Hitler on Drugs

I just read an article in The Economist-published More Intelligent Life about Adolf Hitler’s problem of uncontrallable flatulence, an issue on which the article says medical historians agree. The article discusses in some detail Hitler’s search for control over his bowel’s behaviour, starting from his conversion to vegetarianism, and continuing well into his relationship with Dr Theo Morell, a man who eventually became his personal doctor. In his capacity as the Führer’s doctor, Dr Morell administered ‘Dr. Köster’s Anti-gas pills’ to him, a drug that is said to contain strychnine, a chemical Wikipedia describes as capable of ‘producing some of the most dramatic and painful symptoms of any known toxic reaction’. The writer goes on to say that some of Hitler’s health condition, something that affected his behaviour, could be attributed to strychnine poisoning, as well as to antropine, another active ingredient in the drugs Dr Morell administered to him.

The article also talks of the injection of Hitler with amphetamine every morning before breakfast, a ritual that started in 1941. It was found, after the war, that Dr Morell was administering eye-drops from a mixture that contained 10 percent cocaine up to 10 times a day to Adolf. Now, take all these together, add to it a dash of absolute dictatorship and you get the man currently known as Hitler.

Showing Hitler
As I was reading the article I remembered Der Untergang, a movie that showed the last few days of Hitler and the Third Reich. The movie was condemned by many as showing a human side to the monster Hitler, and making it possible for people to probably sympathise with him rather than despise him as the true beast that he was. People of that opinion would find a conclusion that one could draw from this article really alarming. For, according to evidence provided in the article, one could say that much of Hitler’s later life was lived as a man under serious medication, as a man who should have at best been sent to undergo detox, and at worst condemned to some recovery home for drug addicts. That sure will not go down well with many people. It would have made for a more informative read had Tony Perrottet, the author of the article, been clearer on some of these issues.