Berlin Games

Berlin hosted the world in 1936, when Adolf Hitler opened the doors to foreign visitors for the Summer Olympics. Those who travelled there saw a dazzling sporting spectacle, along with a carefully staged display of Germany's recovery under the Third Reich, which the regime wanted to present as a rising global force. Red-and-black flags hung beside the five rings from freshly painted facades, and residents stockpiled butter for weeks so that visitors would not notice any shortages. Anti-Semitic policies were briefly put on hold. Yet beneath this polished surface, the Games became a breeding ground for the political forces that would soon drag the world toward war.

Walters argues that the 1936 Olympics were the most political sporting event of the twentieth century. Rather than a simple gathering of athletes, the Games were a struggle between those who represented brutality and those who stood for civilised values, with each side seeking to use them to advance its own ideas. The book traces the two weeks of that August, which previewed the violence to come. It follows the competitors, many of whom came from modest backgrounds, to their moment in the Olympic Stadium. It also examines how the Nazi state sought to use the Games to showcase Aryan supremacy and fascist efficiency, and how politicians, diplomats and Olympic officials pursued power and prestige in rival contests whose outcomes shaped the world.

Drawing on original research and interviews with surviving participants from many countries, the author combines intrigue, sport, sexual scandal and disgrace into a detailed account. The result is a authoritative study of a period that continues to hold our fascination and unease.