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The Nazis Fought WW2 Tweaking on Crystal Meth
During WW2, the Germans issued their troops Pervitin, a pill whose effectiveness in staying alert German troops compared to drinking liters of strong coffee. Even more, it made all their worries seem to disappear, and infused them with a feeling of happiness – at least for a few hours. If those effects bring to mind something that has been in the news for the past few years, it is no surprise: Pervitin was basically crystal meth. The German military was tweaking throughout WW2.
In 1938, a German drug manufacturer developed methamphetamines. A high-ranking army doctor, Otto Ranke, saw its potential as a miracle drug to keep tired troops and pilots alert, and the entire German military euphoric. He tested it on university students, who exhibited a sudden spike in alertness and productivity, despite being short on sleep. In those days, the harmful side effects of narcotics were little known or studied, so the methamphetamine compound, under the trade name Pervitin, was approved for issue and ordered into mass production.
In 1940, when the German blitzkrieg swept through the lowland countries and France with incredible speed and fury, the Western Allies grew alarmed by reports of “Nazi Super Soldiers“. The pace and ferocity of the German advance owed much to the Germans’ innovative tactics, which integrated air, armor, and infantry, into a seemingly unstoppable juggernaut. However, there was an added factor that the Allies could not figure out: the inexplicable energy and tirelessness of the German soldiers. The invading Nazis seemed indefatigable, advancing and fighting day and night, with little or no rest.
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The reason was crystal meth, or Pervitin, which the Germans distributed to their troops, encouraging them to use it to fight fatigue. The packaging read “Alertness Aid“, to be taken “to maintain wakefulness“. It was accompanied by a warning that it should only be used “from time to time“. However, once people start tweaking, it is hard to stop and limit themselves to taking the drug only “from time to time”. The Nazis could not get enough of their crystal meth, and many wrote home begging their loved ones to send them Pervitin via military mail. One of them was Heinrich Boll, a German postwar author who won the 1972 Nobel Prize for literature. In a May 20th, 1940 letter to his parents, a 22-year-old Boll begged them to send him some Pervitin, which he said not only kept him alert, but also chased away his worries.
When Hitler turned his attention to the East, more than two million pills were issued prior to the launch of “Operation Barbarossa“. The pills became incredibly popular with the troops, who nicknamed them “tank chocolate“. As the war progressed, however, the consequences of hooking their troops on crystal meth became an increasingly serious problem for the German command. As enticing as the drug was, its long-term effects were devastating, and short rest periods were not enough to make up for the long stretches of wakefulness while tweaking. Millions became crystal meth addicts, with the side effects of sweating, dizziness, depression, hallucinations, and psychotic episodes during which many soldiers shot themselves or their comrades.
But in the meantime, Nazi soldiers performed feats of stamina and endurance that awed their opponents. The Fuhrer was himself a daily user of Pervitin, or crystal meth – which perhaps sheds light on many of his inexplicable wartime decisions. As the war progressed, he found it increasingly difficult to even get out of bed in the morning without shots of a daily drug concoction that included Pervitin.