Hitler's physician Morell joined the
Nazi Party when Hitler came to power in 1933. In 1935, Hitler's personal photographer,
Heinrich Hoffmann, was successfully treated by Morell. Hoffmann told Hitler that Morell had saved his life. 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), which successfully treated Hitler's severe stomach cramps. Through Morell's prescriptions, a leg rash that Hitler had developed also disappeared. Hitler was convinced of Morell's medical genius, and Morell became part of his social inner circle. Others have commented on the possibility that Hitler had visible signs of
Parkinson's disease, especially towards the end of the war. 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: 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". In 1943,
Ernst-Günther Schenck, Nutrition Inspector for the Waffen SS and the Wehrmacht, became suspicious of the substance. Believing it was possibly inert or made up of diluted ingredients he sent some to the nutrition inspector's office for testing. The report he received indicated the substance did contain certain vitamins but also
methamphetamine, a substance known even then to be highly addictive and strictly controlled as a result. Schenck showed the results to Reich Health Leader Dr. Leonardo Conti who informed Heinrich Himmler. Himmler's response was that the matter should be dropped immediately. Speer characterized 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". 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."
Hermann Göring called Morell
Der Reichsspritzenmeister, ("Reich Master of Injections"), and variations on that theme, implying that Morell resorted to using drug injections when faced with medical problems and overused them.
Substances administered to Hitler 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 incomplete list
(below) of some 74 substances (in 28 different mixtures) administered to Hitler include
psychoactive drugs such as
heroin as well as commercial poisons. Among the compounds, in alphabetical order, were: •
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.
World War II 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 that 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 annexed it – 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. Heinrich Himmler's chief doctor,
Karl Gebhardt, ignored his recommendation to use antibiotics;
gangrene set in, and Heydrich died a week later. 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 American intelligence officers interrogated him 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. When Hitler developed
jaundice in September 1944, Dr. Erwin Giesing – an
ear, nose and throat specialist who had initially 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 mildly harmful effects. 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. Several months later, Brandt was imprisoned and condemned to death at the Nuremberg trials. 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. 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. On 20 April 1945, Hitler ordered Morell,
Albert Bormann, Admiral
Karl-Jesko von Puttkamer, Dr.
Hugo Blaschke, secretaries
Johanna Wolf,
Christa Schroeder, and several others to leave the bunker and Berlin by aircraft for the
Obersalzberg. 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; during the last week of Hitler's life, it was administered by Dr.
Werner Haase and by
Heinz Linge, Hitler's
valet. 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. ==Personal awards and wealth==