Olympic Symbols have Nazi Past

As a non sports fan I find the Olympics to be one big YAAAAWNNN!! The Nazi past of two things most associated with the Olympics shook me out of my ennui.

The torch relay, which culminates in Friday's ceremonial lighting of the flame at the Olympic stadium, was a creation of Adolf Hitler, who tried to turn the 1936 Berlin Games into a celebration of the Third Reich.

and

And it was Hitler's Nazi propaganda machine that popularized the five interlocking rings as the symbol of the games.

I was stunned to learn this. Sports Illustrated

Wow. I had no idea what type of past these symbols actually had.

So what. Hitler also introduced the Autobahn (i.e. the modern expressway) as part of his public works. Should we eschew good roads for that reason?

I love the torch relay and the rings

Other things with a Nazi past:

NASA , especially the Apollo program. (See Werner Von Braun)
Volkswagen: The Bug , from Hitler to you.


Doesn't really matter. I consider them the Silver linings of the Black Cloud of Nazi Germany..

So what?

The nazis saw the Olympic Games as a good ocasion to advertise their superior race, and failed, and the idea of showing healthy german men and women was one that they always promoted.

The 1936 Olympic Games where also the first to be broadcast in one of the first forms of televesion, and I don't think that could be also seen as a Nazi past.

Also, the 1936 games may have popularized the five rings, but that symbol was created in 1914.

the olympic rings were designed by pierre de coubertin, the founder of the modern olympic games. the symbol first appeared in the paris magazine "Le Bon Marche" in 1913 and it was approved at the olympic congress in 1914.

approved > "popularized"

although i do not follow the games with great enthusiam, any heritage associated with nazi germany fails to bother me! but still, an interesting insight into nazi germany that we all take for granted with ignorance.

[edit on 14-8-2004 by fitch]

hmmm

check this out

entertainment.howstuffworks.com...

not everything in the world seems above top secret

Originally posted by Aether
hmmm

check this out

entertainment.howstuffworks.com...

not everything in the world seems above top secret

ummm... the link was to Sports Illustrated....not pretending to be top secret, just one of the things that make ya go "well I'll be"

I guess you are right, it doesn't really matter where an Olympic symbol came from, as long as its current meaning is positive.