Foolstroupe, I believe you're dead wrong about Hitler initiating all those Olympic symbols and rituals. Most of them date back to Athens in 1896, or at least began earlier than the 1936 Berlin games. The torch relay *may* have been new for Berlin, but I believe the Olympic flame itself was already established. I'm absolutely sure that the flag and the five-rings symbol it bears predates Hitler; the large fringed flag presented by the mayor of the host city to the mayor of the next host city at Closing Ceremonies was introduced at the Amsterdam Games in the 1920s (and that was *not* the first Olympic flag, just a large and elaborately decorated one).

Hitler did, of course, take maximum advantage of the prestige associated with the Olympics, and used his country's hosting of the Games as a way to pose as a responsible world leader and stall off opposition from the rest of the world. He certainly loved symbolism and ritual of all kinds, and was incredibly skilled at putting them to use for his own ends. Insofar as he was able to hijack the trappings of the Olympics for the greater glory of Nazism, he certainly did his damnedest.