Controversy Surrounds IOC's Sale of Nazi-Era T-Shirts

Fri Feb 13 2026 01:01:15 GMT+0200 (Eastern European Standard Time)

The International Olympic Committee faces backlash over the sale of T-shirts featuring designs from the 1936 Berlin Olympics, used by Adolf Hitler for propaganda.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has come under fire for selling T-shirts that feature designs from the Berlin 1936 Olympics, a pivotal event in Nazi propaganda history. Critics, including German lawmakers, argue that promoting such merchandise is inappropriate, given the Games were used to endorse Hitler's racial supremacy ideas. The IOC has defended its decision as part of its Heritage Collection, focusing on the historical significance of Olympic design, while acknowledging the need to consider the associated Nazi propaganda.

The official online fan shop of the Olympic Games has been selling T-shirts with designs from the Berlin Olympic Games in 1936, which were used by Adolf Hitler and the Nazis for propaganda.

There are calls in Germany for the sale of the shirts to be stopped, but the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has defended it as being part of its Heritage Collection, celebrating styles from all editions of the Games.

The T-shirts, which are emblazoned with the original poster design for the Berlin Olympics by Franz Würbel, are currently out of stock.

The 1936 Games were used by Hitler as a chance to promote his ideals of racial supremacy and to glorify Nazi Germany on an international stage.

The Berlin T-Shirt shows a male figure wearing a laurel wreath. Over his head are the Olympic rings. Underneath him is the Brandenburg Gate and the words Germany Berlin 1936 Olympic Games.

Klara Schedlich, spokesperson for sports policy for the Green Party faction in the Berlin House of Representatives, told the German press agency, DPA, that the IOC has clearly not reflected sufficiently on its own history and labeled the choice of image as problematic and unsuitable for a T-shirt without context.

The IOC acknowledged the historical issues of Nazi propaganda but emphasized that the Berlin 1936 Games also featured 4,483 athletes from 49 countries competing in 149 medal events. A spokesperson stated, We made an Olympic Heritage Collection available to the public that celebrates 130 years of Olympic art and design.

They added that the historical context of the Berlin Games is explained at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne and that only a limited number of 1936 T-Shirts had been produced and sold.

Among the athletes celebrated was Jesse Owens, an African-American track and field star who won four gold medals, defying the Nazi myth of Aryan supremacy.