Football Y Dictaduras

HL History Internal Assessment



How successfully did dictatorships use sporting events as a form of propaganda in the 1930´s? With reference to Hitler´s Germany and Mussolini’s Italy







Juan Fernando Milne
Year 13
IB candidate number: 001372-014
Word count: 2.407

Contents
Page
SectionA: Plan of investigation 3
Section B: Summary of evidence 4
Section C: Evaluation of sources 7
Section D: Analysis 8
Section E: Conclusion 9
Section F: Bibliography 10
Appendix ...……………………………………………………………...11



















Section A
In August 1936, Adolf Hitler´s Nazi dictatorship hosted the Summer Olympics in Berlin. The city was chosen during the WeimarRepublic, two years before the rise to power of the Nazi leader. Hitler used the Olympic Games in Berlin to show a peaceful and tolerant Germany to foreign spectators and international journalists. Germany's Olympics demonstrated the country´s return to the world community after being defeated in World War I. On the other hand, Benito Mussolini, the Italian dictator, saw the 1934 World Cup as a chanceto spread fascist propaganda, not only in Italy but everywhere . He was determined to gain political support and demonstrate his regime’s achievements and creative potential, not only to locals but the rest of the world. Mussolini saw football, and more importantly the World Cup, as an opportunity to promote his nation and gain international prestige, this was his main aim. Nazi Party leader AdolfHitler became chancellor of Germany in January 1933 and quickly turned the nation's fragile democracy into a one-party dictatorship. Mussolini became the Prime Minister of Italy in 1922, ten years before Hitler “How successfully did dictatorships use sporting events as a form of propaganda in the 1930´s? With reference to Hitler´s Germany and Mussolini’s Italy” I will answer this question byinvestigating the aims of each country before hosting the events and if each leader achieve all of their aims after the event had finished.














Section B
The scale and importance of the events

1936 Olympics
• An international multi-sport event. This was important for Hitler as the event Germany was hosting was world wide matter so the message he wanted to give aboutGermany was going to be reflected to a lot of countries. 49 nations participated
• 3.963 athletes participated (3.632 men, 331 women)
• Germany installed a closed-circuit television system and radio network that reached 41 countries
• The Berlin Olympics games were the first to have live television coverage. So the games were going to be constantly transmitted on live T.V, not only on Germanybut also in most of the countries participating
• Total ticket revenues were 7.5 million Reichsmark, generating a profit of over one million marks
1934 ld Cup
• The 1934 FIFA World Cup was the second FIFA World Cup. 16 nations entered the competition
• The Italian government assigned a budget of 3.5 million lire to the tournament.
• Total attendance was 358,000 (21,059 per match)
•The number of supporters travelling from other countries was higher than at any previous football tournament, (7,000 from the Netherlands and 10,000 each from Austria and Switzerland)
• Live radio in 12 of the 16 participating countries once again the media is important in order for Mussolini give his message to a internationally audience.
• Football become the sport that represent nations onthe world stage so a victory was important for Mussolini as a match won by the Italian football team will represent a victory of fascism over left or central wings countries.
Aims and Idealism on the events
1936 Olympics
• Extreme nationalism- to show superiority of the Aryan race
• Militarism- militaristic formation performed by players
• Anti-Semitism- jews...