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OLYMPICS

Berlin Olympics in 2036 ‘imaginable’, says German Sports Minister

German Sports Minister Nancy Faeser said on Friday she could "imagine" hosting the 2036 Olympics in Berlin, 100 years since the 1936 Summer Olympics hosted by the Third Reich.

German interior minister Nancy Faeser
Interior Minister Nancy Faeser says a 2036 Olympics hosted in Berlin would have to be dealt with in a special way. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Kay Nietfeld

Then Chancellor Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party had attempted to use the 1936 games as a propaganda tool for the regime, three years before the outbreak of World War Two.

Speaking with online news site ‘The Pioneer’, Faeser, of the Social Democrats, said it was “conceivable that you deal with it in a special way at the place where it happened, where exclusion and this terrible disregard for humanity took place.”

“The 1936 games were terrible. The Nazis organised the games as a means of promoting themselves.”

The Social Democrat said the country would have “to do a lot of work” to highlight the nature of the 1936 games while promoting human rights in Germany and across the globe.

“If we demand these criteria (human rights), then I think we have to set a good example and allow a major sporting event in Germany again.

During the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, Germany was very critical of the host country and respect for human rights in the wealthy gas state.

The minister said she felt “it would be the right step to apply to host the games again. I’m promoting it very strongly.”

The 2028 Summer Olympics have been awarded to Los Angeles, with the following to take place in Brisbane (2032).

According to the principle of rotating the games between continents, a return to Europe is probable in 2036.

Germany last hosted the Olympics in Munich in 1972.

The German Olympic Committee (DOSB) will meet at the end of 2023 to decide whether to apply for upcoming games and in which regions/cities they should be held.

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CRIME

Olympic rower’s lover could be jailed for attack

The alleged neo-Nazi boyfriend of German Olympic rower Nadja Drygalla faces a criminal investigation and possible jail sentence for his part in an attack on a memorial service where a police officer was injured.

Olympic rower's lover could be jailed for attack
Photo: DPA

The prosecutor’s office in the northern city of Rostock confirmed on Thursday they had opened a probe against Michael Fischer on suspicion he was part of the attack on February 25.

Until recently, he was an official with the National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD), a neo-Nazi political party.

Drygalla, 23, left the Olympic village in London last week in the wake of media reports about her relationship with Fischer, who insists he has turned his back on the extreme right. He maintains contact with neo-Nazis.

The rower for her part has publicly said she rejects racism and extremism.

A spokeswoman for the prosecutor’s office said the probe was linked to an incident in February in which up to 30 masked far-right militants rampaged during a memorial ceremony in Rostock for victims of a neo-Nazi cell accused of killing 10 people.

The attackers were armed with iron bars and wooden planks and a police officer was injured in the melee.

“It is suspected that Mr Fischer was present in the group,” the spokeswoman said, adding that another 12 people were under investigation in connection with the incident and could face charges of “aggravated disturbance of the peace”.

Fischer, a former NPD candidate for the regional parliament and an active member of the local far-right group National Socialist Rostock, resigned from the party in May.

Drygalla was a member of the German eight but the team was eliminated in the repechage stage.

Fischer’s relationship with the far-right was long known, according to German media, as was the fact that Drygalla resigned from the police service last year because of her ties to him.

The case has sparked a debate in Germany as to whether Drygalla should be judged based on the views of her boyfriend, with both the head of the German Olympic delegation and a government minister coming to her defence.

The Local/AFP/bk

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