Anti-tobacco movement in Nazi Germany

. Woman: Smoking isn't allowed in this compartment, it clearly says "For non-smokers" outside! Smoker: But we aren't smoking outside, we're smoking inside! Anti-smoking measures have a long history in German-speaking areas. For instance, in 1840, the Prussian government reinstated a ban on smoking in public places. The German Empire also had anti-tobacco sentiment in the early 20th century. Critics of smoking organized the first anti-tobacco group in the country, named the Deutscher Tabakgegnerverein zum Schutze der Nichtraucher (German Tobacco Opponents' Association for the Protection of Non-smokers). Established in 1904, this organization existed for only a brief period. The next anti-tobacco organization, the Bund Deutscher Tabakgegner (Federation of German Tobacco Opponents), 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 (Federation of German Tobacco Opponents in Czechoslovakia) was formed in Prague, after Czechoslovakia was separated from Austria at the end of World War I. A Bund Deutscher Tabakgegner in Deutschösterreich (Federation of German Tobacco Opponents in German Austria) was established in Graz in 1920. These groups published journals advocating nonsmoking. The first such German language journal was Der Tabakgegner (The Tobacco Opponent), published by the Bohemian organization between 1912 and 1932. Deutscher Tabakgegner (German Tobacco Opponent) was published in Dresden from 1919 to 1935, and was the second journal on this subject. Anti-tobacco organizations were often also against consumption of alcoholic beverages. ==Research==

Research on tobacco's effects on population health were more advanced in Germany than in any other nation by the time the Nazis came to power. claim that the link between lung cancer and tobacco was first proven in Nazi Germany). Physicians were also aware that smoking was responsible for cardiac diseases, which were considered to be the most serious disease resulting from smoking. Use of nicotine was sometimes considered to be responsible for increased reports of myocardial infarction in the country. In the later years of World War II, researchers considered nicotine a factor behind the coronary heart failures suffered by a significant number of military personnel in the Eastern Front. A pathologist of the Heer examined thirty-two young soldiers who had died from myocardial infarction at 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". Established in 1941, it was the most significant anti-tobacco institute in Nazi Germany. Further research into the effects of tobacco on health was carried out with Nazi funding. In 1939, Franz H. Müller (a member of the National Socialist Motor Corps or NSKK, and the Nazi Party) published a study reporting a higher prevalence of lung cancer among smokers. The study had serious weaknesses in its methodology, but study design problems were better addressed in subsequent studies. Dietrich Eberhard Schairer also used case-control epidemiological methods to study lung cancer among smokers, in 1943. Due to the research institute and local political support, including from Fritz Sauckel (the Gauleiter of Thuringia) and Leonardo Conti (the Reich Health Leader), Thuringia became a test bed for anti-smoking measures, most of which were never implemented elsewhere. After 1941, Nazi tobacco research was deliberately slowed, along with other restrictions on anti-tobacco publications. At the end of the war, the fates of those involved in supporting and carrying out research varied. Karl Astel, who was heavily involved in mass murder and research practices which would probably have seen him tried as a war criminal, killed himself. Fritz Sauckel was executed for crimes against humanity. Leonardo Conti killed himself while awaiting trial for his involvement in mass murder of ill people. Hans Reiter (the Reich Health Office president) was interned for two years and spent the rest of his career in private practice. Others worked in the field after the war; pharmacologist Gustav Kuschinsky continued work similar to that begun with funding from Astel's institute with funding from the cigarette company Reemtsma. Fritz Lickint was appointed to public hospital and teaching posts again after the war. Many wartime research publications were never shipped abroad, and after the war, pre-war and wartime publications on nicotine were ignored even within Germany. Post-war researchers were unaware of the earlier non-English-language studies. They therefore duplicated the case-control studies showing the association with illness before doing prospective cohort studies that established causality in the 1950s. There is a popular belief that American and British scientists first discovered the health harms of tobacco in the 1950s. == Political motives ==

Hitler's attitude towards smoking encouraged his close associates to quit smoking. Hitler viewed smoking as "decadent" 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 was angered when a statue portraying a cigar-smoking Göring was commissioned. and the near-contemporary 1600s Chinese emperors Chongzhen and Kangxi both decreed the death penalty for smokers. Hitler disapproved of the military personnel's freedom to smoke, and during World War II he said on 2 March 1942, "it was a mistake, traceable to the army leadership at the time, at the beginning of the war". He also said that it was "not correct to say that a soldier cannot live without smoking". He promised to end the use of tobacco in the military after the end of the war. Hitler personally encouraged close friends not to smoke. He even began to offer a gold watch to any of his inner circle who could quit. However, Hitler's personal distaste for tobacco was only one of several catalysts behind the anti-smoking campaign. The idea that male fertility was also affected by smoking was not a new one at that time. , a prominent physician during the Nazi era, said that smoking by pregnant women resulted in a higher rate of stillbirths and miscarriages (a claim supported by modern research, for nicotine-using mothers, fathers, and their offspring). This view was also promoted in a 1936 book by well-known female racial hygienist Agnes Bluhm. a claim that modern research has proven correct. Smoking women were also considered to be vulnerable to premature aging and loss of physical attractiveness and was known by 1940 to be linked to earlier death Measures protecting non-smokers (especially children and mothers) from passive smoking were tied to the Nazi's desire for healthy young soldiers and workers. They were tied to the concepts of Volksgesundheit (People's Health) and Gesundheitspflicht (Duty to be Healthy). Physical fitness was promoted, and tobacco use was discouraged as incompatible with physical fitness. Antismoking campaigns were accompanied by other health campaigns, such as discouraging the consumption of alcohol (especially during pregnancy) and encouraging the eating of fruit, vegetables, and whole-wheat bread. ==Measures==

s and cartoons in its propaganda, such as stating that smoking was a thing of the devil (a ""). There was never a coherent Nazi policy to impede smoking. Mostly, measures were based on pre-existing policies. Although in some places some stern measures were taken, tobacco control policy was incoherent and ineffective, and obvious measures were not taken. Tobacco controls were often not enforced. Smoking bans were widely ignored. In Jena, Thuringia, very strong anti-smoking measures were enacted, due to the power of Karl Astel there and his support from Fritz Sauckel (the Gauleiter of Thuringia) and Leonardo Conti (the Reich Health Leader). These measures included the first 20th-century university campus smoking ban. Propaganda The Nazis used several public relations tactics to convince the general population of Germany not to smoke, and gave variable support to non-officially-approved propaganda. National and local government organizations, party-controlled organizations, voluntary organizations, and medical organizations were all involved. The messages differed; propaganda by Nazi Party organizations generally described tobacco as harmful to women or young people, while publications by medical professionals tended to describe the health hazards of smoking. The Deutsche Arbeitsfront (the government monopoly union) also ran anti-smoking campaigns. An anti-smoking speech by its head met with official disapproval. also published warnings about the health consequences of smoking Articles advocating nonsmoking were also published in the magazines Die Genussgifte (The Recreational Stimulants), Auf der Wacht (On the Guard) and Reine Luft (Clean Air). Out of these magazines, Reine Luft was the main journal of the anti-tobacco movement. Karl Astel's Institute for Tobacco Hazards Research at Jena University purchased and distributed hundreds of reprints from Reine Luft. enacted on 7 December 1941 and signed by Heinrich Hunke, the President of the Advertising Council. Advertisements trying to depict smoking as harmless or as an expression of masculinity were banned. Ridiculing anti-tobacco activists was also outlawed, as was the use of advertising posters along rail tracks, in rural regions, stadiums and racing tracks. Advertising by loudspeakers and mail was also prohibited. A ban on tobacco advertising was decided against by Max Amann (Hitler's secretary, Reich Leader for the Press, and Leader of the Party Publishing Company, Eher Verlag). However, advertising restrictions remained in place, even after 1941, and there was a plan to tighten them, although proposals to restrict tobacco ads to statements of manufacturer, brand, and price were explicitly rejected by the party. In 1938, the Reichspost imposed a ban on smoking. Among Nazi leadership, Hermann Goering smoked cigars, and Himmler and Joseph Goebbels smoked cigarettes, as did Magda Goebbels and Eva Braun, Hitler's romantic partner. Pregnant women, and women below the age of 25 and over the age of 55, were not given tobacco ration cards during World War II. Restrictions on selling tobacco products to women were imposed on the hospitality and food retailing industry, although other Hitler Youth members were given cigarettes. The Wehrmacht's female auxiliary personnel were not given cigarette rations. Medical lectures were arranged to persuade military personnel to quit smoking. In 1938, the Luftwaffe imposed a ban on smoking. In 1939, Heinrich Himmler, the then chief of the Schutzstaffel (SS), restricted police personnel and SS officers from smoking while they were on duty. The JAMA also reported that Hermann Göring had banned soldiers from smoking when on the streets, on marches, or only briefly off-duty. == Countermeasures and obstacles ==

meets with the heads of military propaganda units, January 1941. Later the same year, the ministry issued orders to "completely cease any anti-tobacco propaganda in the public" (with minor exceptions). and (as propaganda minister) restricted anti-tobacco propaganda, arguing that anti-smoking campaigns were incompatible with free cigarettes being issued to millions serving in the military, legal tobacco advertising, and authority figures who smoked and denied the dangers of smoking. Despite government regulations, many women in Germany regularly smoked, including the wives of many high-ranking Nazi officials. For instance, Magda Goebbels smoked even while she was being interviewed by a journalist. Eva Braun also smoked. The tobacco industry worked to counter the government campaign to prevent women from smoking and used smoking models in their advertisements. Fashion illustrations displaying women with cigarettes were often published in prominent publications such as the Beyers Mode für Alle (Beyers Fashion For All). The cover of the popular song Lili Marleen featured singer Lale Andersen holding a cigarette. The cigarette manufacturing companies in Germany made several attempts to weaken the scientific credibility of the anti-tobacco campaign. They tried to depict the anti-tobacco movement as "fanatic" and "unscientific". They published new journals (with titles such as Chronica Nicotiana and Der Tabak: Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift der Internationalen Tabakwissenschaftlichen Gesellschaft, or "Tobacco: the scientific journal of the International Tobacco Scientific Society"). One industry-funded tobacco counter-research institute, the Tabacologia medicinalis, was shut down by Reich Health Leader Leonardo Conti. Another such "academy" was called Academia Nicotiana Internationalis. While some cigarette ads had been banned from Nazi party publications due to Jewish ownership, the publications lost money, and the early party needed money for election campaigning. In June 1932, Hitler personally made a deal for half a million marks worth of cigarette advertising. ==Economic pressures==

), in the Crimea, in the first decade of the 20th century. Built in 1516, the synagogue was destroyed around 1941, and the building rebuilt, starting in 1942 or 1943, as a tobacco factory. The Nazi paramilitary SA was funded by cigarette royalties. After the Night of the Long Knives, the Reemtsma cigarette company paid a fixed fee (a quarter-million marks for the first year) to produce the SA's permitted cigarettes. Forced labour was used in cigarette manufacture, with prison camps set up at some locations. More cigarettes were made with less tobacco, to stretch the supply. some to be converted into armaments factories. Tobacco went on the ration: smokers were not allowed to buy more than a limited amount. Cigarette consumption stopped rising rapidly and fell rapidly, although the number of smokers continued to rise. ==Effectiveness==

The early anti-smoking campaign was considered a failure, and from 1933 to 1937 there was a rapid increase in tobacco consumption in Germany. After 1938, the war prevented the publication of sales figures. Smoking rates rose more rapidly during war than in peacetime, including among women. Serving in the military, participating in military deployments, and physical and mental disability all make people more likely to smoke. Generally, people who are already stressed, anxious, depressed, or otherwise suffering from poor moods become addicted more easily and find quitting more difficult. This is thought to be because nicotine withdrawal worsens mood in smokers, with a nicotine hit briefly bringing mood back to baseline; if, due to pre-existing mood problems, the baseline is lower, then the withdrawal is worse still. Smoking was common in the Wehrmacht; a 1944 survey found that 87% of servicemen smoked. 10% of servicemen had begun smoking while in the military, and only seven servicemen of the thousand surveyed (0.7%) had given it up. However, as in the general population, the number of smokers rose while the number of cigarettes smoked fell. As a result of the anti-tobacco measures implemented in the Wehrmacht (supply restriction, taxes, and propaganda), the total tobacco consumption by soldiers decreased between 1939 and 1945. Average tobacco consumption per person among military personnel declined by 23.4% compared to the immediate pre-World War II years. The number of servicemen who smoked 30 or more cigarettes per day (well above the theoretical maximum military ration of 7.7 cigarettes per day) declined from 4.4% to 0.3%. ==Association with antisemitism and racism==

Apart from public health concerns, the Nazis were heavily influenced by ideology; Some Nazi leaders believed that it was wrong for the "master race" to smoke Tobacco-caused infertility ==After World War II==

After the collapse of Nazi Germany at the end of World War II, illegal smuggling of tobacco became prevalent, and the anti-smoking campaign started by the Nazis ceased to exist. It has been argued that the Nazi anti-tobacco campaigns delayed effective nicotine addiction reduction measures by decades. which also leads to higher public health costs. ==See also==