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What Norman Ohler thinks about Europe

@norman-ohler · 22 positions · 0 changes of mind

German writer and journalist, author of Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich and Tripped: Nazi Germany, the CIA, and the Dawn of the Psychedelic Age.

Norman Ohler did not write this page.

We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.

13 dated positions, 2025, in their own words. Our reading of what Norman Ohler has said — not written or endorsed by them.

  1. Our readingHitler did not mind that his early audiences were drunk, because drunk people are more susceptible to right-wing populism.

    Their wordsBut it was used by right-wingers, and Hitler didn't mind because people who are drunk are more susceptible to right-wing populism, I would claim now here, and Hitler would agree. So he did not think it was bad that these people were a bit drunk, or maybe even very drunk, because if you're drunk you also get aggressive against others.

    ↗Norman Ohler: Hitler, Nazis, Drugs, WW2, Blitzkrieg, LSD, MKUltra & CIA | Lex Fridman Podcast #481youtube.com 1st of 22 in this recording

  3. Our readingThe German Navy, which insisted afterwards that it had kept its ethics, bought concentration camp prisoners from the SS to test methamphetamine-and-cocaine combinations on them.

    Their wordsSo the Navy hired the shoe runners unit from the SS, paid them money, and then gave them drugs, different kinds of drug combinations, methamphetamine combined with cocaine and chewing gum and all kinds of things. So this is a big thing, you know. And there are documents to it.

    ↗Norman Ohler: Hitler, Nazis, Drugs, WW2, Blitzkrieg, LSD, MKUltra & CIA | Lex Fridman Podcast #481youtube.com 2nd of 22 in this recording

  5. Our readingDrugs are the missing link historians never had for the one thing they could not explain: why Hitler went from militarily effective to disastrous.

    Their wordsAnd he said this is actually the missing link that historians did not have, especially to explain Hitler's degeneration as a leader. He made very good decisions, good in meaning militarily effective decisions in the beginning of the war, and very bad decisions for the German war effort towards the end. And you can link that to drugs.

    ↗Norman Ohler: Hitler, Nazis, Drugs, WW2, Blitzkrieg, LSD, MKUltra & CIA | Lex Fridman Podcast #481youtube.com 3rd of 22 in this recording

  7. Our readingHitler's decision to attack the West was ideological and irrational, and his own high command planned a coup in November 1939 to stop him ordering it.

    Their wordsHis officers didn't think so. High command said, “No, we're not going to attack the West; we're going to lose.” And Hitler was fanatic about it, he really wanted to attack it. They were planning a coup against him in November 1939 just to prevent him ordering the attack on the West, because it would have been a catastrophe for Germany.

    ↗Norman Ohler: Hitler, Nazis, Drugs, WW2, Blitzkrieg, LSD, MKUltra & CIA | Lex Fridman Podcast #481youtube.com 5th of 22 in this recording

  9. Our readingThe idea of driving the whole German army through the Ardennes, not the methamphetamine, is what won the campaign in the West.

    Their wordsThat was the victorious idea. So it's not the drugs. Actually, that idea to go through the Ardennes Mountains, if you think monocausal, you would say that's the reason. That idea was genius, and Hitler immediately understood it, because before, the plan was to attack in the north of Belgium, which is the same as World War I.

    ↗Norman Ohler: Hitler, Nazis, Drugs, WW2, Blitzkrieg, LSD, MKUltra & CIA | Lex Fridman Podcast #481youtube.com 6th of 22 in this recording

  11. Our readingThe Wehrmacht lost its innocence in Rommel's night push through the French countryside, driving tanks over sleeping men.

    Their wordsThat is when the Wehrmacht lost its innocence in that push of Rommel through the French countryside, because you don't do that, you know? Your enemy is sleeping.

    ↗Norman Ohler: Hitler, Nazis, Drugs, WW2, Blitzkrieg, LSD, MKUltra & CIA | Lex Fridman Podcast #481youtube.com 8th of 22 in this recording

  13. Our readingFrance had a drug regulation too — three quarters of a litre of red wine per man per day — which is why its army was asleep when the meth-fuelled Germans arrived.

    Their wordsBecause the French also had a drug regulation. They received three quarters of a liter of red wine per man per day. So, of course, at night they're going to be sleepy on red wine, and the Germans were on meth and they were just running over them.

    ↗Norman Ohler: Hitler, Nazis, Drugs, WW2, Blitzkrieg, LSD, MKUltra & CIA | Lex Fridman Podcast #481youtube.com 9th of 22 in this recording

  15. Our readingThe drug history of the Third Reich excuses nobody, because in law being intoxicated while committing a crime you planned does not diminish your responsibility.

    Their wordsAnd I spoke with my father, who had been a high judge in Germany. What does the law actually say? And the law says if you plan a crime and then maybe when you commit it, you are under the influence, it does not diminish your responsibility.

    ↗Norman Ohler: Hitler, Nazis, Drugs, WW2, Blitzkrieg, LSD, MKUltra & CIA | Lex Fridman Podcast #481youtube.com 10th of 22 in this recording

  17. Our readingHitler stopped the tanks at Dunkirk because he feared his own high command and had been convinced by Göring's morphine-high promise that the Luftwaffe could finish the job.

    Their wordsThis was just because Hitler was afraid of the power of his army high command, and convinced by Goering's morphine-high vision that he would stop it with the air force, which he couldn't.

    ↗Norman Ohler: Hitler, Nazis, Drugs, WW2, Blitzkrieg, LSD, MKUltra & CIA | Lex Fridman Podcast #481youtube.com 12th of 22 in this recording

  19. Our readingThe German war machine could only ever win lightning wars, because it was always the weaker side.

    Their wordsAnd the German war machine could only win in so-called speed wars, like lightning war. Only if they would do it very fast and surprise, because they were always weaker, basically.

    ↗Norman Ohler: Hitler, Nazis, Drugs, WW2, Blitzkrieg, LSD, MKUltra & CIA | Lex Fridman Podcast #481youtube.com 14th of 22 in this recording

  21. Our readingHitler took methamphetamine exactly twice; the record of everything his doctor gave him says so.

    Their wordsThat's why Hitler was never a meth guy. That's also why I think this video is fake. He didn't take meth. I studied Morell's, the things he gave him. He gave a lot of things, and only twice was meth.

    ↗Norman Ohler: Hitler, Nazis, Drugs, WW2, Blitzkrieg, LSD, MKUltra & CIA | Lex Fridman Podcast #481youtube.com 15th of 22 in this recording

  23. Our readingBritish intelligence dropped its plans to assassinate Hitler because a drugged, malfunctioning Hitler was better for Britain than whoever would replace him.

    Their wordsAnd I spoke with Anthony Beevor once about the attempt of British intelligence to assassinate Hitler, and he had seen some evidence that at the point in time, they dropped those plans because they knew that drugged Hitler or malfunctioning Hitler, which he was after, you know, the summer of 1943, is better for Britain than, you know, killing Hitler and then having to deal with, like, some kind of, you know, maybe the army would have taken over the country

    ↗Norman Ohler: Hitler, Nazis, Drugs, WW2, Blitzkrieg, LSD, MKUltra & CIA | Lex Fridman Podcast #481youtube.com 16th of 22 in this recording

  25. Our readingLSD has a Nazi past nobody thinks about: Sandoz shipped its precursor to Hitler's chief biochemist in 1943, and it was probably used in Dachau.

    Their wordsAnd then I found a smoking gun: October 1943. Kuhn acknowledges that he receives half a gram of ergotamine, which is the precursor drug to LSD. And so it's highly likely that the Nazis used LSD together with mescaline in Dachau.

    ↗Norman Ohler: Hitler, Nazis, Drugs, WW2, Blitzkrieg, LSD, MKUltra & CIA | Lex Fridman Podcast #481youtube.com 20th of 22 in this recording