However, they were cancelled due to the outbreak of World War I, the first time in their twenty-year history of the games.

Berlin was selected as the host city during the 14th IOC Session in Stockholm on 4 July 1912,[1] defeating bids from Alexandria, Amsterdam, Brussels, Budapest and Cleveland.

[2] After the 1916 Games were cancelled, Berlin would eventually host the 1936 Summer Olympics, twenty years later.

Later on, the board of the Olympic Games got together to discuss the programs that were to be sent out to athletes and their families to prepare for the amount of attendees who were to arrive.

In 1914, Pierre de Coubertin signed a contract between Herriot and Count Édouard d’Assche.

In this contract, he "promised to postpone its plan until 1924, in the event that Antwerp maintained its candidature for 1920" (Kluge 15).

Despite the efforts of Coubertin, Diem and many others, the official games had to be canceled and only resumed in 1920, after the end of the war.