Blitzed. Drugs in the Third Reich

SPIEGEL Bestseller

New York Times Bestseller

#1 Bestseller in Estonia

Recommended by New Books in German

Filmrights optioned by Paramount Pictures (producers: Appian Way, Chris Donnelly, Rick Yorn, David Greenblatt)

Complete English translation available

Website Norman Ohler

„Very good and extremely interesting… a serious piece of scholarship very well-researched.” Ian Kershaw 

This gripping page-turner is the first comprehensive investigation into drug usage during the so-called Third Reich. Up until now, not much is known about drug abuse in Nationalsocialist Germany. In his thrilling book, Norman Ohler literally gets under the skin of the Nazi-murderers, and takes a good look into their arteries and veins. What he finds is not „aryan-clean“ but rather chemical – and very toxic. Where the ideology could not generate enough enthusiasm for „Führer“ and final victory, the Nazi regime applied chemical stimulants for their people as well as soldiers – while at the same officially running a strict anti-drug-policy. 

An eye-opening book that examines the strict anti-drug policy established by Hitler’s regime in 1933 (the roots of the current „War on Drugs“) as well as the wide-spread abuse of Methamphetamin in Germany’s pre-war period to the realities of World War II with its massive drug abuse by the Wehrmacht – as well as by the „Führer“ himself, who was a ferocious consumer of opiats and stimulants. When Germany invaded France in 1940, and celebrated their quick and surprising victory over the Allied troops, Wehrmacht soldiers had taken 35 million doses of „Pervitin“. The medication – its main ingredient now known as Crystal Meth – was readily available at pharmacies, and made the Blitzkrieg possible. Soon it was everyman’s drug in Nazi-Germany. Also the alleged teetotaler Hitler was not averse to pharmaceutical stimulation. By the time he ordered his last offensive in the winter of 1944, not a single sober day went by. His personal physician Theo Morell kept him supplied with all kinds of doping substances, dubious hormonal medication and hard opiates, applied intravenously. 

For this book Norman Ohler spoke to eye witnesses, military historians and physicians, spent five years researching in archives in Germany, and the USA, and studied countless previously unreviewed documents.