When the games were over

Germany declared itself the winner with 89 German medals to 56 for the Americans.

Nazis efforts were successful. Visitors left with the impression that Germany was prosperous, well run, and hospitable. NY Times was announcing that Germany was back among the civilized nations and reporters called the event "the greatest publicity stunt in history". 

Hitler got the thing he needed most : Respectability, and there would be no more Olympic Games for the next dozen years.

Instead of competing with each other on athletic fields, the youth of many countries wound up killing each other on fields of battle in a new world war – a war Adolf Hitler was already planning.

Top Medalists

Jesse Owens (The United States of America)

American athlete won 4 gold medals.
 

Konrad Frey (Germany)

 

 

German athlete won 3 gold, 1 silver and 2 bronze medals.

Hendrika Mastenbroek (The Netherlands)

 

Dutch swimmer won 3 gold and 1 silver medals.

Leni Riefenstahl and Olympia

In August 1936, film-maker and photographer Leni Riefenstahl was commissioned to document Berlin Olympics.

Riefenstahl's directorial efforts i n Olympia, which captured with haunting effectiveness the images of the the Games in Berlin. It was for Olympia that Riefenstahl pioneered numerous cinematographic techniques, such as filming footage with cameras mountedon rails.

Olympia's forceful blend of aesthetics, sports, and propaganda again won Riefenstahl accolades and awards, including Best Foreign Film honors at the Venice Film Festival and a special award from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for depicting the joy of sport. 

Riefenstahl's directorial efforts in Olympia, which captured with haunting effectiveness the images of the the Games in Berlin. It was for Olympia that Riefenstahl pioneered numerous cinematographic techniques, such as filming footage with cameras mounted on rails (commonly known today as tracking shots).

The Heroes of Berlin Summer Olympics

Adolf Hitler hoped that the 1936 Berlin Games would prove his theory of Aryan racial superiority. Instead, Owens’ achievements led the people of Berlin to hail him, an African-American, as a hero.

At the 1936 Berlin Games, Owens won four gold medals, in the 100m, 200m, 4x100m relay and the long jump. He managed to break or equal nine Olympic records and also set three world records. One of those world records was in the 4x100m relay. The quartet set a time that wouldn’t be bettered for 20 years.

The long jump was Jesse Owens best event. Owens, who held the world record in the long jump, foot-faulted on his first two qualifying jumps. If he fouled again, he’d be eliminated. According to Owens, Luz Long, the only man who had a chance to beat Owens, introduced himself and suggested that Owens play it safe by making a mark a foot before the takeoff board to assure he could qualify. It worked, and Owens advanced to the finals to compete against Long. This decision to help a competitor is still viewed as one of the great acts of sportsmanship but the fact that Long was Germany’s premier long-jumper and made the act even more extraordinary.

 
In 1942, Long wrote this letter to Owens:
My heart is telling me that this is perhaps the last letter of my life. If that is so, I beg one thing from you. When the war is over, please go to Germany, find my son and tell him about his father. Tell him about the times when war did not separate us and tell him that things can be different between men in this world. Your brother, Luz.

Years later Jesse Owens said “You could melt down all the medals and cups I have and they wouldn’t be a plating in the 24 carrot friendship I felt for Luz Long at that moment.”  Owens and Long remained friends. Luz Long was killed in the battle of St. Pietro on July 14th, 1943. 

Young Olympians

Thirteen-year-old Marjorie Gestring of the US won the gold medal in springboard diving. She remains the youngest female gold medallist in the history of the Summer Olympic Games. 

Twelve-year-old Inge Sorensen of Denmark earned a bronze medal in the 200m breaststroke, making her the youngest medallist ever in an individual event.

Helene Mayer

As a token gesture to mollify the West, German authorities allowed the half-Jewish fencer Helene Mayer to represent Germany in Berlin.

She won a silver medal. Controversially, she wore a swastika and extended her right arm in the Nazi salute on the medal stand during the medal ceremony. This rankled many, but others explained that she was trying to protect her family. 

Although her Jewish father had died in 1931, her mother and two brothers had continued to live in Germany. Mayer considered herself German and wanted to represent her country, but she was not accepted back into German society. 

After the Olympics, Mayer returned to the United States. No other Jewish athlete competed for Germany. Still, nine Jewish athletes won medals in the Nazi Olympics, including Mayer and five Hungarians. Seven Jewish male athletes from the United States went to Berlin.

Gender Controversy 

Historically, sport's first encounter with disorders of sex development (DSD) was in 1936 at the infamous Berlin Olympics. Controversy during the games was most notably in the women's 100-metre sprint. Stella Walsh, a Polish-born athlete with US citizenship, and Helen Stephens, an American sprinter had competed in previous competitions – Walsh won the 100 meter sprint in 1932 and therefore attended Berlin as defending champion. Stephens finished just in front of Walsh, posting a world record time of 11.5 seconds; Walsh completed the sprint in 11.7 seconds.

Walsh publicly accused Stephens of being male after she won the 100-metre sprint in 1936. Since no formal gender verification program existed at this time, the Olympic committee felt compelled to perform a sex check on Stephens. It confirmed Stephens possessed female external genitalia.

Decades later following Walsh's murder a post-mortem examination confirmed that Walsh possessed ambiguous genitalia and abnormal sex chromosomes, although the exact DSD was not established.  

Dora Ratjen

Dora Ratjen was a German athlete who competed for Germany in the women's high jump at Berlin, finishing fourth, but was later discovered to be male.

In 1966, Time magazine reported that, in 1957, Dora had presented as Hermann, a waiter in Bremen, "who tearfully confessed that he had been forced by the Nazis to pose as a woman 'for the sake of the honor and glory of Germany'. Sighed Hermann: 'For three years I lived the life of a girl. It was most dull.