A critical analysis of the racial communication strategies of the 1936 Olympic newspaper

1. Racial Communication Strategies in the
“Olympiazeitung” during the 1936 Berlin Olympics

7. Constructing “the other’

8. At night under the
village trees.
Conversation and --
conversation!
Early morning
when the
roosters crow

9. [In Bavarian dialect:] ”And I had thought
we are the only ones who have a
character.”
That’s how the Brazilian coffee
was supposedly rowed over.

11. Our
cartoonist
illustrates
here the fact
that Avery
Brundage
could unite all
of his athletes
under one
hat.

19. The autograph hunter: “So, which one is Owens?”
Nightly spook in the
Olympic Village

21. “One can’t think of a more beautiful
connection: the different groups who
each represent their ethnicity, the
particularities of their country in dress,
music, and dance - and the Arbeitsdienst
[work service], today still a German
institution, in the future maybe a great
common one, which will be part of every
people and therefore the basis for a
healthy coexistence of all people.”

22. Relativizing the records

23. “Was that Rosemeyer?”
No – Jesse Owens!”

24. 3. August 1936, 16:55 – before the start to the 100m dash, the commentator
of the new German Reich Television:
„There they scuttle like thoroughbred horses. Two blacks
against four whites. Europe against the USA. The battle
begins.”

26. “’Why are you, why are the Negroes so
quick, Mr. Owens?’ But he avoided and
answer. That’s when we told him that one
of our greatest experts, the German Reich
sport teacher Waitzer answered this
question as follows: ‘American scientists
trace the significant superiority of the
Negro in running to the more favorable
anatomic built of their body. They found
that Negroes have a more pronounced
down tilt between pelvis and tight, which
allows for more effective muscle work
while running. This more favorable
construction supposedly results in a 8-
10cm longer step with the same amount of
strength. This is biologically justified.

27. “Mister Owens – 10.2 seconds is an overly high
speed!”
”Sorry - - but my breaks don’t work very well!”
Japanese are starting artists – Jesse Owens IS the
miracle runner

28. Owens in Nurmi’s
path

29. The jubilation was lastly so
great because the masses
were, at the same time,
elated by the fabulous
Italian Cerati who
supremely won the run over
5000 meters.

30. If Jesse Owens would start in the swimming
competitions
In the Olympic village. I
can really recommend
this sunblock.

31. Knocking black athletes down the evolutionary ladder

33. “Johnson’s jump over 2.03 meters … was like the jump of a panther. ..When we
compare Johnson with a panther, then in a deeper sense. … This animal-like,
panther-like perfection shows when he runs and rises in the air. But it also, and
that’s most important, in all he does otherwise. One only has to observe him on
Sunday when he is resting. … That’s how the beautiful predator looks after its
hunt. … This ability to dedicate oneself completely into the running or the resting
is something the Negro has because he is closer to the natural state than the white
man. It creates the indescribable something beyond technique that leads to
victory.
The development of the human kind goes undeniably from sensing to knowing,
from instinct to technique. In the beginning, the animal shows itself superior, we
are talking of physical technique here, but slowly the human advances. He
researches, he learns, he knows, he discovers connections, he thinks, … he creates
a technique and improves it constantly, and with each new discovery he comes a
little step closer to the distant ideal of divinity. …
That’s why the opportunities of the white race, which is mainly the bearer of
knowledge, not the intellectual school knowledge, but the conscious life, are vast.
And that’s why the colored men, against some pessimistic prophecies, will never
have a chance in the world, at least not as far as they live by their instinct. …
Johnson comes from an intellectual era that we have left behind us forever. … His
spirit lives in his blood and he, therefore, still in the state of paradise.”

35. Yes, sir – this
be the little
oak branches
from
Germany, who
I have
received at
Olympics in
Börlin.

36. “At the end – autograph exchange”

37. “Please, would you sell me bus as
little souvenir of Germany,
Börlin!?”

39.  “I'm afraid the Nazis have succeeded with their
propaganda. First, the Nazis have run the Games on a
lavish scale never before experienced, and this has
appealed to the athletes. Second, the Nazis have put up
a very good front for the general visitors, especially the
big businessmen.”
Foreign correspondent William Shirer in his diary, Berlin, August 16, 1936

40. Godfrey Brown (GB, Silver 400m):
“The fact is that some of us went to Berlin with the
mistaken idea – that we were going to watch or take part
in a sports meeting. Instead, we were treated to a piece
of political propaganda […] On the last day we were
inflicted with the sight of thousands of gross, flabby
Germans, so-called Hitler Youth, clad in nothing but
shorts and performing ridiculous evolutions on the
grass. We cried, “Sweep on, you fat and greasy citizens,”
and made a dash for the first train home.”