The Olympic Flame

The modern convention of moving the Olympic flame via a relay system from Greece to the Olympic venue began in 1936. Carl Diem devised the idea of the torch relay for the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin that was organized by the Nazis under the guidance of Joseph Goebbels. 

Siegfried Eifrig helped to carry the torch that lit the flame at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. To the Nazi regime he personified the Aryan race – tall, blond, blue-eyed and athletic.

 

Eifrig took the torch at the beginning of Unter den Linden – Berlin’s main boulevard – before handing it over so that others could carry it to the Olympic stadium. Though he was a talented sprinter, Eifrig did not get into the German Olympic squad. But he ran with distinction for the Charlottenburg Athletic Club and as a result was given the opportunity to carry the Olympic torch into the stadium.