In The Art of War, Sun Tzu wrote that speed is “the essence of war.”
Surely when Sun Tzu wrote that he wasn’t expecting Hitler to take it too literally.
Speed, also known as amps, pep pills, uppers, and lid poppers was commercialized just in time
for mass consumption during World War II by the leading industrial powers. World War 2 was
truly the greatest impetus to date for legal medically authorized as well as illicit
black-market abuse of amps and similar drugs on a worldwide scale. Welcome to Nutty History
and today let’s find out how pep pills controlled the tides of battles during the Second World War.
There is no doubt about the worldwide abuse of large amounts of Brain Ticklers by the Japanese,
American, and British forces during World War 2. But the trend was established by ‘zee Germans’
during the initial phases of the war, long before others joined the bandwagon. While Nazi ideology
was fundamentally anti-drug and social use of drugs in Nazi Germany was considered both a sign
of individual weakness and moral decay of the entire society, they had no qualms about being
hypocritical to abuse drugs in the military. In fact, the Nazi propaganda promoted black beauties
as a privilege offered only to the soldiers. While other drugs were banned or discouraged,
speed was touted as a miracle product when it appeared on the market in the late 1930s.
The little pill had a poetic connection with the Nazi slogan “Germany, Awake!” as it would energize
and boost the confidence of the soldiers. That played right into the Third Reich’s
obsession with physical and mental superiority. While other drugs such as alcohol or white junk
were sort of an escapists’ delight, amps were helpful with hyper-alertness and vigilance.
We have already discussed in our older videos how much armies were obsessed with the mythological
concept of super-soldiers during the second world war and bumblebees also contributed to
that fascination. The Lightning Oranges were considered a small shortcut to turn ordinary
soldiers into superhumans. As Hitler declared “We don’t need weak people, we want only the strong!”
and thus the abuse of speed became a synonym with being strong and getting stronger. However,
the blame for introducing speed to Germany goes to US athletes of the Berlin Olympics, in 1936.
The German chemist Friedrich Hauschild had been aware that Americans were using Benzedrine, an
American version of Pixies for doping during the ’36 Olympics. Benzedrine was also later used by US
forces during the second world war especially by the air force pilots to stay up in the air
for longer hours. Discovering American speed led Friedrich Hauschild to research into the drug,
and he managed to synthesize a close cousin of Amps. This drug later would become the center
plot of a great TV show in the early 21st century where a cancer-ridden teacher would join hands
with a good-for-nothing student to become the underworld king. At that time Friedrich Hauschild
was working for Temmler-Werke, a Berlin-based pharmaceutical company. Temmler-Werke came up
with a brand name for this fascinating chemical in the winter of 1937, and called it Pervitin!
Thanks to the company’s aggressive advertising campaign, Pervitin became well known within a few
months. The tablets were wildly popular and could be purchased without a prescription in pharmacies.
One could even buy boxed chocolates spiked with speed! But the drug’s most important use was yet
to come. From 1939 to 1945, the Third Reich astonished Europe with its Blitzkrieg on all
battlefronts. Its military efficiency has since then been a leitmotif of history studies. Although
academically Nazi success in this period has been attributed to its technological superiority,
optimization, and innovative strategies, there was more to that though. The Wehrmacht had nothing
left to chance. Everything was meticulously and accurately calculated, from the weight of
the firearms to the offensive timings, as well as when and how to abuse performance-enhancing drugs.
Throughout the war, the Germans consumed Pervitin. It produced higher energy and
reduced sleep needs and hunger. It was also attributed to sparking great enthusiasm and
made soldiers believe the Nazi propaganda was all rainbows and unicorns. Pervitin enjoyed a
legal status in Germany until 1941 and until then it was broadly advertised all over the nation.
Billboards were strewn throughout Berlin from 1938 to its regulation in 1941 as its consumption
became more and more obscure. According to Norman Ohler’s book ‘Blitzed: Drugs in Nazi Germany,’
the entire nation was once dependent on speed at one point. It may be a matter of ridicule now but
Pervitin was never meant to be a military drug for the Nazis but it was intended to compete with
the American beverage popular in Germany called Coca Cola! Temmler employed Mathes & Son with the
advertising campaign of their new “casual drug”. Germany was going through a calamity back then,
the embarrassment of the defeat in the First World War, the humiliating treaty of Versailles,
economic crisis, political turmoil, the rise of nationalist rage, and blaring bugles for another
great war, all of that was not easy to cope for an average German citizen. And here came pervitin,
offering vigor, efficiency, and calmness so the population welcomed the energizing substance
with open arms. It was cheap, helped people work, spread euphoria throughout the country,
and was not even considered a drug at that time. Furthermore, the drug was not only popular among
workers. Adolf Hitler himself was introduced to drugs by Morell! Soon the drug was issued a
performance test on students to see how it would affect their focus and work behavior. Otto Ranke,
director of the Institute for General and Defense Physiology at Berlin's Academy of Military
Medicine, soon returned with the conclusion that the drug indeed could bolster German efforts
on the front. He suggested that speed and its compounds could improve the soldiers’ performance.
Following the research conducted under the spearhead of Otto Ranke, Pervitin was introduced
in the daily rations of the Nazi soldiers and was to be consumed up to twice a day. The drug soon
began showing its effects, the soldiers were acting fearless and were extra elated even in
the most morbid situations. Otto Ranke’s goal to defeat the enemy with chemically enhanced soldiers
was now a reality. The soldiers were walking up to 60 kilometers and working non-stop for
three days without sleeping. This was the biggest aid that helped the invasion of Poland in 1939,
the Blitzkrieg through the French Ardennes in 1940, and the Balkan Campaign of 1941
where Germans fought unceasingly for 11 days. Otto Ranke was over the moon with the success
of his little find and had become a daily user of the drug himself. He was living the dream of Nazi
grandeur of world domination and seeing himself next to Hitler in no time. His correspondence
indicates that he and his desk workers too were working without any sleep and popping pills left
and right, ignoring the prescription limit to manage the self-inflicted demands of their jobs.
Before playing a crucial part in the invasion of Poland, the drug was given a test run by the
Wehrmacht medical officers. They ordered soldiers of the Third Tank Division to take it during the
occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1938. The success there cleared the path for widespread military
use in the Poland invasion that caused the death of over a hundred thousand Polish soldiers. This
was the moment when the term Blitzkrieg or the lightning war came into existence. Being high
on speed allowed German soldiers to emphasize haste and surprise to catch the enemy off guard
and trample over them. Pervitin eliminated what differentiates humans from machines,
fatigue. The need for rest, sleep, and eat was a tale of the past now and nothing was slowing down
as tanks and companies of men marched together at an unrelenting pace to win entire Europe for
Die Fuhrer. However, Pervatin wasn’t a miracle it was just burning candles from both ends.
Nothing in this universe is as benevolent as Pervitin was promising to be for Hitler’s Germany.
The drug obviously had its side effects. Early reports found in the archives mentioned adverse
effects such as exhaustion, heart pain, and circulation problems. This instigated further
study led by the “Reich Health Führer,” Leonardo Conti who among others soon sounded the alarm
bells about the risks of Pervitin, and that led to its regulation and prohibition in 1941.
The drug was now available through prescription only but these warnings fell on deaf ears.
Despite the anti-drug rhetoric of Hitler and the Nazi party that had been disseminated since 1933,
the new regulations were widely ignored. They had a perfect reason for it too,
all of Germany was hooked on Pervitin and sudden prohibition caused a large national withdrawal.
Ironically Hitler himself was heavily addicted. Instead of causing the reduction of the German
economic dependence on pharmaceuticals and tackling an alarming addiction problem,
the prohibition was deemed pretty much a failure, even on the civilian front. The military didn’t
even care for the prohibition or regulation. As a matter of fact, military officials seemed to find
its distribution legitimate, especially due to the short-term benefits it was providing the army.
The consumption increased during the ill-fated Operation Barbarossa from June to December of 1941
immediately after the restrictions were imposed. There is also a conspiracy side of the regulation.
German civilians getting hooked on Pervitin could have been considered an unnecessary stress on
the production of speed pills. So, it’s entirely possible that the sham of prohibition was created
just to ensure more supply to the soldiers who were about to face the red army in their home
grounds. From 1941, the Reich knew that Pervitin brought side effects and risks of addiction.
However, even when soldiers were dying because of heart failures or committing suicide due to the
psychotic phases, the amps continued to fuel the country until the end of the war. The Blitzkrieg
depended on speed, for relentlessly pushing ahead with tank troops, day and night. It was the cause
of the fall of Denmark and Norway in 1940. Within a month, the Nazi army, high on speed, annexed
Holland, Belgium, and finally France. When they crossed into France, French reinforcements had yet
to arrive, and their defenses were overwhelmed by the German attack. German tanks covered 240
miles of challenging terrain, including the Ardennes Forest, in 11 days. They also bypassed
the entrenched British and French forces who had mistakenly assumed the Ardennes was impassable.
Paratroopers sometimes landed ahead of the advance, causing chaos behind enemy lines.
According to the British press, these soldiers were heavily drugged, fearless and berserk like
Vikings. Even Churchill confessed he was dumbfounded by the overrunning of the whole
communications and countryside by an irresistible incursion of armored vehicles. He admitted in his
memoirs that it was the greatest surprise of his life. The biggest downside of Pervitin was
dependence and addiction of course. Providing soldiers with daily doses inevitably made them,
and their performance, dependent on Pervitin. And when the supply dried up,
shortage and withdrawal caused chaos among German ranks. The symptoms like nausea, hallucinations,
anxiety, depression, and diminution of cognitive capacities were rampant in German camps. Despite
Conti’s efforts to limit the use of Pervitin the army was obsessed with the drug and continued its
abuse. The situation escalated over the years and soldiers died increasingly from cardiac failure,
death, or military miscalculations. The army wasn’t controlling pervitin,
it was pervitin controlling the army. In fact, Morell who ironically introduced Die Fuhrer Hitler
to the drug was also the one who revealed during interrogations how Hitler’s own addiction to
Pervitin led to poor strategic decisions resulting in enemy victory at Normandy and ultimately,
the Fall of Berlin. Wehrmacht's miracle drug shined brightly during the early years of the
war but also backfired and became the reason for the decline of the Third Reich. Temmler-Wenke,
the maker of the drug, were the only winners making huge profits of relentless production.
Tell us in the comments, how do you think the Second World War would have been
different without the use of pervitin? And as always thanks for watching Nutty History.