Leni Riefenstahl, a Nazi propagandist and sympathizer, is famous for her 1935 documentary of the 1934 Nazi Party Congress in Nuremberg, The Triumph of the Will. Like Triumph, Riefenstahl's filmed record of the 1936 Berlin Summer Olympics, Olympia, is often considered one of the greatest documentaries ever made—in spite of its politics. A film that would have been another testament to the superiority of the Aryan race became something far more interesting—and for the Nazis, problematic—when Jesse Owens won 4 gold medals.
The film opens with slow pans over Athenian ruins. Perfectly proportioned, white marble statues of gods and athletes are given prominence. The statues eventually give way to living—but similarly white— representations of idealized bodies, throwing discuses and displaying their physiques. Here, Riefenstahl is clearly drawing a link between whiteness, beauty and power: the supposed physical perfection of the Aryan race will lead to its cultural and political dominance for millennia to come.
This excerpt (the prologue of Olympia) contains nudity.
As Spitulnik points out in his thesis Sports: Unifier or Divider?, the 1936 Olympics were extremely important for two reasons: the "international stage" it gave Hitler to "showcase the Nazi regime" (10) and the feats of Jesse Owens. During the events in which Owens competes (100 and 200 meter dashes, long jump, and 4X100 meter relay), Riefenstahl regularly cuts away to reaction shots of Hitler, Goebbels, and Goering, all of whom are astonished by his performance. It is interesting to note that the only competitors Riefenstahl chose to shoot in slow motion are from Axis Powers—and Jesse Owens.
4x100 Meter Relay
Long jump. Note Riefenstahl's use of slow motion and ignore the YouTube comments.
Owens' victory unintentionally subverted Riefenstahl's portrayal of the German Übermensch. But what was the reaction of American newspapers at the time?
Segregation was apparent in newspapers as well as in society. David K. Wiggins looks at the coverage of the Olympics and Owens’ victory in his book The 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin: the Response of America’s Black Press. Most of the newspapers were published weekly. Among the national newspapers were the Baltimore Afro-American, Chicago Defender, and the Pittsburgh Courier-Journal. Among the beliefs expressed in the black press were that black track and field athletes chosen for the Olympics were not representing traditional black educational institutions. And the reason was due to the lack of proper equipment and training facilities.[i] Another belief stated that the achievements of black athletes in the Olympics should “…be an incentive to black Americans to do everything they could to strive for success in other fields of endeavor”.[ii]
Allen Guttman refers to the proposed boycott of the Olympics led by the Roman Catholics, with American Jews support, in his chapter titled “Berlin 1936: The Most Controversial Olympics”.[iii] The boycott movement failed. Significantly, the black owned Amsterdam News supported the boycott, but most of the other black newspapers (ex.: Pittsburgh Courier-Journal) did not want to keep black athletes from having the opportunity to participate in the Olympics.[iv]
Robert Drake’s study of the white southern press and the 1936 Olympics states that little page space was given to Owens’ achievements. The study primarily uses statistics to show the disparity of the regional newspapers coverage.
Ex: White press coverage of race in the 1936 Olympic Games.[v]
August 1, 1936 through August 17, 1936
|
# Papers:
|
Avg. # Pages per Issue
|
Avg. # Articles per Newspaper-Black Athletes
|
Avg. # Articles per Newspaper-White Athletes
|
Avg. # Photos per Newspaper-Black Athletes
|
Avg. # Photos per Newspaper-White Athletes
|
Deep South
|
26
|
9.92
|
1.48
|
4.60
|
.40
|
3.08
|
Other South/Border
|
27
|
10.85
|
5.81
|
3.96
|
1.08
|
4.08
|
North/West
|
30
|
110.03
|
6.60
|
4.63
|
2.70
|
3.10
|
In Everything was Better in America: Print Culture in the Great Depression, sportswriter Grantland Rice called the track and field events “a darkland parade”.[vi] Even more disparaging were the comments by Allan Gould, an Associated Press reporter. He called the events “the sepia saga.” The Chicago Tribune, covering Dave Albritton and Cornelius Johnson in the high jump events, called them “colored jumpers on kangaroo legs.” [vii]
Not all reporters wrote about black athletes in this manner. Shirley Povich wrote that success was achieved because blacks and whites competed as equals.[viii] Writing in the Atlanta Constitution, Ralph McGill, a sports editor, said “[America is] a country where a negro woman, washing clothes, could bring up her son and send him off for an education and see him become a winner of four Olympic medals.”
[A new book on this subject, written by Dr. Pamela Laucella, is to be published in January, 2013. The title is An Analysis of Mainstream, Black and Communist Coverage of Jesse Owens in the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games. The abstract of the article was published by the LA84 foundation in 2006, and suggests that there will be data along with text from writers of the period.
http://www.la84foundation.org/SportsLibrary/NASSH_Proceedings/NP2006/np2006zzq.pdf ]
http://www.la84foundation.org/SportsLibrary/NASSH_Proceedings/NP2006/np2006zzq.pdf ]
In a similar fashion the August 15, 1936 national Afro-American, printed several newspaper excerpts covering black athletes in the Olympics:
New York Post: “What would do the world-as well as the more vociferous quacks of the United States-some good would be an honest affirmation of the constitutional guarantee that all men are created free and equal. As one whose ancestors took considerable licking before signing on the line for early ‘teen amendments, I offer to advanced thinkers and peddlers of newspapers the thought that that they should be treated as such abroad as well as at home.” (Hugh Bradley, Sports Columnist)
Norfolk Journal and Guide: “…the scene of greatest triumphs by Negro athletes in Olympic history is in Nazi Germany where the supposed inferiority of non-Aryan peoples is made political capital.”
A letter to the Sports Editor, on August 8, 1936, discusses the press coverage of Owens’ slight by Hitler, as if it was something not tolerated in the United States. He goes on to say that the coverage was hypocritical because there are areas in the United States where Owens would not be allowed to participate in sports, much less be congratulated.
[i] David K. Wiggins, Glory Bound: Black Athletes in a White America, (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1997),. 62
[ii] Ibid. 63
[iii] Alan Tomlinson, Christopher Young, National Identity and Global Sports Events:Culture, Politics and Spectacle in the Olympics and the Football World Cup, e-book, Albany: State University of New York Press,67
[iv] Ibid, 77
[v] Robert Drake, “Jesse Who? Race, the Southern Press, and the 1936 Olympic Games”, American Journalism, 28:4, 81-110, 2011. 97
[vi] Everything Was Better in America: Print Culture in the Great Depression”, p.60
[vii] Ibid.
[viii] Ibid.
Sources:
The Afro-American. August 15, 1936. http://www.afro.com/afroblackhistoryarchives/google.htm. Web, March 19, 2012.
Drake, Robert. "'Jesse Who? Race, the Southern Press, and the 1936 Olympic Games", American Journalism. 24:4. 2011
Owens Captures Olympic Title, Equals World 100-Meter Record
https://vpn.umbc.edu/,DanaInfo=proquest.umi.com+pqdlink?index=3&did=88685050&SrchMode=1&sid=4&Fmt=10&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=HNP&TS=1332356506&clientId=11430
Spitulnik, Michael. Sports: Unifier or Divider? A study of the response of the white and black media to the integration of African-American athletes into mainstream sports from 1936 to 1968. BA Thesis. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 2010. Deep Blue. Web. March 5, 2012.
Tomlinson, Alan and Christopher Young. National Identity and Global Sports Events:Culture, Politics and Spectacle in the Olympics and the Football World Cup. Albany: State University of New York Press. e-book.
Welky, David. Glory Bound: Everything was Better in America: Print Culture in the Great Depression. University of Illionois Press, Urbana and Chicago, 2008.
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