Premiere At The Berlin Olympic Games
The premiere was held on August 1, 1936 at the opening ceremonies of the 1936 Summer Olympics at the Olympic Stadium (Berlin), with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra augmented by the National Socialist Symphony Orchestra and a chorus of one thousand members attired in white. From the distinguished visitor section on the opposite side of the stadium to the musicians, Theodor Lewald stepped onto a rostrum to address the nearly 4,000 athletes from 49 nations who had just marched in. His remarks concluded with the news that the Olympic Committee had decided the day before to make Richard Strauss's Olympic Hymn the hymn for all future meets. He expressed his thanks to the composer. After a short opening proclamation by Adolf Hitler, and an artillery salute and the release of several thousand white pigeons; Richard Strauss conducted the Olympische Hymne at 5:16 p.m.
The duration of the work is approximately three and one-half minutes. A piano-vocal score was published by Fürstner in Berlin in 1936. Strauss’s hand-written full orchestra score was dedicated to Theodor Lewald “in memory of 1 August 1936”. This score was located after the war by the German National Olympic Committee, and copies were made for the organizers of the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City and for IOC President Juan Samaranch in 1997 for the Olympic Museum in Lausanne. A full score was published in 1999 by C.F. Peters as part of the Richard Strauss Edition.
A photograph of Richard Strauss rehearsing the Olympische Hymne at the Olympic Stadium can be seen at
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