Blitzed
Drugs in Nazi Germany
Published on 4. May 2017
Book
Paperback/Softback
368 pages
978-0-14-198316-5 (ISBN)
Description
THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER
'The most brilliant and fascinating book I have read in my entire life' Dan Snow
'A huge contribution... remarkable' Antony Beevor, BBC RADIO 4
'Extremely interesting ... a serious piece of scholarship, very well researched' Ian Kershaw
The Nazis presented themselves as warriors against moral degeneracy. Yet, as Norman Ohler's gripping bestseller reveals, the entire Third Reich was permeated with drugs: cocaine, heroin, morphine and, most of all, methamphetamines, or crystal meth, used by everyone from factory workers to housewives, and crucial to troops' resilience - even partly explaining German victory in 1940.
The promiscuous use of drugs at the very highest levels also impaired and confused decision-making, with Hitler and his entourage taking refuge in potentially lethal cocktails of stimulants administered by the physician Dr Morell as the war turned against Germany. While drugs cannot on their own explain the events of the Second World War or its outcome, Ohler shows, they change our understanding of it. Blitzed forms a crucial missing piece of the story.
'The most brilliant and fascinating book I have read in my entire life' Dan Snow
'A huge contribution... remarkable' Antony Beevor, BBC RADIO 4
'Extremely interesting ... a serious piece of scholarship, very well researched' Ian Kershaw
The Nazis presented themselves as warriors against moral degeneracy. Yet, as Norman Ohler's gripping bestseller reveals, the entire Third Reich was permeated with drugs: cocaine, heroin, morphine and, most of all, methamphetamines, or crystal meth, used by everyone from factory workers to housewives, and crucial to troops' resilience - even partly explaining German victory in 1940.
The promiscuous use of drugs at the very highest levels also impaired and confused decision-making, with Hitler and his entourage taking refuge in potentially lethal cocktails of stimulants administered by the physician Dr Morell as the war turned against Germany. While drugs cannot on their own explain the events of the Second World War or its outcome, Ohler shows, they change our understanding of it. Blitzed forms a crucial missing piece of the story.
Reviews / Votes
German writer Norman Ohler's astonishing account of methamphetamine addiction in the Third Reich changes what we know about the second world war .. Blitzed looks set to reframe the way certain aspects of the Third Reich will be viewed in the future -- Rachel Cooke * Guardian * A huge contribution... remarkable -- Antony Beevor * BBC RADIO 4 * Blitzed is making me rethink everything I've ever seen and read about WWII. It emotionally and technically makes sense of previously unexplainable aspects of that war. It makes me want to revisit other books on it with the hindsight of knowing these newly exposed truths. It was terrific! -- Douglas Coupland The picture he paints is both a powerful and an extreme one... gripping reading -- Anna Katharina Schaffner * Times Literary Supplement * Remarkable... energetic... retells the history of the war through the prism of the pill... it has an uncanny ability to disturb -- Roger Boyes * The Times * Very good and extremely interesting - a serious piece of scholarship very well-researched -- Ian Kershaw author of Hitler and To Hell and Back The most brilliant and fascinating book I have read in my entire life -- Dan Snow Norman Ohler has succeeded in a remarkable scoop, by studying in detail the notebooks of Hitler's personal doctor and demonstrating that Hitler was a far worse junkie than we had ever imagined. He has also unearthed the way that the German army did not march on its stomach, but on methamphetamine. The supposedly clean-living Nazis, who accused the Jews of corrupting German youth, were the real pushers. The book, written with delightful irony, is an eye-opener. -- Antony Beevor * Guardian * This book transforms the overall picture * Hans Mommsen * Sensational * Daily Mail *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
College/higher education
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 195 mm
Width: 126 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
269 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-14-198316-5 (9780141983165)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
10/2016
1st Edition
Penguin Books Ltd
€8.49
Available for download
Persons
Norman Ohler was born in Zweibruecken in 1970. He is the author of three novels, Die Quotenmaschine (the world's first hypertext novel), Mitte and Stadt des Goldes as well as two novellas. He was co-writer of the script for Wim Wenders' film Palermo Shooting. He researched Blitzed in numerous archives across Germany and the United States.
Shaun Whiteside has translated widely in both French and German, including Sybille Steinbacher's Auschwitz: A History.
Shaun Whiteside has translated widely in both French and German, including Sybille Steinbacher's Auschwitz: A History.