[Pharmadryg]

By GUY WALTERS: 09:39 GMT, 10 May 2012

The Olympic torch relay begins today in Greece... but believe it or not it was all Adolf Hitler's flaming idea





Today, the Olympic torch will be lit in a ceremony in Ancient Olympia. After a short relay around Greece, it will be flown to Britain a week
tomorrow to be carried around the country by a succession of torchbearers. Here, GUY WALTERS reveals the fascinating story of the flame . . .

• Flame races were run in ancient Athens to honour deities including Prometheus who, legend has it, stole fire from the gods and brought
  wisdom and knowledge to humankind.
• Several months before each Games, the flame is ignited at the ruins of the Temple of Hera in Olympia, where the Ancient Olympic Games
  were held. A fire was kept burning there to honour Zeus, the supreme ruler in the Greek pantheon.
• Contrary to popular belief, it is not an eternal flame. It is lit a few months before every Games and extinguished during the closing ceremony.
• The idea of a torch relay was devised by the Germans for the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Hitler admired the culture of Classical Greece, and the relay
  was seen as an imaginative way to link Berlin with the original Games. The man behind the idea was Carl Diem, one of the organisers in 1936.
• The first torch was made of steel from Krupps metal-works, where Hitler was stockpiling munitions ahead of the Second World War.
• Greek archaeologist Alexander Philadelphus was the one to suggest lighting by the sun’s rays focused on to kindling by a parabolic glass.
  To thank him, Nazi propaganda chief Josef Goebbels personally awarded him the German Olympic Order. The certificate was signed by Hitler.
• Before the 1956 Melbourne Games, a student ran into Sydney carrying a fake torch as a protest against the Nazi origins of the relay. His stunt
  conned thousands of people, including the local police — who escorted him on his way to hand the torch to the mayor of Sydney . . . who eventually
  realised he had been hoodwinked.

Read the full list of amazing facts here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...ming-idea.html