The Olympic Games presented the Nazis with an opportunity to impress spectators with a glorified image of Nazi Germany and “Aryan” athletic accomplishments. The regime tempered its antisemitism and militarism behind a façade of hospitality, and projected a vision of a powerful, but peaceful, nation to Germans and an international audience.

Olympic ceremonies, mass gymnastic displays, cultural events and rituals such as the torch relay - inaugurated at the 1936 Games - emphasized the grandeur of the Third Reich. Alongside the pomp and ceremony in both the athletic and cultural arenas, bodies deemed “unfit” were systematically hidden from view and Jewish contributions were purged from state representations of German culture.

The German hosts harnessed new technology - including the first live radio and television broadcasts - to host the first modern Olympics for mass consumption. Meanwhile, the Olympic Press Chamber, under the Ministry of Propaganda, exerted strict censorship over German press, radio and film.

The Nazi regime commissioned the first documentary feature film about the Olympic Games: Olympiaby Leni Riefenstahl. While Riefenstahl's technological and aesthetic contributions to cinema are frequently cited, Olympiacontinues to raise provocative questions about the relationship between sport, art and politics.