Table Of ContentWissen über Waren – Historische Studien zu Nahrungs- und Genussmitteln l 2
Jonathan Lewy
Drugs in Germany and the
United States, 1819–1945
The Birth of Two Addictions
Nomos
BUT_Lewy_3284-5.indd 1 01.12.16 12:59
Wissen über Waren –
Historische Studien zu Nahrungs- und Genussmitteln
herausgegeben von
Prof. Dr. Frank Jacob
Dr. Swen Steinberg
Band 2
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Jonathan Lewy
Drugs in Germany and the
United States, 1819–1945
The Birth of Two Addictions
Nomos
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© Coverpicture:
Title: The new morality play exit demon rum—enter drug habit / / W.A. Rogers.
Creator(s): Rogers, W. A. (William Allen), 1854-1931, artist Date Created/Published: 1919.
Published in: New York Herald, Jan. 23, 1919. p. 15.
Cabinet of American Illustration.
Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, [LC-USZ62-100528].
The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the
Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data
are available on the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de
a.t.: Jerusalem, Hebrew University, PhD 2011
Original title: Drug Policy as an Ideological Challenge: Germany and the United States
from the Birth of Addiction to the Second World War
ISBN 978-3-8487-3284-5 (Print)
978-3-8452-7638-0 (ePDF)
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978-3-8487-3284-5 (Print)
978-3-8452-7638-0 (ePDF)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lewy, Jonathan
Drugs in Germany and the United States, 1819–1945
The Birth of Two Addictions
Jonathan Lewy
338 p.
Includes bibliographic references and index.
ISBN 978-3-8487-3284-5 (Print)
978-3-8452-7638-0 (ePDF)
1. Edition 2017
© Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, Baden-Baden, Germany 2017. Printed and bound in Germany.
This work is subject to copyright. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including
photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior
permission in writing from the publishers. Under § 54 of the German Copyright Law where
copies are made for other than private use a fee is payable to “Verwertungs gesellschaft
Wort”, Munich.
No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting on or refraining
from action as a result of the material in this publication can be accepted by Nomos or
the author.
BUT_Lewy_3284-5.indd 4 01.12.16 12:59
Preface
“Was Hitler a drug addict?” Usually that is the first question I am asked
when strangers hear that I have researched drugs in Germany. The claim
that Adolf Hitler, the Führer of the thousand years Reich, was an addict is
older than I am. Leonard and Renate Heston published this thesis in 1978
and since then every two or three years an enterprising journalist publishes
a sensationalist article or a book about this “new” and “tantalizing” fact.
However it is neither new nor tantalizing. Hitler was hardly the only world
leader to have taken uppers.
Yes, Hitler’s personal physician, Theodore Morell, injected him with
drugs that are now considered illegal. However, Morell was not a particu-
larly meticulous doctor and as such, he neglected to record the dosage or
the exact drugs that he injected. Sometimes he mentioned pervitin –
known to most readers as crystal meth – and sometimes he did not. Hitler
was given numerous pills for his abdominal pains, and other drugs for real
or imagined diseases he may have had. It is clear that at a certain point,
sometime after the invasion of the Soviet Union, Hitler received a cornu-
copia of drugs from his doctor; but, none of his biographers attribute much
to this fact. They insist that the basic traits of his personality never
changed throughout the war. His temper was violent long before the war;
he was certainly an anti-Semite when he wrote Mein Kampf in prison
more than a decade before he met Morrel; and the claim that he reacted
too slowly to Stalingrad because of a drug induced reverie simply ignores
the fact that the German army was outnumbered and outmaneuvered in a
terrible winter war that was probably impossible to win to begin with. So,
was he an addict?
I normally answer the question with a query of my own: “What do you
think addiction is?” And this is the question I would like you, dear reader,
to ask yourself when you read the following pages. I hope that I shall be
able to convince you that the understanding of addiction has changed over
time, and also that it was different from one place to another. Whereas
German doctors may have thought it to be X, American doctors insisted it
was Y. That is why the subtitle of this book is “The Birth of Two Addic-
tions. This concept can draw two different lineages: One as moral failing;
5
Preface
the other, as a disease like any other. At one point, the two ideas
converged into a weird hybrid of a moral disease.
Most people think that the definition of addiction is simple. Like justice
Potter Stewart who knew what pornography is when he saw it, they, too,
think they could identify addiction when they see it. Nothing is further
from the truth, or else the definition of the disease would not have
changed on a regular basis. Addiction is not easy to define as might appear
at first glance, and perhaps Thomas Szasz, the late professor of psychiatry
from New York, was right; addiction only exists in our imagination and it
simply describes the human condition, our cravings, desires, and habits.
The book does not only focus on Germany, but deals with the United
States as well. For better or worse, America has set the standard for under-
standing drugs in the modern age. Ever since the acquisition of the Philip-
pines and the inheritance of the Spanish Opium monopoly, the United
States has been trying to convince the world that the drug problem was a
foreign problem. By this view, Americans do not crave drugs more than
others; they are simply seduced by foreigners, including Chinese, Mexi-
cans, Canadians, Colombians or even Corsicans. The problem is always
with the supply, and rarely with native demand. This notion influences
American policy. Internally the United States uses a big stick and shows
almost no compassion, a policy often known as “Zero Tolerance;” exter-
nally it puts pressure on foreign nations to adhere to an international
control regime. The policy was, and still is, very strict to the point that
President Nixon declared war on an inanimate material with no desires of
its own. Recent legal changes in respect to medical marijuana, as well as
the legalization of the drug in two states, may signify that a change in
policy is coming. But it is too early to say whether a true policy shift will
take place. One thing is certain; a change in policy will be caused by a
change in the understanding of the concept of addiction.
I would like to thank the numerous people who had talked with me
about this topic, and challenged my ideas; but drugs were so much on my
mind, and I held so many conversations on the topic that I am unable to
mention all of those who took the time to listen to me by name. This
volume is the outcome of these challenges, resulting in a book that reads
like two in one: Drugs in America and drugs in Germany. The compar-
isons between the two, as well as the conclusions, are left, for the most
part, to the reader to make or draw on his own.
Finally, I would like to thank the editors of the series, Frank Jacob and
Swen Steinberg, my doctoral advisor, Moshe Zimmermann, Oren Rawls,
6
Preface
Shai Dothan, Erika Hughes and Carolin Möbis, all of whom read
numerous versions of the manuscript. I would also like to thank the
Mosse Program and the Hebrew University for believing in my project.
Above all, I want to thank my parents, whose support never failed me.”
Rehovot, 2016
7
Table of Contents
Introduction 11
Part I
1. The Drinking Disease 35
2. The Birth of Drug Addiction 67
3. Diminished Responsibility 93
4. “Gay Weimar” and the Third Reich 107
5. German Drug Laws and Enforcement 129
6. Treating a Biological Enemy 149
Part II
7. Meat vs. Rice 167
8. The Birth of a Panic 185
9. Moral Diseases 209
10.Age of Prohibition 241
11.Fighting the Drug Trade 259
12.Treatment vs. Incarceration 287
Conclusions 299
Bibliography 311
Index 335
9
