User:Otolemur crassicaudatus/Anti-tobacco movement in Nazi Germany

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Nazi Germany instituted a strong anti-tobacco movement[1] and led the first public anti-smoking campaign in modern history.[2] Anti-tobacco movement grew in many nations from the beginning of the twentieth century, but these had little success with the only exception Germany where the anti-tobacco campaign was supported by the government after the Nazis came to power.[3] It was the post powerful anti-tobacco movement in the world in the 1930s and early 1940s. Several Nazi leaders openly criticized smoking.[4] Anti-tobacco research thrived under the Nazi rule[5] and at that time, the most important research on smoking and its effects on health was conducted in the Third Reich.[6]

Prelude to Nazi anti-tobacco campaign[edit]

Anti-tobacco sentiment and criticism of smoking existed in Germany in the early 1910s long before the advent of the Nazis. The first anti-tobacco orgniazation in Germany was Deutsche Tabakgegnerverein zum Schutze fur Nichtraucher established in 1904. But this organization existed for a brief period only. The next anti-tobacco organization was Bund Deutscher Tabakgegner. It was established in 1910 in Trautenau, Bohemia. Other anti-smoking organizations were established in 1912 in the cities of Hanover and Dresden. In 1920, a Bund Deutscher Tabakgegner in der Tschechoslowakei was formed in Prague after Czechoslovakia was separated from Austria at the end of the World War I. A Bund Deutscher Tabakgegner in Deutschosterreich was established in 1920 in Graz.[7]

Der Tabakgegner, published by the Bohemian organization, was the first German language anti-tobacco journal. It was first published in 1912 and continued until 1932. The Deutsche Tabakgegner was published from Dresden and was the second journal on this issue. It was published from 1919 to 1935.[7] The anti-tobacco organizations apart from opposing tobacco smoking, opposed consumption of alcohol also. This anti-alcohol movement remained significant for the anti-tobacco campaign during the Nazi regime.[8]

Hitler's attitude towards smoking[edit]

Hitler was a heavy smoker in his early life when he used to smoke approximately 25 to 40 cigarettes per day. But he gave up smoking after realizing it was waste of money.[9] Hitler viewed smoking "decadent"[10] and "the wrath of the Red Man against the White Man, vengeance for having been given hard liquor"[9] and lamented over the fact that "so many excellent men have been lost to tobacco poisoning".[11] He was unhappy because both Eva Braun and Martin Bormann were smokers and was concerned over Hermann Göring's continued smoking in public places. He became angry when a statue of Göring showed a cigar in his mouth.[9]

Hitler felt sorry over the fact that military personnel were permitted to smoke and said on March 2, 1942, "it was a mistake, traceable to the army leadership at the time, beginning of the war". He also said that it was "not correct to say that a soldier cannot live without smoking". He promised to terminate the use of tobacco in the military after the end of the war. Hitler personally encouraged people not to smoke who he knew very well and rewarded those who quit smoking. However Hitler's personal distaste for tobacco was not the main cause behind Nazi anti-tobacco movement, it only one of the several catalysts behind the anti-smoking campaign.[9]

Reproductive politics[edit]

Reproductive politics was a significant factor behind the Nazi anti-tobacco campaign. The women who smoked were considered to be vulnurable to premature ageing and loss of physical attractiveness and were generally viewed as not very much suitable for becoming a wife for a German family. Werner Huttig of the Nazi Party's Office of Racial Policy claimed that breast milk of smoking mothers is revealed to contain nicotine.[12] Prominent physician of the Third Reich Martin Staemmler opined that smoking by pregnant women resulted in increasing number of stillbirth and miscarriage. Responsibility of smoking behind miscarriage was also supported by well-known female racial hygienist Agnes Bluhm who in a book published in 1936 expressed the same view. The Nazi leadership was concerned over this because they wanted the German women to give birth to more children. An article published in a German gynecology journal in 1943 stated that women smoking three or more cigarettes per day were more vulnurable of becoming childless compared to women who did not smoke.[13]

Research[edit]

Research projects were funded by the Nazis which revealed many disastrous effects of smoking on health.[14] The link between lung cancer and tobacco was first proved in Nazi Germany in the 1930s contrary to popular belief that American and British scientists first discovered it in the 1950s.[11] Nazi Germany supported epidemiological research on the harmful effects of tobacco use.[1] Research and studies on the effects of tobacco on the health of the population was most advanced in Germany than any nation by this time.[4] Hitler personally gave financial support to the Institute for Tobacco Hazards Research (Wissenschaftliches Institut zur Erforschung der Tabakgefahren) at the University of Jena headed by Karl Astel.[10][15] Established in 1941, it was the most significant anti-tobacco institute in the Nazi Germany.[15]

Franz H. Muller in 1939 and E. Schairer in 1943 first used case-control epidemiological methods to study lung cancer among smokers.[10] In 1939, Muller published a study report in a reputed cancer journal in Germany which showed prevalence of lung cancer was higher among the smokers.[1] Muller, described as the "forgotten father of experimental epidemiology",[16] was a member of the National Socialist Motor Corps (NSKK) and the National Socialist German Workers’ Party. Muller's 1939 medical dissertation was the world's first controlled epidemiological study of the relationship between tobacco and lung cancer. Apart from mentioning the increasing incidents of lung cancer and the general causes behind it like dust, exhaust gas from cars, tuberculosis, X-ray and pollutants emitted from factories, Muller's paper pointed out that "the significance of tobacco smoke has been pushed more and more into the foreground".[17]

Physicians in the Third Reich were aware of the fact that smoking is responsible for cardiac diseases which were considered to be the most serious diseases resulting from smoking. Use of nicotine was sometimes considered to be responsible for increasing reports of myocardial infarction in the country. In the later years of the World War II, nicotine was viewed by researchers as a factor behind coronary heart failure suffered by a significant number of military personnel in the Eastern Front. A pathologist of the Heer examined thirty-two young soldiers died from myocardial infarction in the front and documented in a 1944 report that all of them were "enthusiastic smokers." He cited the opinion of pathologist Franz Buchner that cigarettes are "a coronary poison of the first order."[12]

Anti-tobacco measures[edit]

The Nazis used several several public relations tactics to influence the general population of Germany not to smoke. Some well-known health magazines like the Gesundes Volk published warnings regarding the effects of smoking. Posters showing the harmful effects of smoking were published and anti-smoking messages were sent to the people in their workplaces. Anti-smoking messages were spread through the Hitler-Jugend (HJ) and the Bund Deutscher Mädel (BDM).[14] The anti-smoking campaign undertaken by the Nazis also included health education.[18] In June 1939, a Bureau against the Hazards of Alcohol and Tobacco was formed and the Bureau for the Struggle against Addictive Drugs (Reichsstelle fur Rauschgiftbekampfung) also helped in the anti-tobacco campaign. Anti-tobacco articles were published in the magazines Die Genussgifte, Auf der Wacht and Reine Luft.[19]

After recognizing the harmful effects of smoking on health, several anti-smoking legislation were enacted.[20] The later years of the 1930s saw increasing anti-tobacco laws implemented by the Nazis. In 1938, the Luftwaffe and the Reichspost imposed a ban on smoking. Smoking was also banned in not only in health care institutions, but also in several office premises and in rest homes.[4] Midwives were restricted from smoking while on duty. In 1939, the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP) outlawed smoking in all the offices premises belonging to the Nazi Party and Heinrich Himmler, the then chief of the Schutzstaffel (SS), restricted police personnel and SS officers from smoking while they were on duty.[21] Smoking was outlawed in schools also.[14]

In 1941, tobacco smoking in automobiles was outlawed in Germany's sixty large urban settlements.[21] Smoking on trams was banned in many cities.[10] Smoking was outlawed in bomb shelters also; however a few of these structures had separate rooms for smoking. [4] Special care was taken to prevent women from smoking. The President of the Medical Association in Germany announced, "German women don't smoke".[22] Pregnant women and women below the age of 25 and over the age of 55 were not given tobacco ration cards during the World War II. Restrictions were imposed on the hospitality and food retailing industry also such as restaurants and coffeehouses so that they cannot sell tobacco products like cigarettes to women.[21] Anti-tobacco films aimed at women were directed and publicly shown. Editorials were published in newspapers which discussed the issue of smoking and its effects. Strict measures were taken in this regard and a district department of the National Socialist Factory Cell Organization (NSBO) announced that it will expel female members who smoked publicly.[23] The next step in the anti-tobacco campaign came in July 1943 when public smoking for persons under the age of 18 was outlawed.[21] In the next year smoking in buses and city trains was made illegal.[10] Hitler personally took the initiative to ban smoking in buses and trains out of the fear that female ticket takers may be the victims of passive smoking.[4]

Restriction were imposed on advertisements.[24] The restrictions on advertising tobacco products was enacted on December 7, 1941 and signed by Heinrich Hunke, the President of the Advertising Council. Adverting trying to depict smoking as harmless or smoking as an expression of masculinity was banned. Ridiculing anti-tobacco activists was also outlawed[25] as was use of advertising posters along rail tracks, rural regions, stadiums and racing tracks. Adverting by loudspeakers and mail was made illegal.[26]

Restrictions on smoking was introduced in the Wehrmacht also. Any soldier in the Wehrmacht was not given more than six cigarettes in a day. Often extra cigarettes were sold to the soldiers especially when there was no military advance or retreat in the battleground, however these were restricted to 50 for each person per month. Access to cigarettes was not allowed for the women accompanying the Wehrmacht. An ordinance was enacted on November 3, 1941 which raised tobacco taxes by approximately 80%-95% of the retail price. It was the highest rise in tobacco taxes in Germany for more than next 25 years since the collapse of the Nazi regime.[4]

Effectiveness[edit]

The early anti-smoking campaign failed and the years from 1933 to 1937 saw rapid increase in tobacco smoking in Nazi Germany.[27] Rate of smoking in the nation increased faster even those of France where the anti-tobacco movement was tiny and far less influential. Between 1932 and 1939, per capita cigarette consumption in Germany increased from 570 to 900 per year, while the statistics was from 570 to 630 for France.[4]

The cigarette manufacturing companies in Nazi Germany made attempt to curb the anti-tobacco campaign. They published many new journals and tried to depict the anti-tobacco movement as "fanatic" and "unscientific".[4] The tobacco industry also tried to weaken the government campaign to prevent women from smoking. Cigarette manufacturers depicted smoking models in their advertisements.[22] Despite government regulations, many women in Germany regularly smoked including the wives of many high ranking Nazi officials. Magda Goebbels smoked while giving an interview to a journalist. Fashion illustration showing sketched women with cigarettes were often published in prominent publications such as the Beyers Mode fur Alle. The cover of the song Lili Marleen showed singer Lale Andersen with a cigarette.[23]

However in the later years of the 1930s, tobacco consumption in Nazi Germany started to decrease. At the beginning of the World War II, the rate of the tobacco usage experienced a decline.[4] The total tobacco consumption by soldiers declined between 1939 and 1945.[10] Below is a comparison of per capita cigarette consumption rate per year in Germany and the United States from 1930 to 1944.

Country 1930[27] 1935[27] 1940[27] 1944[27]
Germany 490 510 1,022 743
United States 1,485 1,564 1,976 3,039

Controversies[edit]

Racism[edit]

There is some controversy over the attitude of the Nazis for the anti-tobacco movement as they equated the anti-tobacco campaign with both racism and antisemitism. Apart from the public health concerns, the Nazis were heavily influenced by ideology for their anti-tobacco campaign. Nazi leaders had a view that it is not right for the master race to smoke.[14] Tobacco consumption became equal to "racial degeneracy".[28] The anti-tobacco movement was influenced by the ideological concept of racial hygiene and bodily purity. According to the Nazi view, tobacco was a "genetic poison".[29] Racial hygienists opposed tobacco out of the fear that tobacco wll "corrupt" the "German germ plasm".[30] Nazi anti-tobacco activists often tried to depict tobacco as a "vice" of the "degenerate" Africans.[29]

Antisemitism[edit]

The Nazis often equated the Jews with the harmful effects of tobacco. The Seventh-day Adventist Church in Germany announced that smoking is an unhealthy vice spread by the Jews.[30] Johann von Leers, editor of the Nordische Welt, in the opening ceremony of the Institute for Tobacco Hazards Research in 1941 proclaimed that "Jewish capitalism" was responsible for the spread of tobacco use across the Europe. He said that the first tobacco on German soil was brought by the Jews and they controlled the tobacco industry in Amsterdam which was the principal European entry point of Nicotiana.[31]

After World War II[edit]

After the collapse of the Nazi Germany at the end of the World War II, American cigarette manufactures quickly entered the German market. Illegal smuggling of tobacco became prevalent.[32] Majority of the leaders of the Nazi anti-smoking campaign were silenced by various methods.[5] In 1949, approximately 400 million cigarettes manufactured in the United States illegally entered Germany per month. In 1954, nearly two billion Swiss cigarettes were smuggled into Germany along with Italy. As part of the Marshall Plan, the United States sent tobacco free of cost to Germany. The amount of tobacco shipped into Germany in 1948 was 24 thousand tons and the figure was as high as 69 thousand tons in 1949. The Federal government of the United States spent $70 million for this and cigarette manufacturing companies in the United States were happy with this agreement which was a huge profit for them.[32] Per capita cigarette consumption per year in post-war Germany steadily rose from 460 in 1950 to 1,523 in 1963. The present day anti-tobacco campaign in Germany has been unable to exceed the seriousness of the Nazi era climax years of 1939-1941 and tobacco health research is minimal in Germany today.[27]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ a b c Young 2005, p. 252
  2. ^ Szollosi-Janze 2001, p. 15
  3. ^ Richard Doll (1998). "Uncovering the effects of smoking: historical perspective" (HTML). Statistical Methods in Medical Research. Retrieved 2008-06-01. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Robert N. Proctor, Pennsylvania State University (1996-12-07). "The anti-tobacco campaign of the Nazis: a little known aspect of public health in Germany, 1933-45" (HTML). British Medical Journal. Retrieved 2008-06-01. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  5. ^ a b Robert N. Proctor (1996). "Nazi Medicine and Public Health Policy" (HTML). Dimensions, Anti-Defamation League. Retrieved 2008-06-01. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  6. ^ Clark, Briggs & Cooke 2005, p. 1373-74
  7. ^ a b Proctor 1999, p. 177
  8. ^ Proctor 1999, p. 178
  9. ^ a b c d Proctor 1999, p. 219
  10. ^ a b c d e f Clark, Briggs & Cooke 2005, p. 1374
  11. ^ a b Proctor 1999, p. 173
  12. ^ a b Proctor 1999, p. 187
  13. ^ Proctor 1999, p. 189
  14. ^ a b c d Coombs & Holladay 2006, p. 98
  15. ^ a b Proctor 1999, p. 207
  16. ^ Proctor 1999, p. 191
  17. ^ Proctor 1999, p. 194
  18. ^ Gilman & Zhou 2004, p. 328
  19. ^ Proctor 1999, p. 199
  20. ^ George Davey Smith, Sabine Strobele and Matthias Egger (1995-02-11). "Smoking and death" (HTML). British Medical Journal. Retrieved 2008-06-01. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  21. ^ a b c d Proctor 1999, p. 203
  22. ^ a b Daunton & Hilton 2001, p. 169
  23. ^ a b Guenther 2004, p. 108
  24. ^ Uekoetter 2006, p. 206
  25. ^ Proctor 1999, p. 204
  26. ^ Proctor 1999, p. 206
  27. ^ a b c d e f Proctor 1999, p. 228
  28. ^ Proctor 1999, p. 220
  29. ^ a b Proctor 1999, p. 174
  30. ^ a b Proctor 1999, p. 179
  31. ^ Proctor 1999, p. 208
  32. ^ a b Proctor 1999, p. 245

References[edit]

Further reading[edit]

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