A Sober Reich? Alcohol and Tobacco Use in Nazi Germany

Abstract

Alcohol and tobacco use did not fit well with National Socialist aesthetics. However, these substances were not proscribed in Nazi Germany in spite of the heavy penalties for excessive use: Alcoholics were sterilized, and smoking by children was a criminal offense. This article argues that the great demand of the German people for these products prevented the authoritarian regime from alcohol and tobacco prohibition but measures were taken by the Nazis to reduce tobacco and alcohol consumption in the next generation.

Keywords:

• alcohol
• antisocial behavior
• Germany
• National Socialism
• tobacco

Notes

Prof. Hans Reiter, Muenchner Medizinische Wochenschrift (25 June 1941), 88/25, 643–720.

Robert Proctor, The Nazi War on Cancer (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999), pp. 26–27.

Robert Jay Lifton, The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide (New York: Basic Books, 2000), p. 193.

See David T. Courtwright, Forces of Habit: Drugs and the Making of the Modern World (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 2002), pp. 143–144.

Stuttgarter Neues Tageblatt, 5 February 1941; Berliner Morgenpost, 1 April 1941; Der Alemanne, 28 January 1942.

Reuters newspaper clipping, 31 May 1944, found in Pol. Arch. AA R 43.330.

Anonymous analysis from Vienna attached to the Reuters clipping 7 June 1944, Pol. Arch. AA R. 43.330.

For the spread of tobacco in Europe because of soldiers smoking in the Thirty Years War, see Courtwright, Forces of Habit, Ch. 1.

Voelkischer Beobachter, 31 March 1926.

Reine Luft 21, 1939, reprinted in Proctor, The Nazi War on Cancer, p. 151.

Alexander Elster, Das Konto des Alkohols in der deutschen Volkswirtschaft (Berlin, 1935), reprinted in Werner Pieper (ed.), Nazis on Speed, vol. 1 (Munich: Gruene Kraft, 2002), p. 41.

Mikulas Teich, The Industrialization of Brewing in Germany (1800–1914)” in Erik Aerts et al. (eds.), Production, Marketing and Consumption of Alcoholic Beverages since the Late Middle Ages (Leuven: Leuven University Press, 1990), pp.102–113.

Pieper (ed.), Nazis on Speed, vol. 1, pp. 42–44.

Gerhart Feuerstein, Rauschgiftbekaempfung—ein wichtiges Interessengebiet der Gemeindverwaltung (Berlin, 1936), p. 8.

“Summary of the Stettin Conference” 10 October 1937 StA—Muenchen, Pol. Dir. 7582.

Heinz Boberach (ed.), Meldungen aus dem Reich: Die geheimen Lageberichte des Sicherheitsdienst der SS 1938–1945 (Berlin: Pawlak, 1984), vol. 1, p. 273.

Dr. Reid, “Staatsjugend und Genussgifte” Deutches Aerzteblatt, (18 January 1941), 71/3, 30–31.

Prof. Dr. Max de Crinis, “Alkohol- und Tabakgefahren,” Deutches Aerzteblatt, (2 August 1941), 71/31, 288–289.

Guenther Hecht, “Alkoholmissbrauch und Rassenpolitik” in Bekaempfung der Alkohol- und Tabakgefahren: Bericht der 2. Reichstagung Volksgesundheit und Genussgifte (Berlin, 1939), reprinted in Pieper (ed.), Nazis on Speed, vol. 1, pp. 178–186.

Muenchner Medizinische Wochenschrift, vol 88/4 (24 January 1941), pp. 89–116.

See below.

Boberach (ed.), Meldungen aus dem Reich, vol. 1, pp. 112, 272.

ibid., vol. 3, p. 586.

For Gestapo case file on alcohol rationing, see Robert Gellately, The Gestapo and German Society: Enforcing Racial Police 1933–1945 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990).

Ian Kershaw, Hitler:1889–1936 Hubris (London: Penguin Books, 1998).

Peter Padfield, Himmler: Reichsfuehrer-SS (London: Macmillan, 1990).

Robert Gellately and Nathan Stolzfus (eds.), Social Outsiders in Germany (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001), p. 9.

“Schreiben des Reichs- und Preussischen Innenministers Dr. Wilhelm Frick an den Reichsminister ohne Geschaeftsbereich und Chef der Reichskanzlei Dr. Hans Heinrich Lammers mit Entwurf eines Gesetzes ueber die Behandlung Gemeinschaftsfremder mit Begruendung” (Berlin, 24 June 1941) in Wolfgang Ayass (ed.), ‘Gemeinschaftsfremde’: Quellen zur Verfolgung von ‘Asozialen,’ 1933–1945 (Koblenz: Bundesarchiv, 1998), No. 114.

Henry Friedlander, The Origins of the Nazi Genocide (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1995), p. 154.

Daniel J. Kevles, In the Name of Eugenics: Genetics and the Uses of Human Hereditary (Cambridge Mass: Harvard University Press, 1995), pp. vii–xv; pp. 176–192 Concerning the Weimar Republic, see Wolfgang Ayass, ‘A-s-o-z-i-a-l-e’ im Nationalsozialismus (Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta, 1995), pp. 13–18.

Gellately & Stoltzfus (eds.), Social Outsiders in Nazi Germany, p. 12.

Jeremy Noakes, “Nazism and Eugenics: The Background to the Nazi Sterilization Law of 14 July 1933” in R. J. Bullen et al. (eds.), Ideas into Politics (London: Croom Helm, 1984), 75–94; Robert Proctor, Racial Hygiene (Cambridge Mass: Harvard University Press, 1988), pp. 96–101.

Kershaw, Hitler: 1889–1936 Hubris, p. 486.

Guenter Lewy, The Catholic Church and Nazi Germany (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1964), pp. 258–259.

Proctor, Racial Hygiene, p. 96.

ibid., p. 97.

Kershaw, Hitler: 1889–1936 Hubris, pp. 487–488.

Detlev J. K. Peukert, “The Genesis of the ‘Final Solution’ from the Spirit of Science” in David F. Crew (ed.), Nazism and German Society, 1933–1945, (London: Routledge, 1994), pp. 274–299.

“Gesetz zur Verhuetung erbkranken Nachwuchses” 14 July 1933, Reichsgesetzblatt I, p. 119. Revised on 4 February 1936 in Reichsgesetzblatt I, p. 529.

Proctor, Racial Hygiene, pp. 102–108.

See the “Gesetz ueber den Verkehr mit Betaeubungsmitteln (Opiumgesetz),” 10 December 1929 Reichsgesetzblatt I, p. 215, and “Gesetz gegen gefaehrliche Gewohnheitsverbrecher und ueber Massregeln der Sicherung und Besserung,” 24 November 1933, Reichsgesetzblatt I, p. 995 for the legal measures taken against drug addicts. Note that addiction itself was never considered a crime in Germany and was not listed in the German Penal Code (Reichsstrafgesetzbuch—RStGB).

“Gesetz zur Verhuetung erbkranken Nachwuchses” 14 July 1933, Reichsgesetzblatt I, p. 119. Revised on 4 February 1936 in Reichsgesetzblatt I, p. 529.

Proctor, Racial Hygiene, pp. 102–104.

Adolf Hitler. Mein Kampf, quoted and translated in Proctor, Racial Hygiene, p. 95.

Rolf Winau, “Sterilisation, Euthanasie, Selektion” in Fridolf Kudlien (ed.), Aerzte im Nationalsozialismus (Cologne: Kiepenheuer & Witsch, 1985), 197–207 Some claim that the number reached 400,000, see Gisela Bock, Zwangssterilisation im Nationalsozialismus: Studien zur Rassenpolitik und Frauenpolitik, (Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag, 1986) p. 23 0ff.

Otmar von Verschauer, Erbpathologie: Ein Lehrbuch fuer Aerzte und Medizinstudierende, (Dresden, 1938 [1934]) p. 178 quoted in Proctor, Racial Hygiene, p. 108.

Feuerstein, Rauschgiftbekaempfung, pp. 3–11.

“Memorandum by Dr. Frey, 28 September 1934” LArch. Berlin B Rep. 012 Nr. 246.

“Stadtinspektor Behaghel to the Prussian Ministry of Interior, 1 August 1939” LArch. Berlin B Rep. 012 Nr. 246.

Proctor, Racial Hygiene, pp. 114–117.

Winau, “Sterilisation, Euthanasie, Selektion,” 197–207.

“The health office of Berlin, Steglitz to Hauptgesundheitsamt Berlin, 20 March 1940” LArch. Berlin, B Rep. 012 Acc. 1641 Nr. 247.

Boberach (ed.), Meldungen aus dem Reich, vol. 3, p. 744.

“Gesetz zum Schutze der Erbgesundheit des deutschen Volkes (Ehegesundheitsgesetz)” 18 October 1935, Reichsgesetzblatt I, p. 1246.

Der Reichsfuehrer-SS und Chef der deutchen Polizei, Kriminalistik des Hauptamtes SS-Gericht fuer das Jahr 1943, vol. 2; found in LArch. Berlin, A Rep. 244 Acc. 1798 Nr. 2.

Kershaw, Hitler, 1889–1936: Hubris, pp. 40, 44, 47, 57, 92, 235, 261, 343.

Traudl Junge, Andre Heller and Othmar Schmiderer, Im toten Winkel: Hitlers Sekretaerin (2002).

Proctor, The Nazi War on Cancer, p. 176.

“Verordnung wegen des Verbotenen Tobacksrauchens bei dem Stroh und Heu einfahren und Holzwaren vom 18ten Oktober 1758” in Novus Corpus Constitotiunum Prussico-Brandenburgensium, vol. 2, No. 46, pp. 313–314.

Rudi Matthee, “Exotic Substances: The Introduction and Global Spread of Tobacco, Coffee, Cocoa, Tea and Distilled Liquor, Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries” in Porter and Teich (eds.), Drugs and Narcotics in History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), pp. 24–51; Courtwright, Forces of Habit, Ch. 1.

Proctor, The Nazi War on Cancer, p. 177.

Pieper, (ed.) Nazis on Speed, vol. 1, p. 45.

Kershaw, Hitler1889–1936: Hubris, pp. 348, 704n.

Heinz Hoehne, The Order of the Death's Heads (London: Secker and Warburg, 1969), pp. 22, 25.

For a published photograph dated circa 1935 see Kershaw, Hitler, 1889–1936: Hubris, illustration number 52.

Proctor, The Nazi War on Cancer, pp. 228–231, 267–270.

ibid., p. 79.

“Dienststrafverordnung fuer die Dauer des Krieges 20 May 1940,” in Reichsbefehl 23/41k.

Heinz Boberach et al. (eds.), Richterbriefe: Dokumente zur Beeinflussung der deutschen Rechstprechung 1942–1943 (Boppard a.R: Boldt, 1975), pp. 204–205.

ibid., pp. 219–220.

“Polizeiverodnung zum Schutze der Jugend vom 9 Maerz 1940,” in Reichsgesetzblatt I, p. 499.

For a copy of the advertisement, see Pieper (ed.), Nazis on Speed, vol. 1, p. 173.

Louis Lewin, Phantastica (Koeln: Paderborn, 2000 [1924]), p. 412.

Aerztliches Vereinsblatt fuer Deutschland, 21 July 1917, 44/1138, 275.

“Summary of the Stettin Conference” 10 October 1937 StA—Muenchen, Pol. Dir. 7582.

See below and the work of Dr. Fritz Licknit for the Study Group in Proctor, Nazi War on Cancer, pp. 183–186.

Muenchner Medizinische Wochenschrift (4 July 1941), 88/27, 745–772.

For a short list of studies, see Pieper (ed.), Nazis on Speed, vol. 1, pp. 254–260.

Proctor, The Nazi War on Cancer, pp. 173–247.

ibid., p. 67.

ibid., p. 10.