Female employees of the Temmler Werke pharmaceutical plant in Berlin during the production of Pervitin tablets (methamphetamine), which were used as a stimulant for Wehrmacht soldiers and allies of the Third Reich during the World War II.
In 1940, “Temmler Werke” received an order from the command of the German Ground Forces and the German Air Force to produce 35 million doses of “Pervitin“.
The photo source: Norman Ohler. “Der totale Rausch. Drogen im Dritten Reich.” Verlag Kiepenheuer & Witsch. Cologne, 2015.
HISTORICAL REFERENCE:
Pervitin is the commercial name for methamphetamine hydrochloride, which appeared in the Nazi Germany in the late 1930s. It is a powerful psychostimulant, and has an extremely high likelihood of developing severe dependence.
The drug is an amphetamine derivative. It was first synthesized from ephedrine. In the German army during the Second World War and among the American military during the “Vietnam campaign,” Pervitin was distributed to “raise morale.”
The Pervitin was produced by the domestic pharmaceutical industry from 1946 to 1975.
Initially, this drug in our country was used in psychiatry for the treatment of depression of various origins and narcolepsy. Pervitin was recognized as a drug in 1954. Now methamphetamine is excluded from the pharmacopoeia and is included in the list of narcotic substances, the circulation of which is prohibited.