Vol. II. - 588 p.

While more than a hundred thousand deeply moved spectators and athletes who had assembled on August 16th, 1936 under the great dome of light in the Olympic Stadium clasped hands and sang the song of Olympic brotherhood, the white flag with its five symbolic rings was slowly lowered and the Eleventh Olympic Games came to an end. Everyone who participated in the celebration of the Berlin Festival was impressed and inspired by this rousing symphony of life, with its joy of competition and magnificent display of youthful strength. Were the Olympic Games merely a sporting event of gigantic proportions, an array of world championships in the various fields of physical training, they would be nothing more than one festival among many. But they are more than that, and thus they grow from Olympiad to Olympiad, the expression of a mighty all-enveloping educative ideal which rises above the limits of time and the confines of national frontiers, aiming at physical, mental and moral perfection. This fact lends meaning and significance to the Games and justifies the extensive preparation necessary for their presentation. Here, too, may be said to lie the reason for the compilation of this work, presenting as it does all the various phases and aspects of the impressive Festival.