At the XI. At the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin , a men's hockey tournament was held. The sport had grown in importance and for the first time in Olympic history its own hockey stadium was built. The rest of the effort for the tournament was also considerable. The rules have been translated into English, French and Spanish. And when the 50 dozen hockey balls from India, which arrived 14 days before the start of the tournament, were found to be too heavy and too large by the President of the FIH Marc Bellin du Coteau , new balls were ordered by telephone from England, which were delivered by plane.
Each of the eleven registered teams should play at least three and at most six games. Therefore three groups were formed. The world hockey federation FIH created a ranking list for the classification : (1) India, (2) Germany, (3) France. The further order is not known. The first in the group and the second in Group C, which was assessed as the strongest, qualified for the semi-finals, after which the medals were played.
A consolation round was set to allow the teams that could not qualify for the final to play more games.
The Netherlands and France qualified for the semi-finals.
Consolation round
The teams that had not qualified for the semi-finals could take part in the consolation round. While the games did not affect the Olympic rankings, they did provide participants with further comparisons of their skill levels.
Olympic champion India, second from left is the captain “hockey magician” Dhyan Chand
The final was originally scheduled for Friday, August 14th, but had to be postponed by one day due to heavy rain. The half-time result is given in brackets.