Basketball at the 1936 Summer Olympics

In the XI. 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin was held in a basketball competition.

A team consisted of up to 14 players, of which seven were nominated per game. Played on the tennis courts of the Empire sports field. What was new was that the stand with the basket stood outside the court and were padded to a height of two meters.

A game lasted twice for 20 minutes and the tournament was run as a knockout system. This means that a defeated team was eliminated immediately, but they again failed to qualify for the next round in the consolation round. The losers of the first day played the following in the consolation round with each other. The winners were involved in the next round. So during the Olympic basketball tournament 40 matches were played.

For the German team were next to Tom Thumb still Willi Otto Gottwald, Josef Schäfer and Adolf Kuenzel. These four were officially registered participants, but did not come for active use.

Although Spain was in the Spanish Civil War and did not participate in the Summer Olympics in Berlin, the results were " non-runner" as counted. The two games of Hungary and two games of the team from Peru were " non-runner" as counted. Peru did not occur to the quarter-finals and the further placement games. The team was withdrawn to protest against the perceived unjust treatment of the football team in the simultaneous Olympic tournament.