What ailed Hitler?

[BikerBabe]

Hi guys.
I found this on one of my daily newspaper's home page, and I've tried to translate the article for you guys, so that you can read this too.
it's an article about the research made by Henrik Eberle and Hans-Joachim Neumann, they've been going through Theo Morell's personal files - Morell was Hitler's personal physician - and then the two gentlemen in question has written a book about their results, called "War Hitler Krank?" ("Was Hitler Ill?")

From Berlingske.dk - Hvad fejlede Hitler? - Bøger, somewhat translated...all errors by me.





Adolf Hitler with his personal physician, Theo Morell. (without cap, behind Hitler)

What ailed Hitler?

By Bent Blüdnikow, Sunday february 21st, 2010, 10:48 pm.

And was there a connection between his many diseases and his extreme political oponions?
A new book brings the records and notes of the physician who cared for Hitler.
There has been a lot of rumours about the illnesses of Adolf Hitler since the end of WW2, and the effects on his actions.
There were rumours about syphilis. It was thought that he had only one testicle. He had a sweet tooth and ate large amounts of chocolate, which didn’t benefit his health, and it also made him fart a lot.
According to the rumours, he suffered from potency problems, syphilis and Parkinson’s Disease.
But were those rumours true?

Now most of these rumours can be brought to the test, because the two german historians, Hans-Joachim Neumann and Henrik Eberle, has managed to dig up the records and notes of Hitler’s physician, and combined with other documents, these papers can help draw a clear medical profile of the man who brought Europe to the brink of madness.

A fashionable doctor in Berlin

Hitler’s personal physician was named Theodor Morell. He was rumoured to be a bit of a quack during the nazi years, a quack which Hitler praised quite highly.
But was he a worthless charlatan, or was he actually a fairly reasonable good physician?
Theodor Morell was known in Germany for his un-traditional way of treating his patients.
He was a real physician with a good education from Paris, though.
During WW1 he worked at the front, and then settled in Berlin.
He was a bit of a fashionable physician, and became incredibly wealthy. Sometimes he even bragged about a professor title, that no one knew the origin of.
Many of his patients were jewish, and in 1933 his office was threatened to be vandalized by the Nazis.
After which he then joined the nazi party.
He got to know Eva Braun, and through her he was introduced to Adolf Hitler.

It was Hitler’s stomach problems with loud flatulence, that became Morell’s first job for Der Führer.
He used ordinary vitamins and a coli bacteria culture, which was then injected in the blood stream, to dampen the flatulence. The cure worked, and soon Morell became a part of the narrow inner social circle of Adolf Hitler’s.
Hitler’s stomach problems made him a vegetarian. That means that the lack of meat on the table wasn’t caused for Hitler’s love of animals as the nazi propaganda claimed, the real reason was indigestion.

Morell attempted to become physician for other top Nazis like the SS-leader Heinrich Himmler, the Industrial Minister Albert Speer and the chief of the Luftwaffe, Hermann Göring, but he was often turned down, and Göring called him a quack.
Speer wrote in his autobiography that Morell was extremely superficial and lazy, and that he was more interested in making money than treating his patients.
Hermann Göring called him “The Injection Master of the Reich”, because Morell usually resorted to injections with strange medical concoctions, whenever a medical problem arose.

Sometimes Morell’s treatments could reach bizarre proportions, as after the assassination attempt on Hitler’s life on July 20th 1944, when he treated Hitler with penicillin, which had just then been developed for the US Army.

Injections for potency

Morell wasn’t shy of trying out new experimental drugs. According to Neumann and Eberle’s book, Morell treated Hitler with injections with testosterone, which was a concoction made from semen and prostate glands from young bulls. These injections was supposed to help Hitler in his relationship with the young Eva Braun, who was his mistress. The experiment with the injection happened in 1944, when Hitler was 55 years old, and Eva Braun was 32.

Morell’s records show that Adolf Hitler had a fear of pills, and he preferred that Morell treated him with injections. Hitler was also treated with a series of stimulating injections. At that time, Hitler was basically dependant on drugs, and he was given 28 different medications during the day.

What about the rumours about Hitler having only one testicle?
That particular story was widespread, and already during the war, it was made part of a british war song as a fact.
But nothing in Morell’s records reveals that Hitler didn’t have both testicles.
Another popular story from british wartime propaganda was that Hitler’s penis was malformed after he was bitten by a goat when he was young. But nothing in Morell’s records supports this rumour.

There were also rumours that he suffered from syphilis.
The rumour may be caused by the fact that he in his autobiography made much of syphilis as a particularly jewish disease, and he spent approximately 15 pages in “Mein Kampf” on writing about the disease. Therefore it was guessed that he himself possibly suffered from syphilis, and vented his bitterness by accusing the jews as responsible for his ailment. But nothing in the records of Dr. Morell shows that he suffered from syphilis, either.

It has been the intention of Neumann and Eberle to examine, if Hitler’s fragile health in some way can explain his political behaviour. During the last days in the Führerbunker, Hitler was – according to Neumann and Eberle – suffering from Parkinson’s Disease, which made him shake a little.
But the authors concludes, that despite the injections, Parkinson’s and other ailments, the diseases was on no account so debilitating, that they had any effect on Hitler’s mental health.

What was Morell’s intention?

With the mixture of strange concoctions that Theodor Morell injected in Hitler, you might ask if he was trying to kill the Führer. The authors rejects this completely.
Morell didn’t want to harm Hitler, and Morell obeyed Hitler’s smallest whims.
Hitler was convinced that Morell had saved his life several times. A day in November 1944, Hitler told Morell: “My dear doctor, if both of us make it through the war, I shall reward you generously.”

Altogether, Neumann and Eberle aren’t highly critical about Morell’s medical skills. Morell thus diagnosed a liver disease quite correctly, caused by problems with the gall bladder. On the other hand, he supplied Hitler with a long range of drugs, and there has been some persistent rumours , that Hitler should have been dependant on the drug, Pervitin – a stimulant, which were often given to frontline soldiers. The drug is in use today as a stimulant, and bears the nickname “Hitler’s Speed”. But Morell’s files shows no reference whatsoever, that he actually gave Hitler Pervitin.

The end in the bunker

The last days in the Führerbunker in berlin was marked by a still growing sense of lack of reality sense. While the russian troops were moving in closer, Morell continued to record Hitler’s blood pressure and prescribing medications for Hitler’s indigestion.

On April 22nd, 1945, a week before Hitler and Eva Braun committed suicide together, Hitler fired Morell and told him that he didn’t need any further medical help. He recommended that Morell returned to his medical practice on Kurfürstendamm. This made no sense, as Kurfürstendamm was a desolate landscape of rubble and ruins. Morell fled from berlin in a plane, but were captured by the Americans. He was held captive in a camp which was located on the ruins of the Buchenwald kz-camp. Here, he got weaker and died on May 26th, 1948.

With their book, Hans-Joachim Neumann and Henrik Eberle has debunked a series of myths in the most dry and scientific fashion, and they have brought the truth for a day.
That’s how revealing archival research can be.

-----------------------
And a link to another article (Der Spiegel) about the same book, this time in english:
Medicating a Madman: A Sober Look at Hitler's Health - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International

Cheers,

Maria.

[Aaron Brooks Wolters]

Very interesting Maria. Thank you for sharing. Oh, and thank you for taking the time to translate.

[vikingBerserker]

That was pretty interesting, thanks Maria.

[GrauGeist]

Well, it looks like that solves a few mysteries...

Thanks for the translation, maria...good stuff!

[evangilder]

Great read, Maria. Always great to have people in other places that can translate those kinds of interesting stories.

[proton45]

Thanks for the translation...I had heard rumors that Hitler was addicted to amphetamine injections. I guess that this article is a more reliable assessment of his situation...

[beaupower32]

Intresting read, thanks for posting.

[Thorlifter]

Nice post BB. Thanks for translating.

[wheelsup_cavu]

Great read Maria.
Thanks for taking the time to translate it for us.


Wheels

[Njaco]

I think he had a bad case of Anal Glaucoma.

Thanks for the translation, Maria!

[BikerBabe]

You're quite welcome, guys - I get to practise my english and improve it, and you guys gets some interesting stories - a benefit to all. Couldn't be better.

[parsifal]

I think his ailments were psychiatric more than anything. I think he was psychotic for a start, and paranoid as well. Almost certainly sadistic as well, judging by the enjoyment he derived in watching the executions of those who had tried to kill him

[Messy1]

I think his ailments were psychiatric more than anything. I think he was psychotic for a start, and paranoid as well. Almost certainly sadistic as well, judging by the enjoyment he derived in watching the executions of those who had tried to kill him

Agree 100% with you. And add that to the fact the man was very smart, an excellent speaker and knew how to get people to trust him, and you had the makings of a disaster.

[ccheese]

Thanks, Maria. It was an interesting read. However, I heard that his optic nerve and his anal nerve were crossed.
You KNOW what that caused !!!

Charles

[lesofprimus]

Thanks for taking the time to translate Maria, very interesting info...