The Nazi flame that still burns

It is safe to say that the Olympic Games is the biggest sporting event.Every 4 years the event attracts the attentions of hundreds of millions sports enthusiasts and also people who have very little interest in sports. for aside from the sports it is also entertainment and especially the opening ceremony.

But above the sports and entertainment the Olympic games have always been political and the perfect tool for mass propaganda.

What many people don’t realize is that one of the highlights of the opening ceremony of the Olympic games, the lighting of the flame after the torch relay was first introduced by the Nazi regime, to the modern Olympic games.

The 1936 Olympic summer Games were the first to use the torch run. Each of  the 3,422 torch bearers ran one kilometer  along the route of the torch relay from the site of the ancient Olympics in Olympia, Greece, to Berlin.The route passed through the capitals of each of the countries visited.

The idea of the torch relay was a brainwave of Carl Diem,a German sports administrator.

Adolf Hitler thought the connection with the ancient Games was the perfect way to show his belief that ancient Greece was an Aryan forerunner of the modern German Reich. He quoted:

“The sportive, knightly battle awakens the best human characteristics. It doesn’t separate, but unites the combatants in understanding and respect. It also helps to connect the countries in the spirit of peace. That’s why the Olympic Flame should never die.”

The relay started on the 20th of  July 1936 in Olympia and ended on August 1 1936 in Berlin at the start of the 1936 Olympic Summer Games.

These games were going to be the template for all future games.