The Will of the Führer? Financing Construction for the 1936 Olympics

Abstract

This article examines how construction for the 1936 Olympic Games was funded. Based on a range of previously untapped sources, it fills an important gap in the literature by examining how the Nazi regime financed signature infrastructure projects like the Olympic Stadium and the German Sports Forum, which together hosted most major sporting events during the Games. It also challenges the Nazi propaganda image, unchecked due to a lack of scholarly attention, that Hitler played a central role in bringing the Olympic stadium to completion. Indeed, by analysing the debates over who should pay for what and where the money should come from, this article will highlight what lay behind the ‘will of the Führer’: a convoluted administrative process involving different individuals and agencies, all of whom wanted to profit from construction without taking responsibility for it. In unpicking this myth, finally, this article will also address two further shortcomings in the literature: first, an imprecision over the motivation for Hitler's intervention in October 1933; and second, unsubstantiated claims about the sums Germany invested in hosting the Games, which will be shown to be grossly overinflated.