The Aryan Games (German: Arische Spiele[1]) were a proposed replacement for the Olympic Games in Nazi Germany. Proposed by Nazi sports organizer Carl Diem and subsequently adopted by Adolf Hitler, these multi-sport games were supposed to be housed permanently in Nuremberg at the planned "German Stadium", that had been designed by Nazi architect Albert Speer, but was never built.

The idea was originally entertained in 1939 by Carl Diem, chief organiser of the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, who ahead of the 1936 Olympics was already noted for claiming that "Germanics may only be defeated by other Germanics," which turned out not to be the case.[1] The idea was subsequently adopted by Hitler, who told Albert Speer that once the German Stadium was built, there would be no more Olympic Games, only the Aryan Games.[2][3]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Bernd A. Rusinek (2002). "Der Kult der Jugend und des Krieges". In Jost Dülffer; Gerd Krumeich (eds.). Der verlorene Frieden: Politik und Kriegskultur nach 1918 (Bibliothek für Zeitgeschichte, Band 15) (in German). Essen: Klartext. p. 181. ISBN 978-3-89861-075-9.
  2. ^ Krüger, Arnd and William Murray. The Nazi Olympics: Sport, Politics, and Appeasement in the 1930s. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, c2003. 260 pages. UCSB Main Library GV722 1936 .N39 2003
  3. ^ "Hitler's Secret Weapon: Propaganda Through Athletics"
Categories