Transcription
In the art of war, Tsun Tzu wrote that speed is the essence of war. Surely, when Tsun Tzu wrote that, he was not expecting Hitler to take it too literally. Speed, also known as amps, pet pills, uppers, and lid poppers, was commercialized just in time for mass consumption during World War II by the leading industrial powers. World War II was truly the greatest impetus to date for legally, 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 pet 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 II, but the trend was established by the 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 escapist delight, amps were helpful with hyper-alertness and vigilance. We've already discussed in our older videos how much armies were obsessed with the mythical 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 U.S. athletes of the Berlin Olympics in 1936. The German chemist Friedrich Stoltz had been aware that Americans were using Benzedrine, an American version of pixies, for doping during the '36 Olympics. Benzedrine was also used by U.S. 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 Stoltz 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 Stoltz 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 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 become a light motif 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, inaccurately 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 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 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 Mathis and 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 didn't make it 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 the 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 seen 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 all of Europe for their Führer.
However, Pervitin wasn't a miracle; it was just burning candles from both ends. Nothing in this universe was 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 mention 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 risk 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's 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 on their home turf.
From 1941, the Reich knew that Pervitin brought side effects and risk of addiction. However, even when the soldiers were dying because of heart failure or committing suicide because of 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, took Holland, Belgium, and finally France. When they crossed into France, the 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, the 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 included 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 the drug to Hitler, 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. Burma'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 Werke, the maker of the drug, were the only winners, making huge profits of relentless production. Tell us in the comments how you think the Second World War would have been different without the use of Pervitin, and as always, thanks for watching Nutty History.