WWII and the Olympic Games

**Scoop** · 02-15-2010 03:15

Just heard that Hitler invented the torch relay for the Olympic Games and was pretty much shocked. Not sure if the Olympic Committee ever thought of this, but I think it's creapy and when you think about it it fits pretty well into the Nazi ideology.

**SoldierSteve** · 02-15-2010 03:43

Sorry to have to contradict you Christoph but according to Wikipedia it was introduced by Carl Diem although it was indeed at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Apparently Hitler liked it as he believed in a direct Arian link between the Ancient Greeks and the Third Reich.

**Scoop** · 02-15-2010 07:12

Ah, allright then.

**Carl_Brisgamer** · 02-16-2010 03:02

Here's an Olympic question.

Which Luftwaffe fighter pilot was an Olympic champion, and how did he note the fact on his aircraft?

**sparty** · 02-16-2010 20:15

Was it Gotthard Handrick?

I'm assuming you mean his "h" that was added for the publicity tour he did in his plane after his involvement in the Spanish Civil War.

Is that correct? This one was hard to track down because a few Olympian medalists eventually flew for the Luftwaffe I think. Handrick was the only one I could find that was a Gold medal winner though in my terse search.

**Carl_Brisgamer** · 02-16-2010 23:21

Originally Posted by sparty

Was it Gotthard Handrick?

I'm assuming you mean his "h" that was added for the publicity tour he did in his plane after his involvement in the Spanish Civil War.

Is that correct? This one was hard to track down because a few Olympian medalists eventually flew for the Luftwaffe I think. Handrick was the only one I could find that was a Gold medal winner though in my terse search.

Good job!

Handrick won the Gold medal in the Modern pentathlon at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin. he flew in Spain with Jagdgruppe 88 claiming 5 victories and scored another 10 in WW2.

He celebrated his 1936 Olympic Gold Medal by marking the spinner of his Legion Condor Bf 109 with the Olympic rings.

**sparty** · 02-19-2010 06:08

Woo Hoo!

I'm normally terrible at trivia. This one was fun to track down because there were a bunch of medal winners. Very interesting how each of the medal winner was used in marketing campaigns by Hitler to promote his ideals...even with the athletes themselves may have been at odds with his agenda.