August, 1939: The Third Reich, under the leadership of Adolf Hitler, is beginning to mobilize its military for an invasion of Poland. Previously, Hitler had expanded Germany’s borders to its old, pre-World War I borders with little repercussions from the Allied powers. This policy of “living space,” or Lebensraum, was used to unite Germany with Austria and annex the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia in 1938, and then annex the rest of Czechoslovakia in 1939. But the future German Lebensraum would need more, and so German troops were called to the Polish border that August.1
As the troops prepared for the opening of the Blitzkrieg on Poland, the Wehrmacht physiologist Otto Ranke had realized the possible benefits of a popular medical stimulant called Pervitin for use in the army. Pervitin, marketed as a powerful stimulant, was an early form of crystal methamphetamine, and the drug’s ability to promote “wakefulness and alertness,” as well as induce a slight euphoria in its users, had caught the attention of the military. Ranke had authorized its deployment to the field troop’s ration kits as a small-scale test run of the drug’s effects on the soldiers poised to invade Poland.2
Reports from officers in the field on the drug’s effects were glowing. The quick conquering of Poland with minor losses was partly accredited to Pervitin. However, as the drug made the troops powerful fighters unlike any others ever faced, the side effects were also very noticeable. As the drug high wore off, heavy fatigue and withdrawal would set in, taking some troops out of the lines for up to two days. Profuse sweating, irritability, heightened aggression, and impaired judgement were just some of the side effects troops had to deal with. Regardless, the Reich viewed the drug’s positive attributes outweighed the side effects.3
With the successful invasion and annexation of Poland complete, Hitler had now crossed the line in the sand placed by the Allied powers. France and Great Britain officially declared war on September 3, 1939. The Western Front had now opened, and a complete naval blockade against Germany was in effect. With the medical reports from Poland being so good, the Wehrmacht decided to roll out Pervitin to the whole military, especially to the Luftwaffe, Germany’s Air Force.4
In April of 1940, the invasion of the Nordic States began in order to secure iron for the Reich and cut off an allied landing zone to Germany’s north. A month later, the Blitzkrieg would commence on the western front. Hitler simultaneously launched an offensive against France, Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg. The incredibly short campaigns and low number of German casualties were, again, credited to the miracle pill Pervitin. However, the side effects of Pervitin and reports of soldiers abusing it were much more prevalent. Reichsminister of the Luftwaffe Herman Goering, and coincidentally one of Pervitin’s chief advocates, ordered the drug’s use to end in the military.5
In July of 1940, the beginning of the brutal air campaign by the Germans on the British commenced, known as the Battle of Britain. With the last major player of the allies being bombarded constantly by German sorties, a German victory in Europe seemed ensured. Despite Goering’s orders to cease use of Pervitin, Luftwaffe pilots used the drug completely unhindered by their superiors. The same applied to the Wehrmacht, who would find ways to get hold of the drug. By the end of 1940, it could be argued that Hitler’s war machine was hooked on meth.6
German Health Fuhrer Leo Conti, seeing Pervitin beginning to undo the ranks of the army and increasing dependence and abuse of the drug among the civilian population, made the drug illegal under the Reich Opium Law, effectively outlawing it—on paper, that is.7 Prohibition of Pervitin was sparsely enforced. Only the most fanatical Nazis would enforce the laws. With the outbreak of the war with Russia and the opening of the eastern front, use of Pervitin had actually increased among the soldiers as they marched towards Moscow. Operation Barbarossa, the Nazi plan for the invasion of the Soviet Union, would end up being a tremendous failure for Hitler, and it arguably assured an allied victory by surrounding the Germans on two sides, a mistake made before by Hitler’s predecessors in World War I.8
As supplies dried up and the Germans were pushed back further into Germany, use of Pervitin became sporadic. With German industrial locations made explicit targets of the Allied air campaign, simply producing anything in Germany on a large scale was neigh impossible. Troops would use it if they could find any, but in the same breath, finding any was very unlikely. It wouldn’t be until the end of the war that Pervitin would see wide scale production again.9
Methamphetamine is one of the most dangerous drugs ever created by man. With the lack of information and little understanding of side effects in drugs during the twentieth century, it was no wonder the drug caught on like wild fire. Couple that with the racial superiority complex of the Nazis and the search for anything to promote that image, Pervitin was exactly the tool needed to fuel the war, and a catalyst to bring it to an end.
- Gale Encyclopedia of World History: Governments, Vol 1, 2008, s.v. “Nazi Germany.” ↵
- UXL Encyclopedia of Drugs and Addictive Substances, 2006, s.v. “Methamphetamine,” by Barbara C. Bigelow. ↵
- Gale Encyclopedia of World History: Governments, Vol 1, 2008, s.v. “Nazi Germany”; Norman Ohler, Blitzed: Drugs in Nazi Germany (U.K.:Penguin Random House), 48, 50, 63. ↵
- The Encyclopedia of the Third Reich, 1991, s.v. by Christian Zentner and Friedemann Bedürftig. ↵
- The Encyclopedia of the Third Reich, 1991, s.v. by Christian Zentner and Friedemann Bedürftig. ↵
- Norman Ohler, Blitzed: Drugs in Nazi Germany (U.K.: Penguin Random House), 96, 100, 106. ↵
- Norman Ohler, Blitzed: Drugs in Nazi Germany (U.K.:Penguin Random House), 269, 273. ↵
- The Encyclopedia of the Third Reich, 1991, s.v. by Christian Zentner and Friedemann Bedürftig. ↵
- Norman Ohler, Blitzed: Drugs in Nazi Germany (U.K.: Penguin Random House), 296, 300. ↵
53 comments
Adam Portillo
I’ve never heard of meth being used by the Nazi’s during they’re eastern and western front campaigns. I found it really interesting that the soldiers would use these drugs and gain an upper hand on their opposition by doing so. Eventually, the side effects of Pervitin would come back to haunt the Nazi’s as they would not be able to fight in the days that followed and would need to recover. This is for sure an interesting tactic that would eventually come back to bite the Nazi’s.
Ysenia Rodriguez
Now this is something I never heard of in any history book or Nazi article. The Nazi army used crystal methamphetamine to have the “upper hand” as alert fighters during battle. However, they did not consider the side effects that would keep these same “powerful fighters” from fighting the days following the crash of their high. Truly a strange tactic of war but it was enough to lead to the Nazi army’s rise, and fall, in war.
Enrique Segovia
I consider that what I just read, only augmented my deprecation for Nazis. Even more, if once I thought they were inhumane, I now think they were just purely evil. Surprisingly, the Nazis gave their soldiers an early form of crystal methamphetamine, Pervitin, to enhance their fighting skills. I cannot believe that Nazis were indoctrinated to kill and harm others, but actually also harm themselves in order to become these “super soldiers” in order to aid themselves to cause more damage on others. I cannot think of something more inhumane than that.
Lorenzo Rivera
The amount of research that was required in order to even write this article is astonishing. I have great respect for this article because I thought I had a pretty good idea of what kind of horrible acts the Nazis committed. However, this article shed new light on issues I hadn’t even heard about. This sort of explains why the German soldiers never questioned or revolted against the orders that they were told to carry out.
Martina Rodriguez
I can’t believe more research didn’t go into the meth before it was ordered to be added to the soldiers rations. I would have thought that since soldiers are so instrumental in winning wars, the government would have given more thought into the potential bad side effects. When the side effects were finally realized, I cannot believe that the effects of withdrawal were not seen as great enough to stop the ration distribution. However, once the reports of misuse were generated I was not surprised at all that the meth distribution was stopped after such a short time. At the same time all those soldiers were now dependent on the drug, so it was obvious that the drug wouldn’t stop circulation that easily.
Richard Morales
This article highlights Nazis as the crazed war criminals they truly were. Given the heinous acts they committed it is not surprising to learn that a large majority of them were hooked on methamphetamine. I did not know that pervitin was such a factor in the success on eventual downfall of Nazi Germany. It is amazing how far society has come with knowledge of medicine and drugs.
Taylor Rech
An entire army being prescribed Pervitin, an early form of crystal methamphetamine, is an incredibly scary thought considering the effects of the drug and the fact that we are giving weapons to the people that are taking it. While reading, I could not help but to focus on the moral issues of the situation; I know armies are sometimes instructed to do intensely daunting tasks but imagine the number of people that needed medical assistance and rehabilitation for a drug addiction after the war. Also, considering the mental and physical tolls the drug takes on the human body, it is simply cruel treatment to order soldiers to take it.
Christopher Vasquez
I had no idea that the Germans issued a drug, Pervitin, in order to help their soldiers lose their worries and fight more aggressively. This type of drug seems to have come at a great cost though, especially since it had a base of methamphetamine. The side effects seemed to have been greater than what the drug allowed the German soldiers to do. In fact, the drug, despite having success attributed to it during the war, was outlawed by the Reich Opium Law, since it was causing extreme harm to its users. It’s sad that the Germans who survived the war might have also had a drug addiction for the rest of their lives.
Rebecca Campos
Pervitin was something I had never heard of before this article. It’s very ironic that the drug was first thought to help the troops but in the end it actually ended up doing the exact opposite. The author did n excellent job telling the story of this drug and the users that fell victim to it. Nowadays we luckily know more about the harmful effects of the drugs and the true dangers they really possess. This article does make one curious about the answer to the question, “How different would the outcome of the war have been without the drugs?”
Eloisa Sanchez Urrea
The topic of war has been a very relevant topic for decades. Some even say that war in in man’s nature. This article demonstrates the lengths soldiers are willing to go to assure their triumph on the battlefield. They had discovered a powerful drug that would keep soldiers alert but there were also strong side effects that negatively impacted these men. This was a very insightful article that took us through the evolution of Methamphetamine and its effects on soldiers.