Olympic Games Berlin 1936

The poster for the 1936 Olympics in Berlin favours a monumental perspective. The scene is dominated by an athlete girded with laurels and glory in the act of performing the Olympic salute, which is similar to the Fascist ‘Roman’ salute. In this sense, the athletic gesture is confounded with the political one. Page 124 of Vol. 4 of the Official Report for ‘The XIth Olympic Games, Berlin, 1936’ provides specific information about the selection of this poster: ‘As early as June, 1934 a competition was announced by the Publicity Committee for the Eleventh Olympic Games, 49 outstanding German graphic artists enrolling, out of which 44 submitted 59 posters. The result, however, was unsatisfactory. The threefold object, that of indicating the importance of the Olympic Games, calling attention to Berlin as the host city and of publicizing the Games in an effective and internationally understandable manner, was not achieved. ... The Publicity Committee, which was responsible for advertising the Games, then assumed active charge of the selection of an official poster and engaged a series of artists for this purpose. From the designs submitted, that of the Berlin painter and graphic artist, Würbel, was finally selected. His poster revealed the quadriga of the Brandenburg Gate as the landmark of the host city, Berlin, and behind this the shadowy figure of a wreathed victor with his arm raised in the Olympic greeting, this symbolizing Olympic sport. ... The poster was distributed to and displayed in every country of the world and was issued in all of the important languages.’