Founding of the Organizing Committee
This memorandum contained all the plans which were later to be carried out. It was submitted to the German Olympic Committee during a meeting on November 11th, 1932 at the Administrative Headquarters of the Province of Brandenburg and was approved. The Committee authorized its chairman, Dr. Lewald, to form a special Organizing Committee, this being provided for in the statutes of the International Olympic Committee and also in coinciding with the practice followe by the nations which presented the former Olympic Festivals, This Committee was to include representatives of the Reich Association for Physical Training as well as the City of Berlin and would be responsible for the presentation of the Games.
According to the regulations of the International Olympic Committee, the Organizing Committee should be under the chairmanship of a member of the International Olympic Committee from the country in which the Games are to be held, and Dr. Lewald, who had been a member of the executive body of the International Olympic Committee since 1927, was called upon to fill this post. This Organizing Committee was responsible to the International Olympic Committee for the presentation of the Games and the observance of the Olympic regulations.
The first question to be solved was that of a symbol for the Berlin Festival, and after a number of designs had been considered, the idea of the Olympic Bell proposed by Dr. Lewald was decided upon in 1932, this becoming thereupon the emblem of the Games of 1936.
1933
The Organizing Committee held its initial meeting on January 24th, 1933 in the council chamber of the Berlin Town Hall where it was warmly greeted by the Mayor of Berlin, Dr. Sahm. In his opening address Dr. Lewald predicted the extensive participation of the entire world in the Berlin Games. He estimated that 4,000 athletes accompanied by 1,000 team leaders and trainers
would be present and strongly recommended the remodellin g of the existing stadium so that its capacity would be increased to between 80,000 and 85,000. In discussing the general plan of organization he emphasized his desire to arrange the presentations so that sport and art would occupy places of equal prominence, and revealed his plans for an Olympic Hymn for which a famous German composer would write the music, an exhibition of ancient art, a reception to be tendered the International Olympic Committee in the Pergamon Museum, and an Olympic Festival Play in the Stadium.
He estimated that the receipts from the sale of tickets would amount to 3,000,000 Reichsmarks, this sum to be augmented considerably through the income from rent, advertisements and special Olympic postage stamps. The problem of financing the Games had been largely solved through the generous cooperation of the authorities. The Reich Minister of Economics, Dr. Schacht, had given his consent to a large lottery which would run for three years, the German sporting and gymnastic federations had voluntarily declared their willingness to collect the "Olympic Penny" contribution from all the spectators at sporting events, and the Reich Post Ministry had promised to issue special Olympic postage stamps which would be sold at a slightly extra cost, the surplus to be contributed to the Olympic fund. It was estimated at the time that a total of l,000,000 Reichsmarks would be derived from the sale of Olympic stamps alone, although this proved to be much too conservative. Dr. Lewald also expressed his hope of being able to raise a private guaranty fund. Ministerial Director Pellengahr of the Reich Ministry of the Interior declared on behalf of the Reich Government that it was heartily in favour of the holding of the Olympic Games in Germany and would do all in its power to support them. During this meeting Dr. Lewald also announced the selection of the Olympic Bell with the inscription, "I summon the youth of the world." The National Olympic Committees of the various nations were then notified of the founding of the Organizing Committee, and on February 9th, Reich President von Hindenburg announced in response to the invitation of the Committee that he would be glad to accept the patronage over the Eleventh Olympic Games.