As more than 5,000 athletes from 51 countries march into a stadium packed with 100,000 onlookers, Adolf Hitler makes his only public statement of the Berlin Olympics at its opening ceremony on this day in 1936: “I proclaim the Games of Berlin, celebrating the eleventh Olympiad of the modern era, to be open."
Before his declaration, the dictator entered Olympic Stadium to the German national anthem, “Deutschland Uber Alles,” the Nazi anthem, “Horst Wessel Lied,” as well as salutes of “Sieg Heil.” As the athletes made their traditional alphabetical march into the stadium dressed in each nation’s regalia, some countries, including Austria and France, gave the Nazi salute as they passed by the Führer.
