During the initial stages of World War II, the Third Reich shocked the world with its
Blitzkrieg attacks on all battlefronts. And while the Nazi's military efficiency
is commonly attributed to their technological superiority and innovative warfare strategies,
there was an extra incentive that changed the course of the war.
Every officer in every level of the Wehrmacht carried another weapon in its pocket:
performance-enhancing methamphetamines.
This and other drugs were ultimately used by both sides of the conflict, but it is widely recognized
that the consumption of this extreme superdrug was one of the main reasons behind the Nazis’ fall.
Hitler’s Health
Adolf Hitler's mental and physical health has been the subject of both controversy and fascination
throughout the years. Although his condition during his younger years was generally good,
the overwhelming pressure in his adulthood took a considerable toll on his body.
By 1936, the Führer suffered a long list of maladies, including insomnia, eczema,
and gastrointestinal disorders. That same year, his personal photographer, Heinrich Hoffmann,
introduced him to a Nazi-affiliated physician, Theodor Morell.
The physician began treating Hitler with several concoctions such as vitamins and hydrolyzed E.
Coli bacteria. The results were immediate, and the Führer was convinced that Morell was a genius.
Soon, the physician became a part of Hitler's inner circle.
When World War II broke out in 1939, Hitler's health had declined even further,
as he was now suffering from many more ailments such as impaired vision,
tinnitus, severe headaches, dizziness, and motility impairments.
Morell, who many of the Nazi party's top officers believed to be a quack, began to prescribe Hitler
an even more potent cocktail of medications. These included sedatives, testosterone, morphine,
oxycodone, barbiturates, cocaine, and the latest novelty in the rise: Pervitin.
The Drug of the People
Developed by German chemist and pharmacologist Fritz Hauschild,
Pervitin was a nonprescription methamphetamine pill.
Methamphetamine is a powerful stimulant even in small doses. The drug generates euphoria
and increases wakefulness and physical activity while decreasing appetite.
After being patented by the Temmler group in 1937,
this energy booster became widely known in Germany after the company hired advertising
agency Mathes & Son to create a marketing strategy. Soon, the streets of Berlin were
filled with billboards advertising the medication as a safe mood stabilizer.
The campaign was an astounding success. Between the recovery from World War I,
the subsequent economic crisis, and World War II mobilization,
the German population welcomed the medication with open arms.
Pervitin was cheap, helped people work, and it helped spread Nazi euphoria throughout the
country. Because the ads did not advertise it as a drug, it was sometimes even sold in a mix with
chocolate, and people believed its consumption was as safe as any other over-the-counter medication.
However, the reality was much grimmer. Methamphetamines are highly addictive,
and their chronic users suffer from a wide-ranging variety of health problems, including irregular
heartbeats, elevated body temperature, paranoia, convulsions, and even death.
In 1938, when the massive Temmler marketing campaign began, high-ranking army physiologist
and director of the Institute of Defense Physiology, Otto Ranke, had the idea to use
this so-called miracle drug to keep Luftwaffe pilots alert and frontline soldiers euphoric.
After getting an overwhelming reaction from the Führer over this innovative idea,
Ranke tested the drugs on university students throughout the fall of 1939.
Ranke’s annotations indicate that soon after consuming Pervitin,
tired students would become highly productive despite being short on sleep.
Most of the subjects were not told what they were taking,
and many of the first rounds of the experiment were often halted
due to the patients suffering from panic attacks and heart palpitations.
As the studies went on, several students became addicted to the drug
and tried to confiscate supplies to help them prepare for exams.
Still, Dr. Ranke continued to believe that Pervitin
would give Germany an advantage over the Allies and win the war.
Introduction to the Battlefield
The first Nazi soldiers to try Pervitin during combat were a group of men from the Third Tank
Division. They became test subjects during the occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1938.
The results proved positive,
and Dr. Ranke decided it was time to administer the drug on a larger scale.
The first real military test was during the invasion of Poland in September of 1939.
In only twenty days, the Germans overran their eastern neighbor, causing devastating losses.
The invasion introduced a new form of offensive warfare, Blitzkrieg, which consisted of a focused
blow at the enemy using mobile and maneuverable forces with both armored tanks and air support.
This lightning war caught the enemy off guard due to the quickness of the attacks and advances.
However, the weak link in this strategy was that human soldiers, unlike machines,
needed to rest, slowing down the military advancement.
Thankfully for Nazi war planners, Pervitin eliminated this need.
The drug was first introduced in the soldiers’ daily rations and was consumed up to twice per
day, giving the soldiers exceptional capabilities. They were now fearless,
ecstatic, and full of energy, able to stay awake for three days without sleeping
and walk up to 40 miles with a heavy backpack on their backs without resting.
Following the invasion of Poland, the Blitzkrieg strategy was also used in
the French Ardennes in February of 1940 and in the Balkan Campaign in October.
A German commander sang the praises of Pervitin in his personal journal, writing that after
consuming the pill, his men were: [QUOTE] "Fresh and cheerful, excellent discipline."
With such positive testimonies from military commanders coming from all over Europe,
Doctor Ranke implemented an official decree and contacted Temmler to order more Pervitin.
In the span of April and May of 1940, the manufacturer delivered 35 million
doses of stimulants to the Nazis, and the branch that was most interested in
its immediate effects was the Luftwaffe, whose officers called it ‘pilot's salt.’
Soon, Pervitin fueled the entire Wehrmacht force.
Withdrawal
As promising as the drug was to top officials,
the long-term effects of methamphetamine consumption were devastating.
Because of the short resting periods that the soldiers were taking, their bodies never
recuperated after their long campaigns, and they became addicted to the stimulant.
The soldiers eventually began suffering from exhaustion, heart pain,
and circulation problems. And as the situation escalated,
some began to perish from cardiac failure, military miscalculations, or by their own hands.
Concerned about the reports, fellow Reich physician Leonardo Conti tried to limit the drug’s
use in 1940. His studies and subsequent proposal officially identified Pervitin as an intoxicant,
and in 1941, the compound was formally prohibited.
However, this classification did not impact the Nazi forces,
and consumption did not decrease much, even amongst civilians.
When the invasion of the Soviet Union during Operation Barbarossa began in June of 1941,
most Nazi soldiers ravaged the Russian territory while high on Pervitin.
The consumption of methamphetamines among the Nazis even continued as the tides changed
and the Allies closed in on their enemies.
Following an attempted attack on the Führer in 1944, the leader became even
more dependent on several medications. From July to October, Hitler became hooked on Eukodal,
a potent mix of opioids and cocaine. And towards the end of the war,
he was consuming up to 150 tablets and ten injections of different substances every week.
It is still unclear if he ever tried Pervitin, but it is widely believed
that many of his rash decisions and behaviors were significantly related to his use of drugs.
By the spring of 1945, as Hitler hid in a Berlin bunker with his new wife, Eva Braun,
the Führer was likely suffering from drug
withdrawal due to Morell's inability to find medications in the ruined capital.
Pervitin ended up becoming a significant reason for the decline and fall of the Nazi regime.
An Allied Alternative
As the Nazis were consuming Pervitin in massive doses, British intelligence agents discovered a
small tubular container filled with pills during an inspection on a downed German plane. Soon, top
Allied officials also began implementing their own soldier chemical enhancements to battle fatigue.
The Allies settled on the amphetamine compound Benzedrine, currently known as Speed,
which came in the form of tablets and inhalants. Throughout the war,
the British consumed 72 million tablets, while the Americans brought up to 500 million doses.
Although Benzedrine isn't as highly addictive or dangerous as Pervitin,
the drug still came with plenty of risks.
Benzedrine seemingly eliminated the need for sleep, but it didn't stop fatigue,
and prolonging these patterns caused mental and physical exhaustion. Still, Prime Minister
Winston Churchill and President Dwight Eisenhower adopted the drug for its mood-altering effects,
as it increased aggression and a sense of confidence, providing an overall morale boost.
In 1941, the same year Pervitin got officially banned in Germany, the Royal Air Force
sanctioned its widespread use and could only be obtained with an army doctor's prescription.
The Story Had Just Begun
Although amphetamines are currently recognized as highly addictive and dangerous,
their effects were dismissed by scientists during the 1940s.
The full extent of meth addiction on Nazi soldiers during World War II is unquantifiable,
and after the war, there was little to no help offered to the men who became dependent.
The Temmler manufacturer continued to supply both the East and West Germany
armies with methamphetamine pills for decades.
It wasn't until the 1970s that West Germany banned the drug from its medical supplies,
with East Germany following in the late 1980s.
By the end of the Cold War, both sides cut ties with Pervitin,
but the rise of methamphetamines as an illegally produced worldwide consumer drug had just begun.
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