The 1936 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XI Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event which was held in 1936 in Berlin, Germany (Nazi Germany). Berlin won the bid to host the Games over Barcelona, Spain on April 26, 1931, at the 29th IOC Session in Barcelona (two years before the Nazis came to power). It marked the second and final time that the International Olympic Committee would gather to vote in a city which was bidding to host those Games. The only other time this occurred was at the inaugural IOC Session in Paris, France, on April 24, 1894. Then, Athens, Greece, and Paris were chosen to host the 1896 (1896 Summer Olympics) and 1900 Games (1900 Summer Olympics), respectively.

Filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl, a favorite of Hitlers (Adolf Hitler), was commissioned by the IOC to film the Games. Her film, entitled Olympia (Olympia (1938 film)), introduced many of the techniques now common to the filming of sports.

By allowing only members of the Aryan race to compete for Germany, Hitler further promoted his ideological belief of racial supremacy. At the same time, the party removed signs stating "Jews not wanted" and similar slogans from the citys main tourist attractions. In an attempt to "clean up" Berlin, the German Ministry of the Interior (Federal Ministry of the Interior (Germany)) authorized the chief of police to arrest all Romani (Romani people) (Gypsies) and keep them in a special camp (Berlin-Marzahn concentration camp). Total ticket revenues were 7.5 million Reichsmark (German Reichsmark), generating a profit of over one million marks. The official budget did not include outlays by the city of Berlin (which issued an itemized report detailing its costs of 16.5 million marks) or that of the German national government (which did not make its costs public, but is estimated to have spent US$ (United States dollar)30 million, chiefly in capital outlays).