now seats 74,228 people, not 100,000 as it did originally. On the right hand side of this image you can see the VIP boxes which look the same as they did when Reich Chancellor Adolf Hitler stood there, in the so-called Führer’s box, and officially opened the Berlin Olympic Games.

Architect: Werner March Date: 1936

Conversion Architects: GMP Date: 2000-2004

East Gate, 1936 Olympic Stadium

75 years ago, in August 1936, the XI Games took place in the Berlin Olympic Stadium.

East Gate, 1936 Olympic Stadium, Berlin 2010

The East Gate of the stadium, also known as the Olympic Gate, is made up of the Bavarian Tower and the Prussian Tower; together they support the Olympic Rings. Although modernized in 2000-2004, the stadium as seen in this photograph looks much as it did for the XI Olympic Games.

In 1933, Hitler personally intervened in the design of the stadium; he had his architect Albert Speer modify its outward appearance to keep it more in line with the Colosseum in Rome. The Berlin stadium, made of reinforced concrete, was covered with a veneer of limestone at Speer’s suggestion. There are 136 columns supporting the two-story arcade around the outside of the oval arena that held 100,000 spectators.

Architecture in The Third Reich was used to express the power of the state, and massive buildings were designed to symbolize Germany’s international standing. Hitler said he wanted to see eternal works built in Berlin, “comparable only to Ancient Egypt, Babylon and Rome.” The Nazis used the Olympics as a showcase for the National Socialist dictatorship; however, these games are now often referred to as the Propaganda Games. At the same time as Hitler was opening the games on August 1^st, 1936, forced labour was being used only 35 km away to build Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp.

After WW II, the British occupied the Olympic site until 1994. Following the recent renovations, the stadium hosted the 2006 FIFA World Cup and it is now home to Hertha BSC, Berlin’s soccer club.

Architect: Werner March Date: 1936

Conversion Architects: GMP Date: 2000-2004

VIP Stairway, 1936 Olympic Stadium

Exactly 75 years ago, on August 1^st, 1936, Hitler opened the XI Games in the Berlin Olympic Stadium.

VIP Stairway, 1936 Olympic Stadium, Berlin 2010

Exactly 75 years ago, on August 1^st, 1936, Hitler mounted these stairs in the Berlin Olympic Stadium, entered his VIP box, and officially opened the XI Games. The Nazis used the Olympics as a showcase for their National Socialist dictatorship; however, these games are now often referred to as the Propaganda Games. At the same time that Hitler was opening the games, forced labour was being used only 35 km away to build Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp.

The Third Reich used “monumental” architecture to exalt the state and diminish the individual. In 1933, Hitler personally intervened in the design of the Olympic Stadium; he had his architect Albert Speer modify its outward appearance to keep it more in line with the Colosseum in Rome. The Berlin stadium, made of reinforced concrete, was covered with a veneer of limestone at Speer’s suggestion. Following the Olympics, Hitler attended many National Socialist events in the stadium. During a state visit in 1937, Hitler and Mussolini mounted these stairs and stood together to watch a nighttime rally in the arena. The spectacle included a “Dome of Light” created by Albert Speer using anti-aircraft searchlights.

During the recent modernization of the 1936 Olympic Stadium, the outside appearance was preserved as much as possible, with the exception of the new roof. However, the inside of the stadium was completely redesigned, except the rooms behind the VIP section which are protected by conservation laws. The stairs in this photograph are located in the protected area, and they lead up to the Balcony of Honour. It is said that during the Nazi regime, when it was time to leave the VIP lounge and go up to the Führer’s Box, Hitler alone would use these stairs and others would be directed to a different stairway.

Architect: Werner March Date: 1936

Conversion Architects: GMP Date: 2000 – 2004