Pervitin available without prescription
Pervitin (methamphetamine) was sold over the counter in any German pharmacy with no prescription required, and a child could buy multiple packs.
Snapshot · Lex Fridman Podcast
#481 – Norman Ohler: Hitler, Nazis, Drugs, WW2, Blitzkrieg, LSD, MKUltra & CIA
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Sep 19, 2025
Where this was said
Pervitin
At 52:13 · chapter starts 46:16
In a story almost too absurd to be true, German pharmaceutical nationalism gave birth to military-grade methamphetamine. The Temmler Company's head assumed Jesse Owens must have been on drugs — specifically, American Benzedrine — since no Black athlete could otherwise outrun Aryans. His chemist Fritz Hauschild traced methamphetamine back to a 1917 Tokyo discovery and remade it. The chemists tested it on themselves, loved it, patented it, and marketed it as Pervitin. No prescription was needed. No stigma attached. Negative effects only emerged publicly in 1940, when a relative of Albert Speer warned that Pervitin violated Nazi ideology and would cause addiction. Before that, universities tested it and praised it: reduces fear, suppresses appetite, eliminates the need for sleep — perfect for a soldier.
How Pervitin (Meth) Ended Up in the German Army
The head of the Temmler pharmaceutical company, furious that Jesse Owens outran German athletes at the 1936 Olympics, ordered his chemist to develop a stronger amphetamine. The result was methamphetamine — branded as Pervitin, sold over the counter with no prescription, and eventually prescribed to the entire Wehrmacht.
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