Olympic Flame

Olympic Torch Ceremonies of the Olympic Games of the modern era started with the 1936 Olympic Games when on 20 July,1936, the Sacred Flame was for the first time ever ignited in Olympia, Greece at the site of the ancient Olympics lit by the Sun's Rays, using parabolic mirrors and reenacting what Dr. Karl Diem, the Director of the 1936 Torch Relay, imagined to have happened more than 2,700 years earlier, although it is not known that Olympia ever had a torch run or lighting ceremony. After several speeches by several high officials from France, Greece and Germany, the Ceremony went under way, with the High Priestess and 14 Young Maidens chanting "Oh fire lit in an ancient and sacred place, begin your race" and singing Pythian odes with ancient music instruments. Then the High Priestess lit the torch by placing it into a mirrored cauldron and when it was lit by the heat of the sun reflection, she transferred a part of the flame into a challis and lighting the first Olympic Torch, she handed it to the first torchbearer, a Greek by the name of Konstantinos Kondrylis, who left Olympia to relay the fire of his torch to light the torch of the next torchbearer and so it went on and on, until it ended at the new Olympic Stadium in Berlin on the 1st of August,1936, after it took 3331 torchbearers 13 days and 13 nights, traveling 3,050 kilometers in seven countries, namely Greece, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Austria, Czechoslovakia and Germany, to carry and relay the sacred Flame to the cauldron at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin. I certainly feel very fortunate that I was able to be present and see four of main seven ceremonies that started in Olympia, then in Athens and the other three countries and see it arrive in my native Vienna on 29th July and two days later at a wonderful ceremony at the Lustgarten in Berlin and later that afternoon at the totally filled Olympic Stadium at the Opening Ceremony in Berlin.

Witnessing my second Olympic Torch Ceremony was on a warm summer night, on 29th July 1936 around 8,45 pm, when the Austrian Olympic Ice Skater Karl Schaefer arrived at the Heldenplatz, carrying the Olympic Torch and lit the cauldron, which had been placed in front of the Honor Tribune, attended by the Austrian Chancellor Dr. Kurt von Schuschnigg and other high Government and Sport Officials, including my uncle and my parents, who were invited and came to watch the Ceremony. After lighting the cauldron, Karl Schaefer, the Gold medalist in Ice Skating in 1932 and 1936 received the Torch, a Diploma and the book "Die Laufer des Friedens", "The Runners of Peace", as a gift for being a Torchbearer, as was given to all the other Runners of the 1936 Torch Relay. I was very lucky to receive the same three items, through a friend of my uncle as well. The first one among all my other Olympic Torches.

Our museum honors the Olympic Flame and the Torch Runs with displays of Olympic Torches, Uniforms, Diplomas and other items that relate to the Torch Relays, starting from the 1936 to the last Olympics. The museum's Olympic Torch Exhibits have been a favorite among visitors to the museum and we try to keep them up to date. Whenever I have been invited to be a torchbearer and carry the Olympic Torch and it's sacred Fire, I consider it a great honor and for some reason, it always reminds me of the events in Olympia and the great time I had there and at all the other ceremonies I attended. The four ceremonies of the 1936 Berlin Olympics when I was ten years old, will always be the most special ones for me, other than the ones when I was a torchbearer myself.

During the ancient games, the sacred Olympic Flame burned continuously from 776B.C. until the last Olympics in A.D.393 in the two cauldrons at the Prytaneion, the Administration building and for the first time of the modern era, the Olympic Flame burnt at the Marathon tower of the Amsterdam Olympic Stadium in 1928 and the next time for the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics at the Coliseum for the duration of the Olympic Games at a small ceremony, although without a Torch Run, which did not start until the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

According to Greek mythology, the Olympic Flame was lit for the first time, when Prometheus went to heaven to steal a spark from the sacred fire of the Gods and brought it to Earth, where it became the symbol of human reasoning, freedom and creativity. It is said that the Olympic Flame is also the true symbol of the Olympic Games of the modern era, as it has been since 776 B.C. for the Ancient Games and although torch relays existed in Greece for Sport Festivals, 200 years after the first games at Olympia, the Olympic Torch Relay in Olympia, has only existed since the 1936 Berlin Olympics, imagined and organized by Dr. Karl Diem, the Berlin Olympic Organizing President, strictly as Nazi Propaganda for the German Reich. It was made into a great spectacle for the 1936 Berlin Olympics and is still until this day a great spectacle for all the people that line the streets and wait to see the Olympic Torch and Flame pass by, which is a wonderful experience for millions of spectators and many times the only event, related to the Olympics, that people are able to afford to see live. Although it was not taken from the ancient games in Olympia, but imagined by Dr. Diem and accepted by Adolf Hitler and Joseph Goebbels, who used it for Nazi propaganda, it really is a great spectacle for people of all ages. I was only ten years old then and was immensely impressed by the four torch ceremonies I witnessed live, especially the one in Olympia and I must give only the highest credit to Dr. Karl Diem for turning such great event, into reality.

After the Torch Ceremony at the Heldenplatz, the Olympic Flame remained in Vienna overnight and early next morning a new Torch was lit with the fire from the cauldron and other Austrian Athletes carried the Olympic Flame to the Austro-Czech border, where Czech Torchbearers accepted the Flame and carried it to Prague and from there to the German border, where German Athletes and Olympians took over, received the Olympic Flame and relayed it to the old museum at the Lustgarten at Unter den Linden in Berlin the first of August 1936 at around 12.30 pm for a small Olympic Ceremony, which we attended and where the Olympic Flame remained until 3.30 in time to coordinate with the events going on at the Olympic Stadium for the Opening Ceremony and where we saw the lighting of the Olympic Flame at the official cauldron, about two hours later, as described by me in the chapter: "1936 Olympics".