Which German city hosted the 1936 Summer Olympic Games?

The 1936 Summer Olympic Games were hosted by Berlin, Germany, from August 1 to August 16, 1936. Known officially as the Games of the XI Olympiad, they were staged in Nazi Germany and became one of the most politically charged sporting events in Olympic history.

Berlin had been selected by the International Olympic Committee in 1931, before Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party came to power. After 1933, the regime used the Games as a vast propaganda display, presenting Germany as orderly, modern, and peaceful while hiding or softening its persecution of Jews and other groups. The monumental Olympiastadion was the central venue.

The Games are especially remembered for Jesse Owens, the American track-and-field athlete who won four gold medals in sprinting and the long jump. His success directly contradicted Nazi racial ideology, although the popular story that Hitler personally refused to shake Owens’s hand is more complicated than often reported.

Berlin 1936 was also the first Olympics to carry a torch relay from Olympia in Greece to the host city. The next Summer Olympics were not held until London 1948 because World War II disrupted the Olympic schedule.