Every few years a story will circulate in the news talking about Hitler’s drug addiction, how he was constantly using meth and cocaine and other drugs. The story seems sensational and crazy, and that’s because it is. While it’s true that Hitler was using a lot of drugs, he was never really addicted, and it was all because of his doctor.
Fig 1. Dr. Morell
Hitler suffered from a multitude of pains that are now believed to have been mostly psychosomatic (caused by mental stress). He had stomachaches, headaches, insomnia, and an unfortunate case of flatulence among other health complications (The reason he had flatulence was because he ate too many beans but everyone was too afraid to tell him). Dr. Theodor Morell arrived and helped Hitler clear up his pains garnering his trust very quickly.
The two men got along very well, and Morell became one of Hitler’s trusted advisers. Hitler, on the other hand, became one of Morell’s Guinea Pigs for his experimental drugs. Hitler was prescribed 92 different drugs during the war. He didn’t take them all at once they were rotated. Twenty of those drugs were created by Morell’s drug companies and hadn’t been scientifically tested. Morell used these drugs on Hitler to see their results.
While the medicine did have Cocaine, Meth, and other drugs in them, that was common for the time and the way Morell circulated Hitler’s treatments stopped Hitler from ever getting addicted to the drugs. What Hitler was addicted to, was the idea of medicine curing all his problems. In his last 28 months, alive Hitler made Morell give him “21 injections to treat his colds and 757 to restore his energy”.
Morell also administered drugs Cocaine from time to time to clear up Hitler’s nasal passages. Morell gave Hitler multivitamins to Hitler that were wrapped in gold and to be administered 4, 6, or 8 times a day. Interestingly enough, at the same time, Morell began treating Mussolini for some health problems, and Mussolini became his new Guinea Pig.
It is believed now that one of the diseases Hitler had was Parkinson’s which was not diagnosed at the time. Hitler’s Parkinsons and constant drug use lent to a transformation later in his life. In speeches towards the end of his life, he keeps his hands behind his back because of uncontrollable twitching.
After Hitler’s death and the end of the war, Morell was never convicted for helping Hitler because he was never a Nazi, he was just there to make money from manufacturing drugs for the Nazis.
Morell died in 1948 of natural causes.
