1937

German drug company Temmler’s head pharmacist Fritz Hausen develops new method of synthesizing methamphetamine, which is patented by Temmler Pharma on Oct 31. Unlike adrenalin, it did not cause sudden rise of blood pressure, “but works more gently and lasts longer. The effect occurs because the drug tickles out the messenger substances dopamine and noradrenaline from the nerve cells of the brain and pours them into synaptic gaps. This puts the brain cells in excited communication with each other and a kind of chain reaction takes place. A neuron firework explodes and a biochemical machine gun starts firing an uninterrupted sequence of thoughts. All of a sudden, the consumer feels wide awake and experiences an increase in energy; the senses are intensified to the extreme” (29, 70 ). In 1938, Otto Ranke, director of Research Institute of Defense Physiology at Military Medical Academy, conducts probably first systematic drug tests in military history, comparing effects of Pervitin to Benzedrine, caffeine, and placebo among 90, then 150 medical officers (46-49). As a result of study, “methamphetamine spread like wildfire and would pass through every barracks gate over the next weeks and months” (51). But not all of Ranke’s findings had been positive: Despite its performance-enhancing effects, “Procedures that demanded greater abstract achievements from the cerebellum were not performed well by consumers of Pervitin. Calculations . . . contained more mistakes. Neither was there any increase in capacity for concentration and attention during more complex questions” (49). Ranke himself used Pervitin regularly and became addicted in propagating the norm of keeping soldiers awake for two days and two nights (58). On 17 April 1940, “stimulus decree,” written by Ranke and signed by army commander in chief, Walther von Brauchitsch, circulated among Wehrmacht doctors advising them of successful use of Pervitin in overcoming fatigue and sleep loss in Polish campaign and noting it was included in medical equipment (63-64). For the western campaign, Wehrmacht orders 35 million Pervitin tabs from Temmler for army and Luftwaffe (67, 99).