When the Nazis ran out of power and their ideology began to lose its charge, they found a new solution: drugs. Almost everyone resorted to it - ordinary mortals, soldiers on the fronts and representatives of the state leadership. One of the worst addicts was also Adolf Hitler.
The shocking truth about drugs in the Third Reich
So far very little has been known about the prevalence of drugs in the Third Reich. Experts have conducted partial research, and the full picture has not yet been studied by anyone. Therefore, this blind spot was highlighted by German journalist and writer Norman Ohler. He first read the notes of Hitler’s personal physician, then buried himself in archives in Germany and the United States for five years. The book Complete Intoxication was written, which literally looks into the veins of the leaders of the Third Reich and proves that a lot of toxic chemistry flowed through them. The Nazis initially promoted a healthy life and a strict anti-drug policy. In the 1930s, drugs were heavily persecuted and even passed a law that forced addicts into closed institutions for two years.
When Germany's position deteriorated during the war, they picked up completely different strings. They excused themselves that the demands of society, politics and the military are growing and people are becoming more and more exhausted, so they need help. "Any help that put people in the right mood was welcome - even chemical. Tired? Depressed? Without energy? Take pervitin!
The miracle pill, which was available over the counter in virtually every pharmacy in the 1930s, was called pervitin. The main active ingredient in this "folk remedy" was methamphetamine, which is now banned or at least strictly controlled worldwide. It is still very popular on the black market and better known as crystal meth. It could also be called a "capacity building tool". Under his influence, man is extremely alert, full of energy and strength.
Pervitin quickly became very popular among German soldiers. One of them, the writer Heinrich Böll, a later Nobel laureate in literature, often asked in letters to his family to send him this popular "medicine". "Send me some more pervitin, it will come in handy on frequent guards next week," he wrote.
German war strategists and generals also found that they desperately needed it. From the top of the Reich came an order for German pharmaceutical factories to increase pervitin production.
A blitzkrieg without drugs would not be possible
Drug abuse explains the incredibly fast and violent attacks in the German army. Ohler writes in Complete Intoxication that as early as 1939, at the time of the German invasion of Poland, Wehrmacht soldiers were on methamphetamine. In an attack that claimed the lives of 100,000 Polish soldiers and another 60,000 civilians by the end of the year, soldiers and generals enthusiastically reported that they felt virtually no fatigue.
When Germany invaded France in 1940, German troops were under the influence of as many as 35 million doses of pervitin. It allowed them to flash a multitude of tanks across the difficult-to-cross Belgian Ardennes. In just a few days, the Germans, who made virtually no stops along the way, reached the French border town of Sedan and then continued all the way to the Atlantic coast.
Such progress would, of course, be impossible without the generous help of chemistry. German General Heinz Guderian, on the other hand, rubbed his hands and praised the soldiers with the words, “I have ordered you not to sleep for 48 hours. You lasted 17 days. "
Hitler also becomes an addict
At first, it was rumored that he lived a very healthy life. He used to smoke, but after the First World War he dumped his last pack of cigarettes on the Danube and swore that he would not inject toxins into his body from then on. But he did not stay true to his promise for long.
When he accidentally met the cunning doctor dr. Thea Morella, who prescribed a mixture of vitamins and glucose against the nausea that often haunted him. The leader soon felt much better, dr. Theo Morell, however, was promoted to Hitler's personal physician.
So what was Hitler on?
As the Reich Chancellor's health deteriorated, Dr. Morell added steroids of animal origin to its injections to "weld" effective doping agents. Hitler was so enthusiastic that he indulged in such a "power injection" before each speech.
These have become much stronger in just a few months. In addition to pervitin, they also contained heroin, cocaine and eucodal, an opiate stronger than heroin. Apparently, only with the help of these substances could Hitler maintain his madness until the infamous end.
The Third Reich Was Addicted to Drugs At the start of the war, Hitler suffered from gas. Soon, he was taking a cocktail of morphine, crystal meth, and laxatives, a new history reveals. You can learn a lot about a culture from its drug use. Robert McAlmon, an American author living in Berlin during the tumultuous Weimar years, marveled that “dope, mostly cocaine, was to be had in profusion” at “dreary night clubs” where “poverty-stricken boys and girls of good German families sold it, and took it.” Cocaine was banned in 1924, though few people noticed—use peaked three years later. For those who preferred downers, morphine was just as easily accessible. Pharmacists legally prescribed the opioid for non-serious ailments, and morphine addiction was common among World War One veterans. The market was bolstered by low prices—for Americans, McAlmon noted that enough cocaine for “quite too much excitement” cost about ten cents—and by the fact that production was more or less local. In the 1920s, German companies generated 40 percent of the world’s morphine, and controlled 80 percent of the global cocaine market.
Twenty minutes later, the nerve cells in their brains started releasing the neurotransmitters. All of a sudden, dopamine and noradrenalin intensified perception and put the soldiers in a state of absolute alertness. The night brightened: no one would sleep, lights were turned on, and the ‘Lindworm’ of the Wehrmacht started eating its way tirelessly towards Belgium…
Studies show that two thirds of those who take crystal meth excessively suffer from psychosis after three years. Since Pervitin and crystal meth have the same active ingredient, and countless soldiers had been taking it more or less regularly since the invasion of Poland, the Blitzkrieg on France, or the attack on the Soviet Union, we must assume psychotic side-effects, as well as the need to keep increasing the dosage to achieve a noticeable effect.