Hitler and The Third Reich drug habits.Further insight revealed by new publication

Discussion in 'The Third Reich' started by Harry Ree, Sep 27, 2016.

  1. Harry Ree

    Harry Ree Very Senior Member

    Norman Ohler has written a book entitled Blized to be released in early October on drug addiction by Hitler and overall in the Third Reich.

    As I see the book complements the The Hitler Book published in 2005 of Hitler's intimate detail as seen by his closest personal aides from interrogations undertaken to create the secret dossier prepared for Stalin.

    Ohler's publication reveals the widespread use of crystal meth.....methamphetamine, widely known as Pervitin. He claims that the use of Pervitin was widespread throughout the German military structure and civilian population.

    It further adds as The Hitler Book revealed, the huge role played by his personal doctor,Dr Morell who determined Hitler's daily medication which transformed him into a drug addict and Morell a wealthy individual.

    The\Guardian review....High Hitler: how Nazi drug abuse steered the course of history

    Tom in Berlin might have seen the German publication entitled as The Total Rush.
     
  2. TriciaF

    TriciaF Junior Member

    It sounds amazing, I wonder if it's all true? But surely Penguin wouldn't agree to publish it if it was even partly fantasy.
    That would explain the several big misjudgements of Hitler and his cronies in the latter part of the war. I always thought he had developed megalomania.
     
  3. smdarby

    smdarby Well-Known Member

    The link to this article was sent to me by a friend a few days ago (I don't normally read The Guardian!). He pointed out that Sir Ian Kershaw endorses this work, so it must be based on sound research. But then again I am biased - Kershaw was a professor of mine when I was at Sheffield University.

    Didn't the Allies also use large amounts of drugs? I know aircrew were given amphetamines.
     
  4. Harry Ree

    Harry Ree Very Senior Member

    Yes aircrew were issued with amphetamines to get them through long periods of operations without exhaustion and so retain an element of alertness.However Ohler claims that Pervitin use was widespread in the civilian population.

    I think a look into the survival packs of those Allied personal involved in special operations will reveal a similar practice.

    As regards Goring,I believe he was already addicted to morphine before the rise of the Third Reich as a result of injuries while serving in the German air force at the latter stages of the Great War.By the end of the Second World War,he was addicted to any medication available and had to be weaned off painkillers.
     
  5. PsyWar.Org

    PsyWar.Org Archive monkey

    Attached Files:

  6. Ramiles

    Ramiles Researching 9th Lancers, 24th L and SRY

    There was a quite recent Dan Snow History Hit podcast (October 7th 2016) on this:
    Blitzed : Drugs In Nazi Germany – Norman Ohler

    BLITZED : DRUGS IN NAZI GERMANY – NORMAN OHLER

    "The Nazis presented themselves as warriors against moral degeneracy. Norman Ohler reveals, the entire Third Reich was permeated with drugs: cocaine, heroin, morphine and, most of all, methamphetamines, or crystal meth, used by everyone from factory workers to housewives, and crucial to troops’ resilience – even partly explaining German victory in 1940."
     
  7. Tamino

    Tamino The Deplorable

    With Göring it was a bit different. During the Beerhall Putsch, on November 8, 1923 a police marksman’s bullet had pierced Göring's groin, only millimeters from an artery. He was taken across the Austrian border with false passport and was hospitalized there.
    On November 26, just as his wound had closed, it broke open again. To muffle the searing pain, the doctors began injecting morphine twice a day.
    Carin wrote to her mother ‘Hermann is in a terrible state. His leg hurts so much he can hardly bear it.’
    That's when and how Göring became a morphine addict.
     
  8. Harry Ree

    Harry Ree Very Senior Member

  9. TriciaF

    TriciaF Junior Member

    I've just seen this - amazing.
    I don't think civilians in the UK had access to pervertin :rolleyes:
     
  10. Ramiles

    Ramiles Researching 9th Lancers, 24th L and SRY

    BBC iPlayer - World War Speed: The Drugs that Won WWII
    From: 29 Aug 2019 (and recent repeat): 55 mins.

    "It’s long been known that German soldiers used a methamphetamine, called Pervitin, during WWII. But have tales of Nazis on speed obscured the massive use of stimulants by British and American troops? Did total war unleash the world’s first pharmacological arms race? And in the face of industrial slaughter, what role did drugs play in combat? Historian James Holland is on a quest to dig deeper and unearth the truth behind World War Speed."
     
  11. Robert-w

    Robert-w Banned

    Cocaine was used in WW1. Indeed in the early years of this conflict Forntums and Harrods used to sell special gift packs of Heroin, Opium and Cocaine "to send to your lads at the front". In the 1890s Queen Victoria had enjoyed cocaine laced chewing gum and once shared it with a young Winston Churchill who was visiting Balmoral. Don't forget the original Coca Cola formula contained cocaine. By 1916 the British government had banned heroin and opium except on prescription but cocaine seems to have been regarded as a useful stimulant
     
  12. timuk

    timuk Well-Known Member

    From: BMA Board of Science - Drug policy in the UK from the 19th Century
    This was of particular concern in the wartime emergency situation of 1915-1916 and was compounded by reports of cocaine use among soldiers, especially those on leave in London, which was seen as compromising army efficiency. In 1916, the Army Council issued an order prohibiting the gift or sale of cocaine and other drugs to soldiers, except on prescription.

    Tim
     
  13. Robert-w

    Robert-w Banned

    But this did not preclude army medics prescribing it as a 'nerve tonic' to troops not on leave
     

Share This Page