Olympic Committee Faces Backlash Following Sale of 1936 Berlin Olympics T-Shirt
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is under fire after selling T-shirts featuring designs commemorating the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games, which Adolf Hitler used as a platform to promote Nazi ideology, according to news reports.
The shirts, which no longer appear on the official Olympic Shop e-commerce site, feature an original poster design by Franz Würbel, a 19th-century painter. It depicts a male figure wearing a laurel wreath, with Olympic rings over his head, and the Brandenburg Gate, along with the words “Germany Berlin 1936 Olympic Games” at the bottom.
One of the original Berlin Olympic Games posters sold for $2,500 on Sotheby’s.
“The 1936 Olympic Games were a central propaganda tool of the Nazi regime,” Klara Schedlich, sports policy spokesperson for the Green Party faction in the Berlin House of Representatives, told German press agency DPA. She added that the IOC’s choice of image is “problematic” and “unsuitable” — a result of “clearly not reflecting sufficiently on its own history.”
The IOC told the BBC it acknowledges “the historical issues of Nazi propaganda,” but also wanted the Berlin Games to be remembered for the 4,483 athletes from 49 countries who competed in 149 medal events.
“Many of them stunned the world with their athletic achievements, including Jesse Owens,” a spokesperson for the IOC said. African American track and field athlete Jesse Owens won four gold medals at the 1936 Games, challenging Nazi claims of racial superiority.
The 1936 Berlin shirt is one of several items in the shop’s “Heritage Collection,” which aims to celebrate 130 years of Olympic art and design, a spokesperson told the BBC. The full collection includes outerwear, T-shirts, headwear, accessories, drinkware, and keychains, among other items.
T-shirts from the Olympic Shop’s “Heritage Collection” are selling for $47. | Credit: Olympic Shop
The historical context of the Berlin Games was explained at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, according to the IOC spokesperson, and a limited number of 1936 T-shirts were produced and sold.
