
High Hitler: how Nazi drug abuse steered the course of history - cjlm
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/sep/25/blitzed-norman-ohler-adolf-hitler-nazi-drug-abuse-interview
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olivermarks
All this is pretty well known about drug use in WWII - this piece is written
as if it's all an amazing discovery. Blitzkrieg was achieved with drugs,
Allied bomber pilots were given amphetamines etc etc
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_and_culture_of_substit...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_and_culture_of_substituted_amphetamines#Military_use)

~~~
Someone
Drugging soldiers also wasn't new in WWII at all. Alcohol was used in navies
the world around for centuries, tobacco and alcohol were used in the trenches
of World War One.

It also didn't end in World War Two. 'downers' and 'uppers' were used in Korea
and Vietnam, and how do you think US pilots flew missions from Missouri to
Tripoli and Afghanistan? Not only on a good night's sleep and fruit juice.
That's even public knowledge. For example,
[http://usoonpatrol.org/archives/2014/11/13/b-2-pilot-flew-
lo...](http://usoonpatrol.org/archives/2014/11/13/b-2-pilot-flew-longest-
combat):

 _" In order to fight off the release of melatonin that comes at that moment,
the flight doctor had given each crew member an approved “pick me up pill” to
make sure everyone was alert going into combat"_

------
noinsight
The ultimate performance enhancing drug the Germans prototyped was D-IX which
was not mentioned in the article. Each tablet contained 5 mg of oxycodone, 5
mg of cocaine and 3 mg of methamphetamine, so it was potent stuff.

> German researchers found that equipment-laden test subjects (inmates from
> Sachsenhausen concentration camp) could march in a circle for up to 90
> kilometers per day without rest while carrying a 20 kilogram backpack.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D-IX](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D-IX)

------
jacob019
A good read. Not exactly hacker news material, but I'm glad I read it. I had
no idea that Hitler ran out of drugs two months before he killed himself. We
all knew about drug abuse in the Third Reich, but the personal addiction of
Hitler is less well known.

------
skylan_q
Nazi soldiers didn't eat. They subsisted on raping children!

We must defeat Hitler now before it's too late!

------
posterboy
Betteridge's Law still seems to apply, even if the question mark at the end is
omitted.

~~~
posterboy
To the downvoters:

The article is clearly sensationalist. I'm not saying the implication is
wrong, I'm saying the article can't prove it. I expect the book won't contain
precise source references either. Other books on the same topic have been
criticized for unclear sources, as well. The endorsement by the person who
inspired the author in the first place is not an independent opinion and thus
clearly biased.

> At a company called Temmler in Berlin, Dr Fritz Hauschild, its head chemist,
> inspired by the successful use of the American amphetamine Benzedrine at the
> 1936 Olympic Games, began trying to develop his own wonder drug – and a year
> later, he patented the first German methyl-amphetamine.

So, it was initially developed by the Allies. It's fair to assume they used
it, too.

> Was Blitzkreig, then, largely the result of the Wehrmacht’s reliance on
> crystal meth? How far is Ohler willing to go with this? He smiles. “Well,
> Mommsen always told me not to be mono-causal. But the invasion of France was
> made possible by the drugs. No drugs, no invasion.

Under the assumption that the Allies used stimulants, too, there is no
advantage?

~~~
jacob019
It is not fair to assume that the allies used amphetamine just because an
American pharmaceutical company was the first to market it commercially. It
was not developed by "the allies". Amphetamine was first synthesized in 1887
in Germany by Romanian chemist Lazăr Edeleanu who named it
phenylisopropylamine.

~~~
AstralStorm
Except it was a standard piece in a long range pilot package for a long, long
time. (replaced only very recently) Ground troops were not issued due to cost.
Allies did not have the chemical factories to make it cheap. They would be
using the drugs on large scale if it was possible.

Hitler's doctor-driven abuse is well documented. The side effects of long term
use were not yet that well known.

~~~
Someone
_" Ground troops were not issued due to cost"_

"Medical Science and the Military: The Allies' Use of Amphetamine during World
War II"
([http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/JINH_a_00212](http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/JINH_a_00212)):

 _" Although amphetamine was thoroughly tested by leading scientists for its
effects in boosting or maintaining physical and mental performance in fatigued
subjects, the results never provided solid grounds for approving the drug's
use, and, in any case, came too late to be decisive. The grounds on which
amphetamine was actually adopted by both British and American militaries had
less to do with the science of fatigue than with the drug's mood-altering
effects, as judged by military men. It increased confidence and aggression,
and elevated “morale.”"_

I'm not sure whether that agrees or disagrees with what you say, and the
article proper is paywalled.

With that caveat, I read it as if they knew about it and were willing to use
it, but didn't find the right mix (?yet?) to warrant large scale use. My guess
is that the fact that they were winning the war also made them a bit more
scrupulous in deploying it than the nazis were.

