
Hitler's Drug Addiction - hecubus
https://www.guernicamag.com/daily/andrea-maurer-high-hitler/
======
matt_morgan
"Morell has documented 800 injections given to Hitler over 1,340 days, the
first in 1943 ..."

Not possible; Hitler committed suicide about 850 days after Jan 1 1943. There
are some issues in this article.

~~~
acqq
If it were 1340 injections in 800 days, it would better fit and possibly
support the story, especially the begin:

"At the end, when he was already hiding in his wet and dark Fuhrerbunker and
his beloved Eukodal was no longer available, the dictator was in a frail
state."

But the statement "the first in 1943, when the Americans landed in Sicilia"
gives us the begin date: 10th of July 1943, only 660 days before the famous
suicide.

------
oxide
Oxycodone aka Eukodal is not a "preform" of heroin, period. Hydrocodone, aka
Vicodin, has nothing to do with heroin either. This is seriously bad drug
information. they're just opiates.

If you don't know, now you know. Nothing I dislike more than bad drug
information being passed off as researched fact.

~~~
acqq
The author probably based it on the fact that oxycodone is a (semi-?)
synthetic opiate produced from one opioid found in poppy, just like heroin is.
They are of course not the same.

But heroin was synthesized in 19th century in England and oxycodone in 20th
century in Germany, therefore it can't be considered "pre-" heroin, at least
not globally. But maybe heroin wasn't common in Germany and therefore
oxycodone was pre- in Germany?

~~~
palmer_eldritch
> But maybe heroin wasn't common in Germany and therefore oxycodone was pre-
> in Germany?

Heroin was first marketed by Bayer, a German pharmaceutical company in 1898.
That's where the name 'heroin' comes from so oxycodone was definitely not pre-
in Germany.

Now, in nazi Germany, opium and products derived from it might have been
harder to come by because of import sanctions (that's why methadone, a fully
synthetic opioid, was developed in Germany in 1937). But that would apply to
oxycodone just as much as heroin.

So no, the author is just full of shit and trying to impress his uninformed
readers.

~~~
acqq
Wow, thanks for that, I've never read the Wikipedia article on Heroin and I
didn't know:

"The head of Bayer's research department reputedly coined the drug's new name,
"heroin," based on the German heroisch, which means "heroic, strong.""

------
jobu
Is this a legitimate article? There are few factual errors mentioned here in
other comments[1][2] that have my internet bullshit detector primed, and then
I see this quote from Ohler highlighted in the article:

 _“I have a good friend, a Berlin underground DJ, who told me once that the
Nazis took loads of drugs. I couldn’t believe it.”_

That seems like a very spurious source of knowledge about Nazi drug use.

[1]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10355245](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10355245)

[2][https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10355418](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10355418)

~~~
hebdo
The fact that Hitler was a serious addict is true. He was also bipolar, and it
is quite likely that the combination has contributed a lot to the beginning of
the end of Operation Barbarossa in 1943 (through his faulty decision about not
attacking Moscow in 1941, before winter, and before Stalin realized what is
really happening). The thing to remember is that amphetamines were way more
acceptable in the early 1940s (because the bad side effects were not yet that
obvious), for example Wehrmacht soldiers had "superpower chocolate bars"
beefed up with amphetamine. They were allowed to consume it in a dire
situation. There is a lot of unnecessary buzzing happening in the article
though.

~~~
Romanulus
I think you're on the right track... From what I've heard as well was that in
the later stages of the war, the army largely marched on a stomach full of
meth (so to speak). Facts like those could bolster the rumor mill in propping
up semi-gossip style information.

I did also have a history professor say that Hitler actually went blind for a
couple of days when he heard that the Americans landed on European shores.

------
codeshaman
The third reich seems to have developed a relationship with Ephedra and Poppy
(plus tobacco of course). And we saw the consequences of that.

I've always been fascinated by the impact of various drug-containing plants on
humanity and it's history. Plants, because most drugs are extracted or
synthesised from them.

Shamans say that it is the 'essence' or 'spirit' of the plant that is
psychoactive - you're 'inviting' another 'being' into your consciousness.

Those who smoked pot have probably noticed the alternative or alien 'voice'
which appears in your head and makes you think and say funny things or think
paranoid thoughts. This happens with all drugs - the drug (or, in shamanic
terms - the spirit of the plant) becomes one's invisible councillor - an
interlocutor in the user's internal dialogue.

Take tobacco - the act of smoking a cigarette is an act of 'conversing' with
the plant, an act of thinking and taking decisions. Notice the impact that
tobacco has had on the development of the human race - it's impossible to
claim that it was responsible for all our progress, but somehow it was present
in the pipes of Einstein and Oppenheimer and in the cigars smoked after a
successful space mission.

It was also present in the trenches of wars.

Today our world is more drugged than it has ever been. Besides all the classes
of illegal drugs, we also have people eating tens of thousands of various
synthetic chemicals - prescription drugs - and of course making all sorts of
combinations between them.

What will the consequence of this chemical experimentation end up being ?

Time will tell. Clearly we're doing some radical changes to how our minds and
bodies work and this has a direct impact on how our society looks and behaves
and what decisions are being made.

~~~
duaneb
>Those who smoked pot have probably noticed the alternative or alien 'voice'
which appears in your head and makes you think and say funny things or think
paranoid thoughts.

I have never experienced this. Marijuana can exacerbate existing schizophrenia
or expose it. If you hear voices after consuming it, I would talk to a doctor.
It can be a quite strong drug, but it does not typically cause clear, audial
hallucinations. (I would more describe it as distorting and/or decomposing the
audio perception, kind of like the visuals you get from lsd. Pretty, but
certainly not meaningful by itself.)

But, I've watched someone go through a psychotic breakdown when smoking weed
the first time. They were not aware of their family history of schizophrenia
until after that happened and they asked around. Be careful. :)

~~~
codeshaman
It's not necessarily 'that' kind of voice. We all have a little voice in our
heads. If you haven't noticed it, it's the voice that said 'what voice?' right
now. It's the voice we're in a perpetual dialog with all the time.

Somehow 'that' voice is not you - it's something you're talking to, it
examines and comments everything you do, it gives you advice, but you are not
it.

When you use a drug, 'you' stay the same, it's 'that' voice which is affected
by it.

~~~
duaneb
God, so complicated. Just say weed makes you paranoid. No need to
anthropomorphize our thoughts.

------
6stringmerc
If the sources have basis in truth, even if not to the extremity put forward,
it's worth keeping in mind in the context of the person's worldly outlook.
That noted, when talking about the effects of drug addiction on the mind, I
find it relevant to point out Ayn Rand was an amphetamine addict for 30
years[1]. As a writer myself with an alphabet of substances consumed over the
years, I can attest to different drugs having different influences on what
gets put to paper...the most common in the field being alcohol. There's a long
tradition of people saying things they wouldn't otherwise when their
inhibitions are lowered, and that seems to hold true with the written word as
well in many cases.

[1] [http://theweek.com/articles/493764/ayn-rand-speed-
addict](http://theweek.com/articles/493764/ayn-rand-speed-addict)

~~~
Uhhrrr
As well as a number of the Beat authors. When I found that out, "On The Road"
suddenly made more sense.

~~~
cafard
Wasn't at least one guy's amphetamine use described in _On the Road_? I think
it was, but it has been a while since I read the book.

~~~
Uhhrrr
It mentions benzedrine use, but it didn't come off as omnipresent (to my naive
self).

------
djyaz1200
Fascinating book "A First Rate Madness" goes into detail on Hitler, JFK and
other leaders drug use/abuse and mental illness.

~~~
nostromo
JFK's drug history is fascinating. The amount of drugs he was on during the
Bay of Pigs alone is alarming.

The world was so close to nuclear annihilation, and JFK was on a half dozen
drugs, including steroids, antipsychotics, and amphetamines, from the doctor
the secret service called "Dr. Feelgood."

It's fascinating what presidents could get away with pre-Lewinsky.

[http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/08/the-
medi...](http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/08/the-medical-
ordeals-of-jfk/309469/)

~~~
at-fates-hands
>> It's fascinating what presidents could get away with pre-Lewinsky.

I've seen several documentaries that comment if people thought JFK was bad,
LBJ was much, much worse when it came to women. There's a famous rumor about
him getting caught in the oval office having sex with his secretary and
afterwards, installing a buzzer so the secret service could warn him if he was
wife was on her way to his office.

I can only imagine how the tabloid journalists would have a heyday with this
nowadays.

~~~
eastbayjake
When LBJ heard people talking about JFK's affairs, he "would bang the table
and declare that he had more women by accident than Kennedy ever had on
purpose."[1] It got worse:

 _At his Senate office, his female workers were fondled, ogled and overworked.
Though his own figure was flabby, he was quick to berate any of his "girls"
who put on weight. He wanted to make sure the view was good when they walked
away from his desk. "I don't want to look at an Aunt Minnie. I want to look at
a good, trim back end." He boasted of his sexual prowess and had long affairs
with at least two women, as well as casual flings with members of his staff.
Robert Caro, who is a dogged researcher, has uncovered the story of LBJ's
previously secret relationship with Helen Gahagan Douglas, one of the few
congresswomen in Washington during the 1940s. A former actress, she was an
attractive blonde whose political career came to an abrupt halt after she
failed to join her lover as a member of the Senate. In a dirty campaign for an
open seat in California, she was defeated by a Republican newcomer who spread
rumours that she was a Communist sympathiser. His name was Richard Nixon._[2]

[1] [http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1998/04/three-
ne...](http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1998/04/three-new-
revelations-about-lbj/377094/)

[2] [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/4728473/A-lewd-crude-
Mast...](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/4728473/A-lewd-crude-Master.html)

------
MichaelGG
This brings into question how bad the drugs actually are. Hermann Göring,
lauded fighter ace, rose high up in the Nazi command. He was addicted to
morphine. He didn't perform well enough in the war, but apart from the whole
being-a-Nazi thing, one would say he had a rather successful career. So it
really kills the whole "injected opiates will ruin your life" line. Same for
Paul Erdős and amphetamines. Though amphetamines might have more long-term
damaging issues (psychosis or heart issues) whereas opiates are _relatively_
benign.

This should just re-enforce the truth that the real problem with many drugs is
simply legality (which causes high prices which leads non-wealth users into a
spiral). With an open market, anyone with a minimum wage job could afford to
be on opiates.

And in a military? Seems like a given. If you have soldiers that are feeling
bad or otherwise having a crisis of confidence, opiates are a fairly good way
to assuage that. To make them feel everything will turn out OK. Along with
speed to give them lots of energy, and an environment conducive to actually
doing stuff, it seems like a good military strategy (ignoring long-term
effects on soldiers).

The only real question is if they made large strategic mistakes due to the
opiates and thinking things will be alright no matter what. Though this
article indicates a late date for Hitler's use, and it was much earlier he
decided to attack the Soviet Union, so...

------
thiopental
The article makes it seem like there's a lot of news, when in fact most of
what we can learn from the article about drugs in the Third Reich has already
been published in the 2002 title "Nazis On Speed. Drogen im Dritten Reich."
\-- two volumes with a wealth of information, of which she makes zero mentions
in the article.

I distantly remember attending a book reading and discussion about above book
in 2003 with Werner Pieper, Friedrich Kittler and others providing a good
overview, a lot of serious points and some fun facts.

For instance, at some point, in Paris under German occupation, Pervitin pills
were a legitimate currency in Paris brothels.

It can also be shown that there was an unusually high amount of animal studies
performed all over the country, testing the effects of Pervitin on all kinds
of species and sub-species, that don't seem to make much sense academically,
but did provide steady Pervitin supplies for the research team.

------
andyl
What is the lesson to be learned? Is drug use correlated with high-
performance?

"People felt like they always wanted to: splendid, completely calm,
clearheaded; it was a golden feeling." That sounds good! I'd like that...

All I've seen in drug users is wreckage and death. Maybe I haven't seen the
whole picture. Is there an upside to drug use? If there was a safe performance
pill maybe I would try it.

~~~
DanBC
> All I've seen in drug users is wreckage and death.

Drug use is illegal and is taboo. Many people who take drugs are not going to
talk to you about it.

You won't have seen a lot of drug use. You'll only have seen the worse end of
drug use.

You have seen plenty of people who can have a few alcoholic drinks a week?
That's drug use that doesn't end in wreckage and death, even though alcohol is
very harmful and very addictive. (And physically addictive, not just
psychologically addictive.)

~~~
gwern
> Drug use is illegal and is taboo. Many people who take drugs are not going
> to talk to you about it.

Indeed. As has been well known in the addiction literature for a long time
now, the overwhelming majority of addicts just sort of... get over it. The
addicts that show up more prominently are a very selected subgroup. To give an
example that will doubtless be familiar to many HN commenters personally,
modafinil is used more widespreadly than it is acknowledged; in the survey I'm
running now, most respondents just use it practically with no drama or mess.

------
littletimmy
Dude. The guy lost. You don't have to propagandize against him now. Let it
rest.

~~~
jbob2000
I thought it had a huge slant as well. I get it, the Nazi's did cruel things,
but I'm a little leery of articles like this that are so demonizing. Can't we
just talk about them as a facet of history?

~~~
sageabilly
It is a facet of history. It's a new fact about one of the most reviled and
studied individuals in human history and it places his words and deeds in a
new light. It is new information about not only Hitler but the entire Third
Reich including everyone from the top down to the troops and as such means
that historians might need to reframe everything that's been written about the
time period up to this point.

Also yes, articles about Nazis _tend_ to have a demonizing slant, for as yet
unknown reasons.

~~~
DanBC
The problem with demonizing Nazis is that it makes them seem uniquely evil.

But they're not unique. There have been many genocides since the holocaust.

And while what they did was certainly evil many of the individuals involved
were just regular people.

~~~
pvaldes
> The problem with demonizing Nazis is that it makes them seem uniquely evil.

"In the air strike, witnesses said patients were burned alive in the crowded
hospital of medecins sans frontieres. Among the dead were three children being
treated".

War crime, last week. Almost 200 patients and employees in the hospital.

To talk about how crazy was Hitler this week seems really convenient. Very
pleasant and distracting exercise of history.

source: [http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/05/us-afghanistan-
att...](http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/05/us-afghanistan-attack-
idUSKCN0RW0HC20151005)

------
learning_still
This was posted about a week ago:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10306399](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10306399)

~~~
sarciszewski
From
[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html)

    
    
        If a story has had significant attention in the last year
        or so, we kill reposts as duplicates. If not, a small
        number of reposts is ok.

