Sporting and chivalrous competition awakens the best human qualities. It does not sever, but on the contrary, unites the opponents in mutual understanding and reciprocal respect. It also helps to strengthen the bonds of peace between the nations. May the Olympic Flame therefore never be extinguished.
Adolf Hitler
It will be a great date not only in the history of the Games but in the history of the present age when the young men from all nations enter the Berlin Stadium following their national flags and join in taking the Sacred Oath.
Baron Pierre de Coubertin
Founder and Life Honorary President of the Olympic Games.
The Olympic Games are not merely an event to which every four years the foremost athletes of the world are invited in order to thrill the thousands of spectators with their brilliant performances. They are far more a means of using sport as a binding link between the peoples of the world. The Xlth Olympic Games have served this end nobly. Berlin was the meeting place of all peoples, and from there a unity was diffused without which neither peace nor happiness can ever be realized.
Count Baillet-Latour
ll
The name of the Fьhrer and Reich Chancellor, to whom we owe our deepest gratitude for the magnificent Reich Sport Field with the Olympic Stadium and numerous other facilities, and who through his daily presence at the Games lent them prestige, inspiration and strength, the names of the men who were principally responsible for the organization and presentation of the Festival and those of the Olympic victors are all inscribed in bronze letters on the walls of the Marathon Gate as a permanent record for the generations of the future.
The aim of this publication is to present in words, pictures and statistics a document covering the work of the German Organizing Committee as well as a comprehensive description of the Festival so that the unprecedented number of athletes and spectators as well as the millions throughout the world who followed its progress by means of radio, film and journalistic reports will be able to obtain a detailed and actual picture of all the phases during the years of preparation and the final sixteen days which crowned these endeavours.
The Eleventh Olympic Games of modern times can truly be described as a world festival. We experienced hours almost religious in their solemnity and witnessed competitions of the youth from more than fifty nations, who, inspired by national pride and imbued with the Olympic spirit, which embodies a common aim of physical perfection and comradeship based on mutual respect, gave their utmost in the contest for Olympic honours. The Games, which took place in an atmosphere of chivalry, represented the zenith of physical development and strength of will, the victors proving themselves in every instance worthy of the Olympic oak wreath of victory with which they were honoured.
All that German organizing ability, technical skill and art combined with foresight and thoroughness were able to accomplish during long years of strenuous but harmonious endeavour was gladly contributed to the Olympic Games. The sacrifice was not in vain. During those Olympic days the hearts of countless thousands beat with pleasure and the guests from the four corners of the world united to form a joyous community amid the true hospitality of the festively decorated German Capital. We are deeply grateful to the members of the International Olympic Committee, practically all of whom were present, and especially to their President, Count Baillet-Latour; we thank all the nations which participated in the Games and all the National Olympic Committees which in self-sacrificing endeavour sent their best and worthiest athletes to Germany and thus ensured the success of the Festival. We observed with pleasure that during the weeks of the Games a genuine "Divine Peace" prevailed, and that the interest and best wishes of millions throughout the world were concentrated on this event, which contributed substantially towards furthering peace among the nations and developing a nobler and purer type of humanity.