IOC T-Shirt With Nazi-Era Imagery Sparks Outrage
The International Olympic Committee’s decision to sell a limited-edition T-shirt featuring imagery from the 1936 Berlin Olympics has ignited international backlash, with Holocaust scholars and German lawmakers accusing the body of trivialising a chapter deeply entwined with Nazi propaganda. The shirt, priced at €39 (about PHP 2,300), sold out quickly on the IOC’s online store. The IOC has defended the move, saying it was compelled to release the design in order to protect expiring trademarks tied to the Games’ historical branding.
While the controversy has unfolded in Europe, it carries resonance for countries like the Philippines, where the IOC’s control over Olympic symbols has been consistently upheld by local courts and is protected under international treaty obligations.
A Design Rooted in a Fraught Past
The disputed T-shirt forms part of the IOC’s “Heritage Collection,” which spans 130 years of Olympic history. The 1936 design features a laurel-crowned athlete, the Brandenburg Gate and the Olympic rings — imagery inseparable from the Berlin Games staged under Adolf Hitler’s regime.
Historians widely regard the 1936 Olympics as a propaganda spectacle orchestrated by Nazi Germany. After seizing power in 1933, Hitler used the Games to project an image of national strength while enforcing racist policies at home. Nearly all German-Jewish athletes were barred from competing, and approximately 800 Roma residents were detained ahead of the event.
“The Nazis exploited the 1936 Olympics to present their regime favourably internationally while barring nearly all German-Jewish athletes from competing,” said Christine Schmidt of the Wiener Holocaust Library.
Klara Schedlich, a Berlin lawmaker from the Green Party, was more blunt. “The 1936 Olympic Games were a central propaganda tool of the Nazi regime,” she said, adding that the IOC showed “absolutely no understanding of history. IOC, are you serious.”
Yet the Games also produced moments that undercut Nazi racial ideology. American sprinter Jesse Owens won four gold medals, a defining achievement that challenged Hitler’s claims of Aryan supremacy.
IOC: A Trademark at Risk
The IOC acknowledged the historical weight of Berlin 1936 but said the limited production of shirts was driven by legal necessity.
In a statement, an IOC spokesperson said “the organisation recognises the Nazi propaganda associated with Berlin 1936 but emphasised that 4,483 competitors from 49 nations participated in 149 medal events, with many delivering remarkable athletic performances including Jesse Owens.”
The spokesperson added that the IOC had “opted for a limited production of 1936 T-shirts to protect a trademark which would otherwise expire.”
Trademark law in many jurisdictions requires rights holders to demonstrate active use. Without commercial activity tied to a protected design, those rights can lapse. For the IOC, whose global revenues depend heavily on brand licensing and sponsorships, allowing even a decades-old mark to expire may set a costly precedent.
A Legal Fortress Around the Olympic Rings
The IOC’s insistence on protecting its intellectual property is not theoretical for the Philippines. The country is a signatory to the 1981 Nairobi Treaty on the Protection of the Olympic Symbol, which obligates member states to block and invalidate unauthorised commercial use of the Olympic rings — even without local registration.
Philippine courts have enforced this robustly.
On April 30, 2024, the Court of Appeals affirmed a ruling by the Intellectual Property Office denying a petition by Olympic Village Enterprises, Inc. (OVEI), a local sports retailer, to register marks incorporating the word “Olympic.” The Fourth Division held: “The subject marks are confusingly similar, thus there is a likelihood of confusion between them… this court holds that the petitioner’s registration is void as it contravenes the IP Code.”
The decision reinforced the IOC’s position that its Olympic marks — including legacy symbols — enjoy heightened protection in the Philippines.
The Philippine Olympic Committee’s Role
The Philippine Olympic Committee (POC), established in 1911, serves as the IOC’s recognised body in the country and has represented Filipino athletes in the Games since 1924. Under its constitution and the Olympic Charter, the POC may use Olympic symbols only for non-profit activities and with IOC approval. It is also tasked with guarding against unauthorised commercial use within Philippine territory.
Although no Philippine agency has commented on the T-shirt controversy, the IOC’s defensive approach to its heritage branding underscores the framework within which the POC operates — one that treats Olympic imagery not merely as decoration, but as protected intellectual property.
History, Commerce and Contested Memory
The controversy highlights a tension that has long shadowed the Olympic movement: whether its symbols can be separated from the political contexts in which some Games were held.
For critics, the Berlin imagery is indelibly linked to a regime responsible for crimes against humanity. For the IOC, the 1936 designs form part of a continuous brand history that must be maintained or risk being chipped away — one trademark at a time.
The shirts may have sold out in hours, but the debate they sparked is unlikely to fade as quickly. At issue is not only a piece of fabric priced at €39, but the boundary between historical remembrance and commercial rights — and who gets to decide where that line is drawn.
