For the first time in the history of the modern Olympic Games, the Olympic flame was lit by fire coming directly from the sanctuary of the Ancient Olympic Games in Olympia. Indeed, during the 1934 Session, the International Olympic Committee approved the proposal made by the Secretary General of the Berlin Games Organising Committee to carry the flame in relay from Olympia to Berlin.

The National Olympic Committees of Greece, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Austria, Czechoslovakia and Germany (the seven countries which the flame relay went through) were entirely favourable to the idea and cooperated enthusiastically in the project. The Organising Committee planned a route crossing the capitals of each of these countries.

The torch itself, designed by the sculpor Lemcke, was in polished steel. On the handle, the inscription "Fackelstaffel-Lauf Olympia-Berlin 1936", with Olympic rings and the German eagle superimposed. On the bottom part, the line of the flame's route from Olympia to Berlin. On the platform, the inscription "Organisazions-Komitee für die XI. Olympiade Berlin 1926 Als Dank dem Trager".