Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich

by Norman Ohler

From the Publisher: The Nazi regime preached an ideology of physical, mental, and moral purity. Yet as Norman Ohler reveals in this gripping history, the Third Reich was saturated with drugs: cocaine, opiates, and, most of all, methamphetamines, which were consumed by everyone from factory workers to housewives to German soldiers.

In fact, troops were encouraged, and in some cases ordered, to take rations of a form of crystal meth–the elevated energy and feelings of invincibility associated with the high even help to account for the breakneck invasion that sealed the fall of France in 1940, as well as other German military victories. Hitler himself became increasingly dependent on injections of a cocktail of drugs–ultimately including Eukodal, a cousin of heroin–administered by his personal doctor.

Thoroughly researched and rivetingly readable, Blitzed throws light on a history that, until now, has remained in the shadows.

Praise for the Book: “The strengths of Ohler’s account lie not only in the rich array of rare documents he mines and the archival images he reproduces to accompany the text, but also in his character studies… Ohler effectively captures Hitler’s pathetic dependence on his doctor and the bizarre intimacy of their bond…Blitzed makes for provocative reading.” —The New York Times Book Review

“A revelatory work that considers Hitler’s career in a new light. ‘Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich’ is that rare sort of book whose remarkable insight focuses on a subject that’s been overlooked, even disregarded by historians.” –The San Francisco Chronicle

“Blitzed is a fascinating read that provides a new facet to our understanding of the Third Reich.”–Buzzfeed “It’s as breezy and darkly humorous as its title. But don’t be fooled by the gallows humor of chapter names like ‘Sieg High’ and ‘High Hitler’ This is a serious and original work of scholarship that dropped jaws around Europe when it was published there last year.” –Mashable “A juicier story would be hard to find.” –The Week “Delightfully nuts, in a Gravity’s Rainbow kind of way.”–The New Yorker

About the Author: Norman Ohler is an award-winning novelist, screenwriter, and journalist. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller Blitzed, the non-fiction books Tripped about Nazi research into LSD during World War II and The Bohemians about resistance against Hitler in Berlin, as well as the novels Die Quotenmaschine (the world’s first hypertext novel), Mitte, Stadt des Goldes (translated into English as Ponte City), as well as the historical crime novel Die Gleichung des Lebens. He was cowriter of the script for Wim Wenders’s film Palermo Shooting. He lives in Berlin.

ISBN: 1328915344        EAN: 9781328915344