Although the Third Reich persecuted drug addicts and lumped them in with Jews, homosexuals and gypsies, Hitler did not set a good example. He attended many important summits during World War II at a very high level, but many of his troops also systematically used drugs in the war. While Americans had coffee and tens of thousands of chocolates as stimulants, the Nazis sent millions of methamphetamine pills to the front lines.

And these were not recreational drugs, but part of the arsenal that transformed German soldiers into true ‘super soldiers.’ But like all drugs, after the high… comes the low.

The savagesIn the Norse sagas (and we already know how much Norse mythology loves high Nazi leaders like Hitler and, above all, Himmler) berserkers are described as brave soldiers who attack the enemy in battle, immune to pain and Jotun (or giants). These warriors appear not only in epics, but also in the testimonies of ancient Rome with the following expression: teutonicus anger It depicted Germanic warriors, nearly naked and howling, facing the Roman armies.

This indifference to pain and violence has long been thought to be due to the consumption of hallucinogenic mushrooms or foods contaminated with LSD-like mushrooms. It could also be belladonna, which contains substances that increase violence and can have fatal side effects, but that’s okay. And that’s a good story, but perhaps it’s more likely that this anger is the result of increased dopamine, cortisol, and adrenaline from the war itself rather than drug use.

Methamphetamines of the Blitzkrieg. Leaving the crazies behind, amphetamines were well known in Germany. They were first synthesized in Germany in 1887 by a chemist named Lazar Edeleanu, and then a Japanese chemist named Nagai Nagayoshi came up with methamphetamine. The latter was marketed on a large scale as an over-the-counter drug in Germany in 1938 thanks to the Temmler Group, who realized that it had an effect that could be useful on the battlefield.

Its stimulant effects were ideal for preventing soldiers from falling asleep, which was useful on the battlefield as well as on long plane journeys. So containers of Pervitin pills, the trade name for methamphetamine hydrochloride, were created, and when the blitzkriegs of the Third Reich were launched in 1940, it turned out that Germany was distributing millions of the pills to its own troops. For this blitzkrieg to be effective, the Wehrmacht’s advance had to be rapid and relentless.

Super soldiers. German soldiers had seemingly limitless energy. While the Allies (especially the Americans) used coffee as a stimulant, the Nazis added Pervitin to theirs. And they did it for everything: to avoid falling asleep on supply submarines, to fly to London without rest on long flights, or to walk for days at a time, covering an average of 35 kilometers a day. With these drugs, more distance can be covered in less time by eliminating rest periods.

Pervitin and Isophan (a slightly different version produced by another pharmaceutical company called Knoll) were distributed in the millions, each pill containing three milligrams of the active ingredient. In addition, there was a telephone emergency ordering system in medical units (which then received it for distribution directly to the troops). These pills were labelled ‘Stimulant’ and the instructions stated that the dose of one or two tablets was to be taken ‘only if necessary to maintain insomnia’.

Side effects. But as with any other drug, there were side effects. In the Spiegel newspaper we can see the note addressed to German health officials: “Every health official should know that Pervitin is a powerful stimulant; it is a tool that helps certain people within its sphere of influence to achieve active and effective performance above average at any time.

In fact, its effects were seen as a positive thing. An example of this is the case of 500 German soldiers surrounded by the Red Army on the Eastern Front. At -30 degrees, the morale of the troops was low, but within half an hour of taking the pill, the soldiers regained both their morale and their ability to flee. The problem was that there were doctors who noticed that after taking the pills, the regeneration gradually slowed down, leaving the soldiers immobile for several days.

Some experienced problems such as excessive sweating and poor circulation. Some soldiers also died, and those who took them gradually developed tolerance to their effects. And the opposite happened: withdrawal syndrome when you stop taking Pervitin after taking it for a long time.

D-IX cocktail. In 1941, there were attempts to end the distribution of Pervitin, but the measure was not very successful and towards the end of the war, something stronger was actually sought. While methamphetamines had an interesting reputation in the Third Reich (publicly condemned, but later distributed to the military), they had proven valuable in times of high morale and when the army needed them. The situation changed dramatically in 1944 when the Allies advanced.

Nazi Germany needed its super soldiers more than ever before, and a few pharmacologists began developing a new drug, an experimental performance enhancer for the Wehrmacht, which was losing men at an unsustainable rate. Many compounds were born in this way: from DI to DX.

The one that turned out to be the most suitable was a curious concoction called D-IX: three milligrams of Pervitin, five milligrams of cocaine, and five milligrams of oxycodone, all per tablet. Apart from the overdose, it also contained cocaine, methamphetamine, and morphine—something to dull the pain and keep the soldier on high alert.

Forced laborThe effects were brutal in this nature, however, and since the war had ended before the D-IX was put into circulation among the rest of the Wehrmacht, it was only tested on some members of the mini-submarine crews. The only place where the effects could be seen was on prisoners at the Sachsenhausen camp.

To test its effects, a study group was given a dose of this miracle drug and were recorded as being able to walk up to 88 kilometers without rest while carrying a 20-pound pack. This would have been a huge advantage on the battlefield, but the side effects could be huge. It is said that the prisoners even sang and whistled, but fainted after the first 24 hours.

The Allied army also wanted drugs. These drugs were not the only things given to the soldiers to keep them awake and achieve their goals. There was also mental conditioning similar to that applied to the Luftwaffe kamikaze pilots. As they flew towards certain death, epic fight songs played over the transistors, while a voice constantly reiterated the importance of the mission.

On the Allied side, drug use was encouraged, along with chocolate and coffee. One record is of soldiers of the British 24th Armoured Tank Brigade, who were prescribed 20 milligrams of benzedrine (another amphetamine) per day before the Second Battle of El Alamein in Egypt. RAF pilots also received a dose of benzedrine, but the dose was smaller.

Pictures | Jan Wellen, Bundesarchive

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