The popular Olympic Games, Barcelona 1936: Olympians and Antifascists

Abstract

The organization of the Olympic Games 1936 by the German Nazis in Berlin have provoked a lot of controversies between different organizations and politicians. For most of them the Olympic spirit seems to be destroyed by the reality of the politc of the Nazis. Especially we can recognize an intensive conflict between the IOC and the Workers's Organization of Sport. For this reason it was intended to celebrate a popular Olympic Game as an antifascistic protest against the Olympic Games in Berlin in July 1936. But due to the fact that the civil war began at that time the popular Olympic Games could not be celebrated. This article give a tension to the origins and organization of popular Olympic Games of Barcelona in 1936 as an antifascist international manifestation.

Doomed Youth: Antonio Cánovas, a Young Sportsman in Time of War in 1930s Spain

“…Barcelona had not only been a candidate to organize the Olympic Games on several occasions (Mercader, 1987 ) but also boasted a series of political and social characteristics and sporting infrastructures that made it the perfect host of such an event (Colomé and Sureda, 1995 ). Although these anti-Berlin sentiments coincided with the intentions of the RSI and were influenced by it, the PO was an event that cut across the currents opposed to fascism and was located in a different place not only from the official Games but also from the Workers' Olympics and the so-called Spartakiads (Pujadas and Santacana, 1990 ; Colomé and Sureda, 1995 ; Gounot, 2005 ).…”

“…Internationally, the main players in the field of sport during the first third of the 20th century were international workers' sport and the Olympic movement (Pujadas and Santacana, 1990 ). In 1936, the strategic turn taken by the Communist International (Gounot, 2005 ) led to the union of the workers' sports sectors—thitherto divided between the more socialist ones aligned around the International Workers' Sports Union and the more communist ones aligned around the Red Sports International (RSI)—in order to join forces and take on the official Olympic movement.…”

“…The IOC's inaction in the face of Hitler's arrival to power in 1933 and the decision not to change the venue sparked an international movement initiated in the USA by the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) that would lead to the creation of the Committee on Fair Play in Sports and to the idea being aired of boycotting Berlin. In Europe, the protest movement was orchestrated from the Anti-Fascist Conference in Paris, which agreed in late 1935 on the constitution of the International Committee for the Defense of Olympic Ideals (Pujadas and Santacana, 1990 ; Gounot, 2005 ). Barcelona had not only been a candidate to organize the Olympic Games on several occasions (Mercader, 1987 ) but also boasted a series of political and social characteristics and sporting infrastructures that made it the perfect host of such an event (Colomé and Sureda, 1995 ).…”

“…Various newspapers such as La Nau (1927), La Nau del Sports (1929–30), or La Rambla (1930) were key propagators of this ideology, according to which doing sport was doing politics and being patriotic. It was an ideology nourished by a citizenry aware of its rights and far removed from the elitist conception of aristocratic sport, and its generalization came with the Second Republic, which created the right conditions in a favorable terrain such as Catalonia (Pujadas and Santacana, 1990 ). In these circumstances, the youth sectors of the Catalan popular classes had the opportunity to enjoy their free time more and to become members of various gymnastic and sports societies.…”

Bilateral Relations Between Spain and the USSR During the Civil War Under Pressure From the International Brigades

“…Concretamente, la preparación de la Olimpiada Popular en Barcelona -que, precisamente, no era otra cosa que una acción simbólica, pero defensiva, contra la expansión del fascismo a raíz de la celebración de los Juegos Olímpicos de 1936 en la capital de la Alemania nacionalsocialista -, se tornó en un sustrato propositivo tras el inicio de la Guerra Civil Española. Ahora ya no se movilizaba para evitar la expansión del fascismo -tal y como había sido concebida la convocatoria de esta olimpiada -, sino que se había reorientado contra el fascismo en armas y, por lo tanto, ello forzaba a actuar no defensivamente sino ofensivamente: el fascismo tenía que ser combatido con las armas y, además, en un contexto de transformación social [Pujadas, Santacana, 1992].…”