African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1634 Post-Match Turmoil
The final results of the Berlin Olympics not only left Germans feeling frustrated, but also caused a collective uproar across Europe, with some European news headlines even proclaiming: "The European era is over! East Africa and the United States are rising..."

Their evidence is also very convincing: East Africa took the top spot, and the United States was also in third place among the top three, with the gap between the United States and Germany not large, with only four medals separating them.

Aside from East Africa and the United States, Japan also ranks eighth on the medal table, unchanged from its previous ranking.

Although this East African country has been added to the top ten, the fact that Germany annexed Austria-Hungary also means that Hungary, which was ranked third in the previous era, has now been transferred to Germany. The same applies to Austria and Czechoslovakia, which were ranked within the top 20 in the previous era, respectively, at 11th and 12th.

A British sports news outlet reported: "Among the top ten countries in the medal standings, three are non-European, with East Africa and the United States performing exceptionally well."

"This fully demonstrates the strong rise of countries outside Europe. In addition to East Africa, the United States, and Japan, Argentina, Egypt, Canada, and Alaska have also made it into the top 20. Other countries and regions outside Europe have also performed well, such as South Africa, Venezuela, and East Kalimantan..."

The British newspaper primarily referenced the total number of gold medals, not the total number of medals, which is why Alaska in East Africa successfully entered the top 20 with two gold medals and one bronze medal.

Two gold medals are enough to secure a place in the top 20 for any country or region, such as Argentina, Egypt, and Canada.

The opposite example is Switzerland. Switzerland won thirteen medals, which was an excellent result, but it only won one gold medal, so its ranking can only be placed after the four countries mentioned above.

This British sports news outlet, always eager for drama, commented on this change.

"The Berlin Olympics demonstrated a serious decline in Europe's global influence, especially the worrying performance of British athletes; this was the worst result the empire had achieved in recent years..."

Britain was certainly dissatisfied with the Berlin Olympics. Since the inception of the Olympic Games, Britain had a strong start, but its performance has declined with each subsequent Games, with both the number of gold medals and total medals decreasing.

Therefore, the decline in performance at the Olympics seems to be a testament to the growing decline of Britain's national power.

Moreover, Britain's performance at this Olympics was surpassed by its old rival France, which further fueled the disappointment of the British public.

If the British felt disappointed, then the Germans were in a state of "explosion," especially the extreme nationalists, who were completely enraged.

Being outmaneuvered by East Africa is somewhat acceptable, but the humiliation inflicted on them by the Americans is much greater.

This time, the American athletes included Jewish and Black athletes, and their victory was a slap in the face to German extreme nationalism and racism.

The German underground party's illegal newspaper mocked: "The racial narrative lies of Adolf, this dictator, have been completely shattered by the outstanding achievements of the United States and East Africa, especially the African American athlete Owens, who won two championships, proving the absurdity of the Aryan superiority theory."

"Owens is black, but in Germany today, in one of the darkest corners of the world, he is like a beacon, making Adolf, the dictator, look like a clown in the light..."

The media outlets that dared to ridicule Adolf in Germany were basically small, underground publications controlled by the Labour Party.

Since the union of Germany and Austria-Hungary, Adolf has launched several campaigns to suppress and purge the German Labour Party throughout the country. Now, opposition organizations such as the German Labour Party can only hide in the shadows.

The Berlin Olympics provided a good opportunity, as the German government had a regulatory loophole during this period, and even anti-Semitic propaganda was temporarily suppressed by the German government.

The German Labour Party seized this opportunity and launched an attack on Adolf, but under the current strict rule in Germany, it could only cause a negligible ripple.

The German public dared not openly read, disseminate, or even collect the underground party's materials, lest they attract the attention of the secret police and suffer dire consequences.

……

Inside his official residence in Berlin, Adolf was currently raging.

"The Olympics are over now, what have you been doing! You've let those sewer rats escape again."

On Adolf's desk, a copy of the underground party's newspaper was prominently displayed, filled with various evaluations of Adolf's government.

After reading about the contraband confiscated by the secret police, Adolf was indeed furious.

He continued, roaring, "And our athletes who didn't achieve anything, who made the Empire lose face in the world by losing to East Africa and the United States, they should examine their performance and see if they slacked off in their training."

"Especially that damned Owens, that African American, letting him win is a huge humiliation for the Empire!"

Adolf had been holding in a lot of anger during the Olympics, and he vented it all through this issue of the German Labour Party's illegal newspaper.

Heinrich, who had been silent all along, finally spoke slowly: "Your Excellency the Prime Minister, the Empire's performance this time was actually quite excellent. It did not tarnish the Empire's image. On the contrary, the Berlin Olympics further demonstrated the superiority of the Aryans."

Adolf stared intently at Heinrich, making sure the head of the German secret police wasn't implying anything against him, before speaking.

"Heinrich, you'd better explain yourself, or I'll start to doubt your loyalty to the Empire!"

Although Adolf's words seemed somewhat harsh, even threatening, Heinrich noticed that Adolf's tone had softened considerably compared to before.

However, Heinrich knew very well that it wasn't that Adolf's mood had improved, but rather that he had vented all the negative emotions that had been building up inside him after his outburst. In other words, Adolf was now tired of yelling.

"Your Excellency Prime Minister, there were indeed some unexpected events at this Olympics, but overall our theories have not been overturned; on the contrary, they have been further validated. The German people remain the most outstanding people in the world, and the Aryan bloodline is nobler than that of other races."

Heinrich set the tone with a serious expression.

"This time, Germany achieved second place in the Olympics, with a very good number of gold medals and total medals."

"As for East Africa, which ranks first, they are able to do better in terms of results entirely because of the German blood flowing in their veins. Even if this bloodline is not pure, we cannot ignore the huge population base of East Africa."

"Although there is no clear data on the current total population of East Africa, I believe that the population of East Africa is at least 100 million more than that of Germany."

"It is precisely because of this numerical advantage that even if the bloodline of East Africans is not pure, athletes with a higher proportion of Aryan blood can be selected to participate in the competition." "It's like athletes from southern Italy, whose bloodline is contaminated, but who can still gain a certain advantage by using Aryan genes."

Adolf didn't entirely agree with Heinrich's "unorthodox" theory, but he also felt it made some sense, and he gestured for Heinrich to continue.

After looking into Adolf's eyes, Heinrich said, "Besides, I have another piece of evidence to prove this."

"That is, East Africa has a large number of medals, but the quality is far inferior to that of the Empire. After all, the Empire itself only has a population of over 100 million, which is only about half of East Africa's population. However, East Africa's number of gold medals and total medals is not even more than double that of us."

"If East Africa were entirely of German descent, I believe it would have been easy for them to win more than 130 medals this time, but they only won less than 50 more medals than us."

"This precisely illustrates that the inferior racial ancestry mixed in with East Africans interferes with their normal metabolism."

It must be said that Heinrich was a "genius"; he even managed to find a logical loop in such an abstract explanation.

Adolf was completely swayed by his twisted logic and fallacies.

“Heinrich, I must say you have grasped the crux of the matter. I do not harbor prejudice or malice toward East Africa, but the facts have proven that East Africa has indeed been contaminated by the dirty blood of backward races.”

"Otherwise, as you said, given East Africa's population size, they should have achieved better results, so it is precisely because of the mixed blood in East Africa that their performance has been affected."

"They only won thirty-one gold medals. If it weren't for their impure bloodline, that number could have been sixty or even more, but definitely not thirty-one."

It is clear that both Adolf and Heinrich avoided a key issue: while East Africa does have a larger population than Germany, the number of East African participants in this Olympics was actually less than that of Germany. As the host country, Germany had the most athletes, followed by East African countries and the United States.

The Aryan superiority theory is infallible! Therefore, Adolf readily accepted Heinrich's argument.

Furthermore, he extended this theory further.

“Places like Venezuela, Alaska, and East Kalimantan have achieved good results, which is definitely due to the influence of Aryan ancestry. These three places have German immigrants, which has improved their bloodline.”

Venezuela won its only medal, which was indeed won by a German athlete, although that athlete was also of mixed German descent.

His father worked for an East African oil company that invested in and built facilities in Venezuela, and married a local Venezuelan woman.

As for East African colonies like Alaska and East Kalimantan, there's no need to elaborate further. Even though they had typical East Asian features, in Adolf's eyes they were absolutely mixed-race Germans "improved" by Aryan blood.

Similarly, countries such as Argentina, the United States, and Canada also have relatively large numbers of German immigrants.

Adolf shamelessly declared, "Many countries owe their outstanding achievements to the influence of German immigrants."

At this point, Heinrich added, "That's right. And their advantage in sports doesn't tell the whole story. In fields that showcase intelligence, like art and military affairs, Germany still excels."

The 1936 Berlin Olympics featured many unusual events, such as the arts competitions, which included architecture, literature, music, and painting.

The German architect Speer mentioned earlier, who was also the architect of the Berlin Olympic Stadium, won a silver medal in an art competition.

There was also a military event at this Olympics called Military Patrol, but the Italian team, consisting of one officer and three soldiers, won the gold medal.

Although Germany did not win the championship, its performance in this field was clearly much better than that of East Africa and the United States, since East Africa and the United States did not participate in this event at all.

In addition, there are some unusual events at the Berlin Olympics that East Africa and the United States did not participate in, such as the 7-a-side handball competition which started on July 31.

Handball as a sport isn't particularly unpopular, but 11-a-side handball is quite unpopular because it's only popular in Central Europe, while 7-a-side handball is more common in other countries.

Therefore, there is no doubt that Germany won the championship in this event, while East Africa and the United States did not send any athletes to participate.

There was a similar situation in the sailing competition of this Olympic Games. In order to showcase its advanced manufacturing technology, Germany specially designed a unique sailboat. This type of boat, specially designed by Germany to demonstrate its shipbuilding technology, is called the Berlin-class Odyssey.

Because the boat was designed in Germany, and almost no other countries had this type of boat, the participation rate in the competition was very low, and Germany won the final championship without any suspense.

Besides the aforementioned unusual sports, East African athletes are not particularly good at some sports that are not popular in East Africa or have an aristocratic nature, such as equestrianism.

East Africa lacks historical depth, and although it has aristocracy, they are not the same as European aristocrats. Therefore, East African nobles are not very fond of certain aristocratic sports, but prefer more popular mass sports.

Take football, for example. It has the widest audience in East Africa. After all, this sport has been widely promoted in East Africa since the colonial era. And in this Olympics, East Africa undoubtedly won the football championship, with Germany as the runner-up and Italy as the third-place winner.

Football is very popular among the so-called aristocratic groups in East Africa, especially those military nobles and their descendants.

In general, East African nobles are what European nobles would call "nouveau riche." They have no aristocratic baggage, and the threshold for becoming an East African noble is relatively low. Basically, anyone who makes significant contributions to East Africa in various fields can have the opportunity to become an East African noble.

Of course, these are not things that Adolf is concerned with now; he wants to fill the holes in his racial theory.

He told Heinrich, "Have the Reich's propaganda department interpret the Berlin Olympics according to our conclusions, and make sure everyone knows that the Aryan bloodline is still the best in the world."

"Also, your police department must crack down hard on those sewer rats of the Labour Party this time and drag them out of the sewers. I don't want to see these smears against the Empire on my desk again."

Faced with Adolf's instructions, Heinrich naturally did not refuse. After giving Adolf a standard German military salute, he assured him, "Prime Minister, rest assured, we will soon be able to eliminate the misleading public opinion and carry out a full purge of those rats who hate and are hostile to the Empire."

(End of this chapter)