1936 ‘Nazi’ Games T-shirt sales cause stir but IOC says it must protect trademark

Official Olympic sales of T-shirts emblazoned with the poster of the 1936 Berlin Olympics, known as the “Nazi Games”, have caused a stir but the International Olympic Committee defended the move on Sunday, saying it was mainly concerned with protecting its trademark from potential uncontrolled use.

The Berlin Games are mostly remembered for being turned into a Nazi propaganda tool at the time by German Chancellor Adolf Hitler, symbolising his idea of a superior Aryan race and of Nazism, but they took place against a much more sinister backdrop.

Forced labour was used to deliver material for the construction of the Olympic stadium while the Nazis were already filling concentration camps across Germany with homosexuals, Jews, Communists, Roma and dissidents as well as other groups they openly hounded and vilified.

IOC spokesman Mark Adams raised a number of points when asked about the Olympic Games online shop – which the IOC runs – selling the Berlin 1936 T-shirts.

“The first answer is we cannot rewrite history. The 1936 Games happened. We hold up what (American sprinter) Jesse Owens did, and a number of other athletes, as a great example of upholding the Olympic spirit,” he told a press conference.

Black sprinter Owens became one of athletics’ most iconic figures by winning four gold medals at the Games, puncturing the Nazi myth of Aryan racial superiority in front of the Nazi leadership.

“We need to remember there are also some good aspects to that (Berlin Games),” Adams said.

He said trademarks could also be lost if they were not used, and that in turn could lead to the images being exploited.

“The validity of those trademarks depends on us exercising our rights. If we stop using the trademarks they can be taken by other people and potentially misused,” Adams said. “We produce a small number of those items. The main reason is to protect our copyright so they are not misused.”

The T-shirt depicts a man with features reminiscent of classical Greek statues wearing a laurel wreath, with Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate below him and the Olympic rings above him. The T-shirt reads “Germany Berlin 1936 Olympic Games” and includes the event dates.

While the IOC today is eager to distance itself from the leadership of those Games and its political connotations, it has retained one element first introduced by the Nazis in 1936 in the form of the torch relay.

This integral event – held ahead of every Summer and Winter Olympics nowadays – was not part of the ancient Greek Olympics. It was first introduced for Berlin ’36, with Nazi cinematographer Leni Riefenstahl including it in her controversial 1938 movie “Olympia”.