Hitler Adolf - Blitzed: drugs in Nazi Germany

These learned gentlemen [] will not neglect to find my ideas entirely ludicrous; or indeed, they will do better than that, they will elegantly ignore them completely. Do you know why? Because they say Im not an expert.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Mutating from novelist to author of a non-fiction history book was a surprising and by no means a natural process, but always a happy one. Some allies, friends and confidants were closely involved in this transformation. It all began with the Berlin DJ Alexander Krmer, who told me the Nazis took loads of drugs and wondered whether that might be developed as an idea for a film. We pursued this idea, and after Janina Findeisen suggested looking into the archives to find out the actual facts, it got exciting. I would like to give my warmest thanks to all the archivists who helped me in Berlin, Sachsenhausen, Koblenz, Marbach, Munich, Freiburg, Dachau and Washington DC. I received early inspiration from the historian Peter Steinkamp. Another expert whom I should particularly like to thank is Volker Hartmann of the Bundeswehr Medical Academy, and also Gorch Pieken, Scientific Director of the Bundeswehrs Military History Museum in Dresden. My gratitude goes to Sylvie Lake and Douglas Gordon for their incomparable contributions, and also to Michael Stipe for helping me find the right English title and to my very special agents, Tanja Howarth and Matthias Landwehr, my editors Lutz Dursthoff, Simon Winder, and Ben Hyman, and to Helge Malchow, my German publisher, who had the initial idea of setting this material out in a non-fiction book. Above all I am grateful to Hans Mommsen, the great late modern historian, who has given me a great deal of support. In any case, one thing has become apparent: a non-fiction book is a collective process. So I should like to thank everyone who helped me whether they are mentioned here or not.

Norman Ohler

The most important sources for this book are unpublished documents. Archives opened specially for this research, unpublished material and countless reports and files from German and American state archives have been complemented by interviews with contemporary witnesses and military historians. In this context I should point out that because of retention periods certain aspects of the Third Reich still cannot be consulted in London archives. And in Moscow access by researchers to the secret archives of the former Soviet Union is still severely restricted.

rztliches Kriegstagebuch des Kommandos der K-Verbnde, 1 September 194430 November 1944, Dr Richert, BArch-Freiburg RM 10310/6

rztliches Kriegstagebuch des Kommandos der K-Verbnde, Arnim Wandel, BArch-Freiburg N906

rtzliches Kriegstagebuch des Kreuzers Prinz Eugen 1 January 194231 January 1943, vol. 2, Geheime Kommandosache: rztlicher Erfahrungsbericht ber den Durchbruch des Kreuzers Prinz Eugen durch den Kanal in die Deutsche Bucht am 11 February 1942 bis 13 February 1942, BArch-Freiburg RM 925221/Bl. 5860

rtzliches Kriegstagebuch Waldau, Chef des Luftwaffenfhrungsstabes: Mrz 1939 bis 10.4.1942, BArch-Freiburg ZA 3/163

Bericht ber die Kommandierung zur Gruppe Kleist, 12.7.1940, BArch-Freiburg RH 1223/1931

Bericht ber Gesundheitslage des Kdo.d.K. und Hygiene des Einzelkmpfers: geheime Kommandosache, BArch-Freiburg N906

Conditions in Berlin, March 1945, in SIR 15811582, RG No. 165, Stack Area 390, Row 35, Box 664, p. 1, National Archives at College Park, Md

Germany (Postwar) 19451949, Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs: Subject Files, 19161970, Record Group 170; National Archives at College Park, Md

Giesing, Erwin, Bericht ber meine Behandlung bei Hitler, Wiesbaden, 12 June 1945, Headquarters United States Forces European Theater Military Intelligence Service Center: OI Consolidated Interrogation Report (CIR), National Archives at College Park, Md

Hitler, Adolf: A composite picture, Entry ZZ-6, in IRR-Personal Name Files, RG No. 319, Stack Area 230, Box 8, National Archives at College Park, Md

Hitler as seen by his doctors, No. 2, October 15, 1945 (Theodor Morell) and No. 4, November 29, 1945 (Erwin Giesing), National Archives at College Park, Md

Hitlers Testament, BArch-Koblenz N1128, Nachlass Adolf Hitler

Institut fr allgemeine und Wehrphysiologie, BArch-Freiburg, RH 1223, especially RH 1223/1882 and RH 1223/1623

Interrogation report on one German naval POW, in Entry 179, Folder 1, N1016, RG No. 165, Stack Area 390, Box 648, National Archives at College Park, Md

Landesarchiv Berlin, A Rep. 250-02-09 Temmler

Life History of Professor Dr. Med. Theo Morell, in IRR-Personal Name Files, RG NO. 319, Stack Area 230, Row 86, Box 8 [XE051008], National Archives at College Park, Md

Nachlass Joseph Goebbels, BArch-Koblenz N1118

Nachlass Theodor Morell:

BArch-Koblenz N1348

Institut fr Zeitgeschichte Munich: IfZArch, MA 617

National Archives, College Park, Md, Microfilm Publication T253, Rolls 3445

Suchenwirth, Richard, Hermann Gring, BArch-Freiburg ZA 3/801

, Ernst Udet: Generalluftzeugmeister der deutschen Luftwaffe, BArch-Freiburg ZA 3/805

Unverffentliches Kriegstagebuch des Heeres-Sanittsinspekteurs, Sanittsakademie der Bundeswehr

Waldmann, Anton, Unverffentlichtes Tagebuch, Wehrgeschichtliche Lehrsammlung des Sanittsdienstes der Bundeswehr

Bekmpfung der Alkohol- und Tabakgefahren: Bericht der 2. Reichstagung Volksgesundheit und Genugifte, Hauptamt fr Volksgesundheit der NSDAP und Reichsstelle gegen den Alkohol- und Tabakmibrauch, Berlin-Dahlem, Reichsstelle gegen den Alkoholmibrauch, 1939

Deutsche Reich und der Zweite Weltkrieg, Das, vol. 4: Der Angriff auf die Sowjetunion, Stuttgart, Militrgeschichtliches Forschungsamt, 1983; and vol. 8: Die Ostfront 1943/44. Der Krieg im Osten und an den Nebenfronten, Stuttgart, Militrgeschichtliches Forschungsamt, 2007

Heeresverordnungsblatt 1942, part B, no. 424, p. 276: Bekmpfung des Mibrauchs von Betubungsmitteln, BArch-Freiburg RH 1223/1384.

Kriegstagebuch des Oberkommandos der Wehrmacht, ed. Percy Ernst Schramm, 8 vols. Frankfurt am Main, 1982 [1961]

Prozess gegen die Hauptkriegsverbrecher vor dem Internationalen Militrgerichtshof Nrnberg, 14. November 19451. Oktober 1946, Der, vol. 41, Munich, 1984

Reichsgesetzblatt I, 12 June 1941, p. 328: 6. Verordnung ber Unterstellung weiterer Stoffe unter die Bestimmungen des Opiumgesetzes

Aldgate, Anthony and Jeffrey Richards, Britain Can Take It: The British Cinema in the Second World War (2nd edn), London, 2007

Ballhausen, Hanno (ed.), Chronik des Zweiten Weltkrieges, Munich, 2004

Bekker, Cajus, Einzelkmpfer auf See: die deutschen Torpedoreiter, Froschmnner und Sprengbootpiloten im Zweiten Weltkrieg, Oldenburg/Hamburg, 1968

Below, Nicolaus von, Als Hitlers Adjutant 193745