The Other 1936 Olympics
90 Years Ago: Winter Games in Nazi Germany
This week, two things happened simultaneously that blurred past and present in my mind. One, I was asked to take part in a project about the 1936 Summer Olympic Games, which were famously held in Berlin during the Nazi era and whose ninetieth anniversary will be marked with commemorative events, lectures and historical programmes later this year. Two, the 2026 Winter Olympics opened in Milan and Cortina this week with the familiar mix of spectacle and sentiment. So naturally, the strange mind of the German historian mashes the two together and thinks: what about the Winter Olympics of 1936?
It’s a much quieter historical anniversary: Exactly ninety years ago (6 to 16 February 1936), the Winter Games opened in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, a Bavarian ski resort in the far south of Germany. They are far less remembered than the Berlin Summer Olympics later that year, yet in many ways, they are just as revealing. In the Bavarian snow, the Nazi regime practised the art of looking normal just as they began to implement some of their most radical measures yet.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to ZEITGEIST to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.