Munich 2018 can present new Germany, officials say at 1936 exhibition

By John Bagratuni Feb 15, 2011, 17:57 GMT

Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany - Munich's bid for the 2018 Winter Olympics is a chance to present a new Germany, officials said on Tuesday at the opening of an exhibition of the 1936 Winter Games which were misused by the Nazi regime.

'We can not make up for 1936. There will always be a shadow. But if we win the 2018 Games we can show something different,' said Garmisch-Partenkirchen mayor Thomas Schmid.

Charlotte Knobloch, head of the Israelite Community of Munich and Upper Bavaria and former president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, agreed.

'We can be positive and enthusiastic about 2018. We can show that we take on responsibilities for our country,' she said.

'There is neither a point zero nor an end in history. I must face up to the past if I love my home. I can be proud of my home but have to learn from the dark sides.'

Munich is bidding for the 2018 Games against Pyeongchang of South Korea and France's Annecy, with the deciding vote set for July 6.

Garmisch will host the ski events if Munich lands the Games. The resort at the foot of Germany's highest peak, the 2,962-metres Zugspitze, hosted the 1936 Winter Olympics and is currently staging the alpine skiing world championships.

The town has seen protests against the Olympic bid and it also took long for the community to come to terms with the 1936 events.

'The Dark Side of the Medal,' the official name of the small exhibition in the local Kurhaus building, shows stars like Norwegian ski-jumper Birger Ruud, the almost impeccable organization, and recalls the forced merger of Garmisch and Partenkirchen in 1935 to improve Olympic preparations.

The most haunting image is a large plaque with the slogan 'Jews not wanted,' which was part of the everyday life long before the Holocaust.

While Adolf Hitler's Nazi regime slightly toned down the anti- Jewish propaganda during the games, the exhibition also cites International Olympic Committee President Avery Brundage as telling a German Jewish sports leader that: 'In my club in Chicago Jews are not permitted either.'

German ski supremo Alois Hoermann recalled that 'the values of sport were abused' in 1936 and Knobloch described the Olympic value of separating sports and politics 'a myth.'

'The treatment of sport was the precursor of the Holocaust and strategic preparations for World War II,' Knobloch said.

A day-by-day chronology of the February 6-16, 1936, Games, at the exhibition showed that the Nordic Combined skiing event on February 13 coincided with Hitler informing his war minister about the Remilitarization of the Rhineland which came a year later.

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