Theodor Morell

Morell joined the Nazi Party when Hitler came to power in 1933.[1] In 1935, Hitler's personal photographer, Heinrich Hoffmann, was successfully treated by Morell. Hoffmann told Hitler that Morell had saved his life.[5] Hitler met Morell in 1936, and Morell began treating Hitler with various commercial preparations, including a combination of vitamins and hydrolyzed strain of E. coli bacteria called Mutaflor (probiotic strain, isolated in 1917),[6] which successfully treated Hitler's severe stomach cramps.[1][5] Through Morell's prescriptions, a leg rash which Hitler had developed also disappeared.[5] Hitler was convinced of Morell's medical genius and Morell became part of his social inner circle.[7][8]

Some historians have attempted to explain this by citing the reputation he had gained in Germany for success in treating syphilis, along with Hitler's own (speculated) fears of the disease, which he associated closely with Jews. Others have commented on the possibility that Hitler had visible symptoms of Parkinson's disease, especially towards the end of the war.[9]

Hitler recommended Morell to others of the Nazi leadership, but most of them, including Hermann Göring and Heinrich Himmler, dismissed Morell as a quack. As Albert Speer related in his autobiography:[10]

In 1936, when my circulation and stomach rebelled...I called at Morell's private office. After a superficial examination, Morell prescribed for me his intestinal bacteria, dextrose, vitamins and hormone tablets. For safety's sake I afterward had a thorough examination by Professor von Bergmann, the specialist in internal medicine at Berlin University. I was not suffering from any organic trouble, he concluded, but only from nervous symptoms caused by overwork. I slowed down my pace as best I could and the symptoms abated. To avoid offending Hitler I pretended that I was carefully following Morell's instructions, and since my health improved, I became for a time Morell's showpiece. – Albert Speer, Inside the Third Reich (1969)

When Hitler was troubled with grogginess in the morning, Morell would inject him with a solution of water mixed with a substance from several small, gold-foiled packets, which he called "Vitamultin". Hitler would arise, refreshed and invigorated. Hitler gave a packet to Himmler, who immediately became suspicious and instead secretly ordered one of his SS physicians, Ernst-Günther Schenck, to have it tested in a laboratory. It was found to contain methamphetamine. On at least one occasion, Hitler ordered his private train stopped so that Morell could inject him without worrying about the train jostling.

Speer characterised Morell as an opportunist, who once he achieved status as Hitler's physician, became extremely careless and lazy in his work. By 1944, Morell developed a hostile rivalry with Dr. Karl Brandt, who had been attending Hitler since 1934. Though criticized by Brandt and other physicians, Morell was always "restored to favor".[11]

Morell was not popular with Hitler's entourage, who complained about the doctor's crude table manners, poor hygiene and body odor. Hitler is said to have responded "I do not employ him for his fragrance, but to look after my health."[12] Hermann Göring called Morell Der Reichsspritzenmeister, ("Reich Master of Injections"), and variations on that theme,[13][14] implying that Morell resorted to using drug injections when faced with medical problems, and overused them.

Morell kept a medical diary of the drugs, tonics, vitamins and other substances he administered to Hitler, usually by injection (up to 20 times per day) or in pill form. Most were commercial preparations, some were Morell's own mixes. Since some of these compounds are considered toxic, historians have speculated that Morell inadvertently contributed to Hitler's deteriorating health. The fragmentary list (below) of some 74 substances (in 28 different mixtures)[15] administered to Hitler include psychoactive drugs such as heroin as well as commercial poisons. Among the compounds, in alphabetical order, were:[8]

1. Brom-Nervacit: bromide, Sodium diethylbarbiturate, Pyramidon, since August 1941 a spoonful of this tranquilizer almost every night, to counteract stimulation from methamphetamine and to allow sleep.[8]
2. Cardiazol and Coramine: since 1941 for leg oedema.
3. Chineurin: Quinine-containing preparation for common colds and flu.
4. Cocaine and adrenaline (via eye drops).[16]
5. Coramine: Nikethamide injected when unduly sedated with barbiturates. In addition, Morell would use Coramine as part of an all-purpose "tonic".
6. Cortiron: Desoxycorticosterone Acetate IM injections for muscle weaknesses, influencing carbon hydrate metabolism.
7. Doktor Koster's Antigaspills: 2–4 pills before every meal, for a total of 8–16 tablets a day,[17] since 1936 Belladonna extractum and Strychnos nux vomica in high doses, for meteorism.[18][19]
8. Enbasin: Sulfonamide, intragluteal 5cc, for diverse infections.
9. Euflat: Bile extract, Radix Angelica, Aloes, Papaverine, Caffeine, Pancreatine, Fel tauri – pills, for meteorism, and treatment of digestion disorders.
10. Eukodal: heavy doses Oxycodone, for intestinal spasms, painkiller.[20]
11. Eupaverin: Moxaverine, an isoquinoline derivative for intestinal spasms and colics.
12. Glucose: 1938 until 1940 every third day Glucose injections 5 and 10%, for potentiation of the Strophanthus effect.
13. Glyconorm: metformin,[8] Metabolism Enzymes (Cozymase I and II), Amino acids, Vitamins – injectable solution as a strengthener tonic.
14. Homatropin: Homatropine. HBr 0.1g, NaCl 0.08g; Distilled water added 10 ml. Eye drops for right eye problems.
15. Intelan: twice a day Vitamins A, D3 and B12 – tablets as a strengthener, tonic.
16. Camomilla Officinale: chamomile – intestinal enemata, on the patient's personal request.
17. Luitzym: after each meal Enzymes with Cellulase, Hemicellulases, Amylase, Proteases for intestinal problems, meteorism.
18. Mutaflor: Emulsion of Escherichia coli-strains – enteric coated tablets for improvement of intestinal flora. They were prescribed to Hitler for flatulence in 1936, the first unorthodox drug treatment from Morell; bacteria cultured from human feces, see: "E. coli".[21]
19. Omnadin: Mixture of protein compounds, biliary lipids and animal fat, taken at the onset of infections (together with Vitamultin).
20. Optalidon: Caffeine, Propyphenazone – tablets at the beginning of infections (together with Vitamultin).
21. Orchikrin: an extract of bovine testosterone, pituitary gland, and glycerophosphate, as a tonic, strengthener. Marketed also as an aphrodisiac.[19]
22. Penicilline-Hamma: Penicillin – powder Topical antibiotic. After the attempted assassination of July 20, 1944 to treat his right arm.
23. Pervitin: methamphetamine injections for mental depression and fatigue.[8][19]
24. Progynon B-Oleosum: Estradiol Valerate, Benzoic ester of follicle hormone, for improvement of the circulation in the gastric mucosa.
25. Prostacrinum: two ampoules every second day for a short period in '43, extract of seminal vesicles and prostate – injected IM for mental depression.[19]
26. Prostophanta: Strophantine 0.3 mg, Glucose, Vitamin B, Nicotinic acid – IM heart glycoside, strengthener.
27. Septoid: intravenous injections of 10 cc of 3% iodine (in potassium iodide form) with 10 cc of 20% glucose, two or three times a day, to improve heart's condition and the altered Second Sound.
28. Strophantin: '41 to '44 – cycle of 2 weeks of homeopathic Strophanthus gratus glycoside 0.2 mg per day for coronary sclerosis.
29. Sympatol: oxedrine tartrate since '42, 10 drops daily for increasing the cardiac minute volume.
30. Testoviron: Testosterone propionate as a tonic, strengthener.
31. Tonophosphan: '42 to '44, Phosphoric preparation – SC tonic, strengthener.
32. Ultraseptyl: Sulfonamide for respiratory infections.
33. Veritol: since March '44 Hydroxyphenyl-2-methylamino-propane – eyedrops for left eye treatment.
34. Vitamultin-Calcium: Caffeine, Vitamins.

An almost complete listing of the drugs used by Morell, wrote historian Hugh Trevor-Roper, was compiled after the war from his own meticulous daily records and unlikely to have been exaggerated.[15] Interestingly Morrell was trained as a general practitioner physician. However, his speciality was neither training in either dermatology or venereology but was in fact in obstetrics and gynaecology. Despite his lack of training, Morrell did treat Hitler (who had an obsessive fear of VD) with Arsenobenzol, designated “606,” Salvarsan, Neosalvarsan with bismuth and iodine salts.[22]

In 1939, Morell inadvertently became involved with the invasion of Czechoslovakia. The Czechoslovak president, Emil Hacha, became so scared at Hitler's outburst that he fainted. Morell injected stimulants into Hacha to wake him, and although he claimed these were only vitamins, they may have included methamphetamine. Hacha soon gave in to Hitler's demands.

When Reinhard Heydrich, who was serving as Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia – the rump left of Czechoslovakia after Hitler's annexation of the Sudetenland – was the victim of an assassination attempt in May 1942, Morell was one of the doctors brought in by Heinrich Himmler to treat the badly-wounded SS man. His recommendation to use antibiotics was ignored by Heinrich Himmler's chief doctor, Karl Gebhardt, gangrene set in, and Heydrich died a week later.[23]

After the 20 July 1944 assassination attempt against Hitler, Morell treated him with topical penicillin, which had only recently been introduced into testing by the U.S. Army. Where he acquired it is unknown, and Morell claimed complete ignorance of penicillin when he was interrogated by American intelligence officers after the war. When members of Hitler's inner circle were interviewed for the book The Bunker, some claimed Morell owned a significant share in a company fraudulently marketing a product as penicillin.[14]

When Hitler developed jaundice in September 1944, Dr. Erwin Giesing – an ear, nose and throat specialist who had originally been brought in to treat the dictator after the damage done to his eardrums from the bomb explosion of the 20 July plot – began to be suspicious of Morell's treatment of Hitler. Suspecting that he knew the cause of the jaundice, Giesing deliberately dosed himself with some of the "Dr. Koester's Anti-Gas Pills" which Morell had Hitler taking in large numbers every day, and found that they had effects that were mildly harmful. Having them analyzed, he found they contained strychnine and belladonna, the strychnine being the cause of the jaundice. Giesing reported his results to two of Hitler's other doctors, Karl Brandt and Hanskarl von Hasselbach, who in turn told other members of Hitler's retinue. When word of this finally reached Hitler, he was furious. Declaring that he had total faith in Morell and his treatments, he dismissed all three doctors – Giesing, Brandt and Hasselbach – even though the latter two had been with him since his early days in power.[24][25][26] Several months later, Brandt was imprisoned and condemned to death at the Nuremberg trials.[27][28]

By April 1945, Hitler was taking many pills a day, along with numerous injections. The personal notes of Morell describe how he treated Hitler over the years, including notations such as, "injection as always", and, "Eukodal", an early German trade name for the opioid oxycodone.[20]

Morell was one of the occupants of the Führerbunker, located in the garden of the Reich Chancellery, once Hitler and his entourage relocated there from the Wolf's Lair in Rastenburg in East Prussia. As the Battle of Berlin progressed and the outlook became dire, it was Morell who provided the cyanide capsules which Eva Braun would later use to kill herself, and which Joseph Goebbels and his wife Magda used to murder their six children before killing themselves.[29]

On 20 April 1945, Morell, Albert Bormann, Admiral Karl-Jesko von Puttkamer, Dr. Hugo Blaschke, secretaries Johanna Wolf, Christa Schroeder, and several others were ordered by Hitler to leave the bunker and Berlin by aircraft for the Obersalzberg.[30] Hitler told Morell he did not need any more medical help, although he continued to take many of the medications Morell had prescribed for him;[31] during the last week of Hitler's life, it was administered by Dr. Werner Haase and by Heinz Linge, Hitler's valet.[32] The group flew out of Berlin on different flights by aircraft of the Fliegerstaffel des Führers over the following three days. Morell was on the flight which left Berlin on 23 April.[30]