
Jon Baddeley
Specialist Consultant Collectors, Science & Marine
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Sold for £3,000 inc. premium
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Specialist Consultant Collectors, Science & Marine
The use of an Olympic flame was first introduced at the 1928 Games in Amsterdam, but it was Carl Diem who first devised the concept of the Torch relay for the 1936 Berlin Olympiad under the direction of Dr. Joseph Goebbels. The stainless steel and wooden torches, designed by Walter Lemcke and Peter Wolf utilised a magnesium fuel. There were 3331 runners in the relay and each was presented with a stainless steel holder and a commemorative certificate. Some replica copies were manufactured for the 1972 Olympiad. Leni Riefenstahl used the torch ceremony in her 1938 film Olympia.