Paris 2024 Olympic Games: a letter dated 1937 attests to the relations between Hitler and Pierre de Coubertin, despite the denials of the Baron's family

En dépit de cette lettre, Pierre de Coubertin n'a pas assisté aux Jeux de Berlin en 1936. ASL

Entre le dictateur allemand et le baron Coubertin existaient certaines convergences de vue.  

A letter from Pierre de Coubertin, the promoter of the modern Olympic Games, to Adolf Hitler in 1937 is reproduced in a book which appears on Friday, attesting according to the author of the work, that he "there were many connections between the two men".

A facsimile appears in "Pierre de Coubertin, the man who did not invent the Olympic Games", by journalist Aymeric Mantoux, published by Suburb. This letter was unpublished in a French publication. It comes from the archives of the Third Reich, from which the German historian Hans Joachim Teichler extracted it.

"He is a researcher who revisited the entire history of sports in Germany in the 20th century. He found this letter which proves that, contrary to what Coubertin's family and the IOC [International Olympic Committee] say, there was indeed a relationship between the two men", explained Mr. Mantoux.

Nazi Germany paid money to an endowment fund set up by Coubertin

Dated March 17, 1937, the letter thanks the German regime for its contribution to its "jubilee year", to namely the 50 years of its action to promote sport. Historians have found traces of payments from Nazi Germany to an endowment fund set up by Pierre de Coubertin to continue his work.

And the Third Reich was preparing to open an "International Olympic Institute" in Berlin. Pierre de Coubertin, who was 73 years old at the time of the Berlin Olympics in 1936, did not go there. "We don't know why. The Berlin Games are, however, the pinnacle of what he wanted to do", notes the author of this critical biography.

Conservative against professionalization and feminization

During the inauguration ceremony, failing to have the Frenchman in the stadium, the organizers broadcast his voice over the loudspeakers. The man remains known for his very conservative opinions. He refused the professionalization of sport, as well as its feminization, and believed in the superior essence of "the white race".

His vision and that of the Third Reich, we find common points, around the desire to revitalize a Nation through sport

"I don'I don'he espoused the Nazi ideology of eradicating the enemies of the Aryan race' quot;, underlines Aymeric Mantoux. "But between his vision and that of the Third Reich, we find common points, around the desire to revitalize a Nation by sport". Pierre de Coubertin, who should join the Grévin museum in Paris in July, is also little highlighted in the communication from the organizers of the Paris Olympics (July 26-August 11).