Travelling at about 12 miles an hour, the Bell approached Magdeburg, the school children, Hitler Youth, members of the German Girls' League, Storm Troopers, members of the Special Bodyguard and political leaders forming honorary escorts in each town and village. The federations and clubs were often so enthusiastic in their festivities that it was necessary to interrupt the journey. The arrival at Magdeburg was greeted by the entire population. Torch bearers surrounded the special truck upon which the Bell was being transported and a gay medly of flags and uniforms created an attractive picture in the illumination of the numerous spotlights. A chorus from the Wilhelm Raabe School rendered the Olympic Hymn and in a short address the Magdeburg leader of the Reich Association for Physical Training, Herr Kuhne, expressed the wish that the achievements at the Olympic Games, the chivalrous competition and the German hospitality might be as pure and noble as the tones of the Bell, the athletes as sturdy and resolute as its voice and the impressions which the visitors from abroad would carry home with them as resonant and enduring as its peals. The church bells in Burg, Genthin and Plaue on the Havel intoned a welcome, and in Brandenburg the band of the Sixty-Eighth Infantry Regiment as well as the school children formed an honorary escort. The stretch from here to Potsdam involved difficulties since it was necessary to make a long detour near Eiche in the neighbourhood of Potsdam because a railway bridge was too low. The wooden bridge on the detour route were not strong enough to support the Bell, however, and had to be reinforced by the Second Company of the Brandenburg Pioneer Regiment.
The last stop was made at Potsdam, where the band of the Labour Service, political organizations and thousands of people thronged the streets to greet the Olympic symbol, the police department having installed special lighting effects on the large town square. The Mayor made a speech of welcome in the historic Prussian royal city on the birthday of Frederick the Great. The Bell arrived at the outskirts of Berlin on January 5th, and on the following day, a Sunday, the official reception of the new Olympic symbol took place. Accompanied by large crowds of pedestrians and cyclists and joyfully greeted from all sides, the procession proceeded by way of Kurfurstendamm to the Great Star Square where 1,600 members of the Hitler Youth Organization and 45 youths from the Reich Association for Physical Training awaited the arrival of the Bell with flags and pennants. From here the route continued along the Charlottenburger Chaussee to Brandenburg Gate, down Unter den Linden and finally to Kaiser Franz Josef Square where the Bell was presented with a fitting ceremony to the Organizing Committee.
Following the rendition of a song, "To the Fatherland," by the male chorus, Director-General Borbet of the Bochumer Verein addressed the audience as follows:
"On New Year's Day of the Olympic Year the tones of the Olympic Bell were broadcast for the first time to all corners of the earth. A few days later it began its triumphal journey through the German provinces, and today I have the honour of presenting the Bell, which was cast and donated by the Bochumer Verein, to the Organizing Committee for the Eleventh Olympiad. To us workmen who planned and executed this task in the oldest steel bell foundry of the world this Bell stands as a proud example of German craftsmanship. It reminds us of the first bell ever to be cast in steel, which was the object of wonder and universal admiration when exhibited at the Paris World Fair of 1855. J acob Mayer, the inventor of steel casting and founder of the Bochumer Verein, opened a new field of commerce to Germany through the perfection of that Bell, and we are certain that, just as 80 years ago, this Olympic Bell will also gain the recognition and praise of the whole world. German craftsmen have created this masterpiece from German steel, and the hands of artists have adorned it with German symbols. On the one side the Bell reveals the Brandenburg Gate, that proud monument to Prussian-German history, and on the other side the mighty German eagle greets us as the symbol of unflinching courage and vigour. Thus the union of a glorious past and a mighty, aspiring present are represented in the Bell, an ideal which has been realized through the historic developments of recent years.