Carsten
Heinze: Der Kunstwettbewerb Musik im Rahmen der Olympischen Spiele 1936
Not until preparations for
the 1936 Olympics were well underway did the Nazi regime forsake its initial
rejection of the games, after duly recognizing their propagandistic potential:
Adolf Hitler thus declared the Olympics an official undertaking of the Third
Reich. The Nazis’ concerted effort to exploit the games began; any
independence the organizational committee had exercised up to this point was
quickly forfeited. Although the Olympic Art Competitions were introduced in
1912, they generated little public interest up to and including the games in
1932. The Nazis were determined to set new standards with this concomitant
event in 1936 and proceeded to use the forum to present to the world the
towering achievements of German art, which in the meantime had been purged of
all “degenerate” elements. This article reconstructs the
exploitative process as it pertained to the musical segment of the competition,
which culminated in a grand Olympic Concert, the very first of its kind.
Leaving nothing to chance in their erection of a “new monumental
style,” the Nazis awarded all of the four German works submitted a medal.