Take Me To Your Leader

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Etiquette According to Hitler

The 1936 Olympics were to be a showcase of German athletic prowess, social achievements and racial superiority. These ambitions were somewhat dampened when Jesse Owens won four gold medals at the Berlin Olympics.

Debunked: Adolf Hitler intentionally snubbed Jesse Owens by refusing to shake hands with him in the 1936 Olympics.

Hitler did congratulate several athletes during the first day of the Berlin games. Hitler invited two German athletes, Tilly Fleischer and Hans Woellke, to his box to receive his public congratulations for winning gold medals. Hitler also congratulated a Finnish gold medal winner.

Such courtesies did not extend to Americans, especially black Americans. Just before the playing of the American national anthem for Cornelius Johnson's gold medal in the high jump on the first day of the Berlin games, Hitler abruptly left the stadium and did not congratulate Johnson on his victory.

All this happened on the first day of the Berlin games. But Jesse Owens won his first of four gold medals on the second day. By that time the president of the International Olympic Committee, Henri de Baillet-Latour of Belgium, had gotten word to Hitler that as the head of the host government he must congratulate all winners or none. Hitler did not publicly congratulate any athletes for the remainder of the games and thus Owens could not have been snubbed, in spite of later Owens and newspaper claims that he was.

Did Hitler intentionally snub Cornelius Johnson? A Nazi spokesman denied that Hitler's exit was an intentional slight but had in fact been previously scheduled. Intentional or not, American newspapers seized on the incident and intrepreted it as a snub of American medalists. Later coverage claimed it was Jesse Owens that Hitler snubbed, not Cornelius Johnson.

References:

• Urban Legend Archives: Jesse Owens/Hitler Legends