Health of Adolf Hitler

Hitler's mustard gas claim has been disputed by many historians. Supposedly, during World War I, Hitler served as a dispatch runner for the List Regiment of the Bavarian Army. On the night of 13–14 October 1918, he and his comrades were victims of an Allied mustard gas attack near Ypres, Belgium. They had been leaving their dug-out to retreat when the attack occurred, and were partially blinded by it. Hitler received initial treatment in Flanders, and on 21 October was sent to the military hospital in Pasewalk near Stettin in Pomerania. It is believed that instead of being treated for a gas attack, Hitler was being treated for syphilis. It was there that Hitler learned that Germany had asked the Allies for an armistice.{{sfn|Kershaw|1998|pp=96-97}} He also learned that revolution was in the air. Hitler later claimed that it was while recuperating at Pasewalk that he became a virulent antisemite, although historians consider this to be unlikely, especially when Hitler referred to his conversion in terms of a vision he received. He left the hospital on 19 November, eight days after the armistice was signed.{{sfn|Kershaw|1998|pp=102-105}}

As a result of the 20 July 1944 assassination attempt on Hitler – in which he survived a bomb explosion at his Wolf's Lair headquarters – both of his eardrums were punctured, and he had numerous superficial wounds, including blisters, burns, and 200 wood splinters on his hands and legs, cuts on his forehead, abrasions and swelling on his left arm, and a right arm that was swollen, painful, and difficult to raise, causing him to use his left hand to greet Benito Mussolini, who arrived that day for a previously scheduled summit meeting. The punctured eardrums were the most serious of these injuries.{{sfn|Kershaw|2000|p=674}} Weeks later, blood was still seeping through Hitler's bandages, and he suffered sharp pain in the right ear, as well as hearing loss. The eardrums took several weeks to heal, during which Hitler suffered from dizziness and a loss of balance which made him awkwardly hew to the right when walking. In addition, his blood pressure was high. One unusual result was that the trembling in Hitler's hands and left leg, which had increasingly afflicted him for sometime, abated for a time after the explosion, which Morell attributed to nervous shock; they returned in mid-September.{{sfn|Kershaw|2000|p=694}}{{cite book|date=2009|author1=Linge, Heinz |author2=Moorehouse, Roger|isbn=978-1-602-39804-7|title=With Hitler to the End: The Memoir of Hitler's Valet|publisher=Skyhorse Publishing|url=https://archive.org/details/withhitlertoendm00ling}}

Hitler's tremor and irregular heartbeat during the last years of his life could have been symptoms of tertiary (late stage) syphilis,{{cite news| url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/2842819.stm | work=BBC News | title=Hitler syphilis theory revived | date=2003-03-12 | access-date=2010-04-23}} which would mean he had had a syphilis infection for many years. However, syphilis had become curable in 1910 with Dr. Paul Ehrlich's introduction of the drug Salvarsan.

In The Man with the Miraculous Hands, his biography of Dr. Felix Kersten, journalist Joseph Kessel wrote that in the winter of 1942, Kersten heard of Hitler's medical condition. Consulted by his patient, Heinrich Himmler, as to whether he could "assist a man who suffers from severe headaches, dizziness and insomnia", Kersten was shown a top-secret 26-page report. It detailed how Hitler had contracted syphilis in his youth and was treated for it at a hospital in Pasewalk. However, in 1937, symptoms re-appeared, showing that the disease was still active, and by the start of 1942, signs were evident that progressive syphilitic paralysis (tabes dorsalis) was occurring. Himmler advised Kersten that Theodor Morell (who in the 1930s claimed to be a venereologist) was in charge of Hitler's treatment and that it was a state secret. The book also relates how Kersten learned from Himmler's secretary, Rudolf Brandt, that at that time, probably the only other people privy to the report's information were Nazi Party chairman Martin Bormann and Hermann Göring, the head of the Luftwaffe.Kessel, Joseph. The Man With the Miraculous Hands: The Fantastic Story of Felix Kersten, Himmler's Private Doctor. Classics of War Series. Springfield, NJ: Burford Books, 2004. {{ISBN|1580801226}}. Interestingly, Morrell was trained as a general practitioner physician. However his specialty was neither dermatology nor venereology but in fact 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.[https://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=45&t=264091&hilit=Salvarsan Hitler's Health]

{{See also|Hitler Has Only Got One Ball|Possible monorchism of Adolf Hitler}}

It has been alleged that Hitler had monorchism, the medical condition of having only one testicle. In 2008, a British newspaper reported that in 1916, a German doctor named Johan Jambor had encountered an injured Hitler during the Battle of the Somme.{{cite news |last1=Jamieson |first1=Alastair |title=Nazi leader Hitler really did have only one ball |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/3481932/Nazi-leader-Hitler-really-did-have-only-one-ball.html |work=The Telegraph |date=19 November 2008 }} Jambor allegedly asserted that Hitler—who is known to have suffered a groin injury in the battle—had in fact lost a testicle. Jambor had supposedly described the dictator's condition to a priest, who later wrote down what he had been told.

Soviet doctor Lev Bezymensky, allegedly involved in the Soviet autopsy, stated in a 1967 book that Hitler's left testicle was missing. Bezymensky later admitted that the claim was falsified.Bezymensky L. A. Operatsija "Mif" ili skolko raz choronili Gitlera. Moscow 1995

Hitler was routinely examined by many doctors throughout his childhood, military service, and later political career, and no clinical mention of any such condition has ever been discovered. Eduard Bloch, Hitler's childhood doctor, told U.S. interrogators in 1943 that Hitler's genitals were in fact "completely normal".{{Cite magazine|url=https://time.com/4233811/hitler-micropenis-nazi-genitals/ |first=Tara |last=John |date=February 23, 2016 |title=The Immortal Myth of Hitler's Deformed Genitals|magazine=Time|language=en|access-date=2019-06-16}}

It has been speculated that Hitler had Huntington's disease. When many of the physical symptoms shown in newsreels during his later life – his hand tremor and shuffling gait – are coupled with his alleged mental and psychological deterioration, they may also point toward Huntington's. This is only conjecture, since a definitive diagnosis would require DNA testing.{{Cite news|url=https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/huntingtons-disease/symptoms-causes/syc-20356117|title=Huntington's disease - Symptoms and causes|work=Mayo Clinic|access-date=2018-03-06|language=en}} Although Huntington's disease was known and considered a hereditary disease during the time period, even appearing in state papers on the sterilisation list, it is not known if Hitler knew of this condition.{{Cite news|url=http://www.hdlf.org/node/719|title=Huntington's disease - Symptoms and causes|work=Mayo Clinic|access-date=2018-03-06|language=en|archive-date=6 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180306202534/http://www.hdlf.org/node/719|url-status=dead}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.hdlf.org/node/719|title=Hitler's 'Cure' for Huntington's Disease {{!}} Huntington's Disease Lighthouse Families|website=www.hdlf.org|language=en|access-date=2018-03-06|archive-date=6 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180306202534/http://www.hdlf.org/node/719|url-status=dead}}

It has been speculated Hitler had Parkinson's disease. Newsreels of Hitler show he had tremors in his left hand and a shuffling walk (also a symptom of tertiary syphilis, see above) which began before the war and continued to worsen until the end of his life. Morell treated Hitler with a drug agent that was commonly used in 1945, although Morell is viewed as an incompetent doctor by most historians and any diagnoses he may have made are subject to doubt.{{cite journal |last1=Bhattacharyya |first1=Kalyan B. |title=Adolf Hitler and His Parkinsonism |journal=Annals of Indian Academy of Neurology |date=2015 |volume=18 |issue=4 |pages=387–390 |doi=10.4103/0972-2327.169536 |doi-access=free|pmid=26713007 |pmc=4683874}}

Dr. Werner Haase, Hitler's personal physician, who was in attendance every day from 21 April until Hitler's suicide on 30 April, was convinced that Hitler had Parkinson's.{{cite book | last = O'Donnell | first = James P. | author-link = James P. O'Donnell | title = The Bunker | publisher = Da Capo Press | location = New York | year = 2001 | orig-year = 1978 | isbn = 978-0-306-80958-3 | pages=37, 150}} In addition, Dr. Ernst-Günther Schenck, who worked at an emergency casualty station in the Reich Chancellery during April 1945, also claimed Hitler might have Parkinson's disease. However, Schenck only saw Hitler briefly on two occasions and, by his own admission, was extremely exhausted and dazed during these meetings; at the time, he had been in surgery for numerous days without much sleep.{{Cite web|url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/1985/10/09/Physician-describes-Hitlers-last-days/4583497678400/|title=Physician describes Hitler's last days|website=UPI}}

From the 1930s onwards, Hitler suffered from stomach pains. In 1936 a non-cancerous polyp was removed from his throat. Hitler also developed eczema on his legs.{{sfn|Kershaw|2000|p=36}} Some doctors dismiss Hitler's ailments as hypochondria, pointing out the apparently drastic decline of Hitler's health as Germany began losing World War II. According to a medical examination from 1924, Hitler was 160cm (5ft 3in) tall and weighed {{Convert|76|kg|lb|abbr=on}},{{Cite news |last=Friedmann |first=Jan |date=2010-06-23 |title=Adolf Hitler's Time in Jail: Flowers for the Führer in Landsberg Prison |language=en |work=Der Spiegel |url=https://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/adolf-hitler-s-time-in-jail-flowers-for-the-fuehrer-in-landsberg-prison-a-702159.html |access-date=2023-07-17 |issn=2195-1349}} making him slightly overweight.

There is speculation that Hitler may have had Encephalitis lethargica when he was a young adult (in addition to the more substantial case for Parkinsonism in his later years).

In 1943, author Frederick Cable Oechsner claimed in his book This Is The Enemy that Hitler had a rhinoplasty in Munich sometime after 1933 to correct the shape of his nose, as it was reportedly "a little bulbous at the end and fatty on the bridge."{{Cite book |last=Oechsner |first=Frederick Cable |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.527910/page/n90/mode/1up |title=This Is The Enemy |publisher=William Heinemann Ltd. |year=1943 |pages=84}}{{Cite magazine |date=1942-06-22 |title=GERMANY: Inside Hitler |url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,773259,00.html |access-date=10 May 2024 |magazine=Time |language=en-US |issn=0040-781X}}{{Cite magazine |date=22 June 1942 |title=To the Führer, Hitler Is Terrific |magazine=Newsweek |page=42 |volume=19 |issue=25 |issn=0028-9604 |id={{ProQuest|1797092971}}}}{{Cite journal |last1=Warren |first1=Anne G. |last2=Goldwyn |first2=Robert M. |date=October 2007 |title=Did Hitler Have a Rhinoplasty? |url=http://journals.lww.com/00006534-200710000-00055 |journal=Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery |language=en |volume=120 |issue=5 |pages=1435 |doi=10.1097/01.prs.0000279458.49157.28 |issn=0032-1052 |doi-access=free|pmid=17898634 }}{{Additional citation needed|date=May 2024|reason=Warren (2020) claims "an official press dispatch released by the SS" confirmed this report, citing "Langer, W. C. The Mind of Adolf Hitler: The Secret Wartime Report" (1972), though there is apparently no mention of it in that book.}}

{{See also|Psychopathography of Adolf Hitler}}

As debated as Hitler's physical medical issues may be, his mental health is a minefield of theories and speculation. This topic is controversial, as many believe that if a psychological cause can be found for Hitler's behaviour, there would be more reasoning behind his actions.

In 1993, an interdisciplinary team consisting of Desmond Henry, Dick Geary, and Peter Tyrer published an essay in which they expressed their common view that Hitler had antisocial personality disorder as defined in ICD-10. Tyrer, a psychiatrist, was convinced that Hitler furthermore showed signs of paranoia and of histrionic personality disorder. Robert G. L. Waite, who wrote an extensive psychohistory of Hitler, concluded that he suffered from borderline personality disorder, which manifested its symptoms in numerous ways and would imply Hitler was in full control of himself and his actions. Others have proposed Hitler may have been schizophrenic,{{Citation needed|date=May 2008}} based on claims that he was hallucinating and delusional during his last year of life. Many people believe that Hitler had a mental disorder and was not schizophrenic nor bipolar, but rather met the criteria for both disorders, and was therefore most likely a schizoaffective. If true, this might be explained by a series of brief reactive psychoses in a narcissistic personality which could not withstand being confronted with reality (in this case, that he was not the "superman" or "saviour of Germany" he envisioned himself to be, as his plans and apparent early achievements collapsed about him). In addition, his regular methamphetamine use{{YouTube | id=8DJr5q4Bf_s | title=Hitler's Hidden Drug Habit: Secret History}} directed and produced by Chris Durlacher. A Waddell Media Production for Channel 4 in association with National Geographic Channels, MMXIV. Executive Producer Jon-Barrie Waddell.{{sfn|Doyle|2005|p=8/8 in PDF}} and possible sleep deprivation in the last period of his life must be factored into any speculation as to the cause of his possible psychotic symptoms, as these two activities are known to trigger psychotic reactions in some individuals. Hitler never visited a psychiatrist, and under current methodology, any such diagnosis is speculation.

{{further|Theodor Morell#Substances administered to Hitler}}

Prescribed 90 medications during the war years by Morell, Hitler took many pills each day for chronic stomach problems and other ailments.{{sfn|Kershaw|2008|p=782}} He regularly consumed methamphetamine, barbiturates, opiates, and cocaine,{{cite web|date=13 February 2017|last=Ohler|first=Norman|url=https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/hitlers-doctor-said-the-dictator-almost-died-from-a-cocaine-overdose|title=Hitler's Doctor Said the Dictator Almost Died from a Cocaine Overdose |work=Vice |access-date=15 March 2017}}{{sfn|Porter|2013}} as well as potassium bromide and atropa belladonna (the latter in the form of Doktor Koster's Antigaspills).{{sfn|Doyle|2005|p=8}}

In a 1980 article, German historian Hans-Ulrich Wehler was highly dismissive of all theories that sought to attribute the rise and policies of Nazi Germany to some defect, medical or otherwise, of Hitler's. In Wehler's opinion, besides the problem that such theories about Hitler's medical condition were extremely difficult to prove, the problem was that they had the effect of personalising the phenomena of Nazi Germany by more or less attributing everything that happened in the Third Reich to one flawed individual. Wehler wrote:{{cite book|author=Kershaw, Ian |title=The Nazi Dictatorship: Problems and Perspectives of Interpretation|url=https://archive.org/details/nazidictatorship00kers |url-access=registration |location= London |publisher= Arnold |date=2000| page= [https://archive.org/details/nazidictatorship00kers/page/72 72]|isbn=9780340760284 }}

{{Blockquote|Does our understanding of National Socialist policies really depend on whether Hitler had only one testicle?...Perhaps the Führer had three, which made things difficult for him, who knows?...Even if Hitler could be regarded irrefutably as a sado-masochist, which scientific interest does that further?...Does the 'Final Solution of the Jewish Question' thus become more easily understandable or the 'twisted road to Auschwitz' become the one-way street of a psychopath in power?}}

Echoing Wehler's views, British historian Ian Kershaw argued that it was better to take a broader view of German history by seeking to examine what social forces led to the Third Reich and its policies, as opposed to the "personalised" explanations for the Holocaust and World War II.

In his book Explaining Hitler: The Search for the Origins of His Evil (1998), American journalist Ron Rosenbaum sarcastically remarked that theories concerning Hitler's mental state and sexual activity shed more light on the theorists and their culture than on Hitler.{{sfn|Rosenbaum|1999|pp=xxiv=xxv}}

It has been theorised that Hitler's physical and mental health problems were the result of Hitler having been significantly inbred,{{Cite web|url=https://allthatsinteresting.com/alois-hitler|title=Origins Of Evil: The Rage-Filled Story Of Alois Hitler|first=Gina|last=Dimuro|date=June 11, 2018|website=All That's Interesting}}{{cite journal |last1=Vernon |first1=W. H. D. |title=Hitler, the man--notes for a case history. |journal=The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology |date=1942 |volume=37 |issue=3 |pages=295–308 |doi=10.1037/h0059954 }} possibly having monorchism,{{Cite journal|url=https://www.pep-web.org/document.php?id=irp.001.0227a|title=Hitler's Childhood|first=N.|last=Bromberg|date=October 7, 1974|journal=Int. R. Psycho-Anal.|volume=1|pages=227–244|via=PEP Web}} with his father Alois Hitler possibly being his mother's second cousin.{{Cite web|url=https://spartacus-educational.com/GERhitlerK.htm|title=Klara Hitler|website=Spartacus Educational}} Inbred people have a higher chance of having developmental disorders and harmful mutations.{{cite journal |last1=Pekkala |first1=Nina |last2=Knott |first2=K Emily |last3=Kotiaho |first3=Janne S |last4=Nissinen |first4=Kari |last5=Puurtinen |first5=Mikael |title=The effect of inbreeding rate on fitness, inbreeding depression and heterosis over a range of inbreeding coefficients |journal=Evolutionary Applications |date=November 2014 |volume=7 |issue=9 |pages=1107–1119 |doi=10.1111/eva.12145 |pmid=25553071 |pmc=4231599 |bibcode=2014EvApp...7.1107P }} There are however no mentions based on clinical exams of such a diagnosis (see Monorchism section above).

Notes

{{Reflist}}

Bibliography

• {{cite book|last=Bezymenski|first=L.|title=The Death of Adolf Hitler: Unknown Documents from Soviet Archives|publisher=Harcourt Brace|date=1968|isbn=0-7181-0634-2}}
• {{cite book|last=Doyle|first=D.|title=Hitler's Medical Care|date=2005|url=http://www.rcpe.ac.uk/publications/articles/journal_35_1/Hitler's_medical_care.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927215742/http://www.rcpe.ac.uk/publications/articles/journal_35_1/Hitler's_medical_care.pdf|archive-date=2007-09-27}}
• {{cite book|last=Heston|first=L.|title=The Medical Casebook of Adolf Hitler: His Illnesses, Doctors, and Drugs|publisher=Stein & Day|date=1980|isbn=0-8128-2718-X|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/medicalcasebooko0000hest}}
• {{cite book|last=Heston|first=L.|title=The Medical Casebook of Adolf Hitler|publisher=Cooper Square Press|date=2000|isbn=0-8154-1066-2}}
• {{cite book|last=Heston|first=L.|title=Adolf Hitler: A Medical Descent That Changed History His Drug Abuse, Doctors, Illnesses|publisher=Baypoint Press|date=1999|isbn=0-9665852-9-1}}
• {{cite book|date=1998|last=Kershaw|first=Ian|author-link=Ian Kershaw|isbn=0-393-04671-0|title=Hitler 1889-1936: Hubris|location=New York|publisher=Norton}}
• {{cite book|date=2000|last=Kershaw|first=Ian|author-link=Ian Kershaw|isbn=0-393-04994-9|title=Hitler 1936-1945: Nemesis|location=New York|publisher=Norton}}
• {{cite book |last= Langer |first=Walter C. |isbn = 0465046207 |author-link=Walter C. Langer|title= The Mind of Adolf Hitler: The Secret Wartime Report|location=New York|publisher= Basic Books|year=1972}}
• {{cite web |last=Porter |first=Tom |title=Adolf Hitler 'Took Cocktail of Drugs' Reveal New Documents |website=IB Times |date=24 August 2013 |url=http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/hitler-drugs-new-documentary-cocaine-501230 |access-date=22 November 2015}}
• {{cite book|last=Rosenbaum|first=Ron|author-link=Ron Rosenbaum|title=Explaining Hitler: The Search for the Origins of His Evil|publisher=Harper Perennial|date=1999|isbn=0-06-095339-X}}
• {{cite book|last=Schwaab|first=E.|title=Hitler's Mind: A Plunge into Madness|publisher=Praeger Publishers|date=1992|isbn=0-275-94132-9}}
• {{cite book|last=Victor|first=G.|title=Hitler: The Pathology of Evil|publisher=Potomac Books|date=1999|isbn=1-57488-228-7}}
• {{cite book|last=Zalampas|first=S.|title=Adolf Hitler: A Psychological Interpretation of His Views on Architecture Art and Music|publisher=Bowling Green State University Popular Press|date=1990|isbn=0-87972-488-9}}

Further reading

• {{cite book|last=Lewis|first=D.|title=The Man Who Invented Hitler: The Making of the Fuhrer|publisher=Headline Book Publishing|date=2004|isbn=0-7553-1149-3}}
• {{cite book|last=Machtan|first=Lothar|title=The Hidden Hitler|editor=trans. J. Brownjohn|publisher=Basic Books|date=2002|isbn=0-465-04308-9}}
• {{cite book|last=Murray |first=Henry A. |title=Analysis of the Personality of Adolph Hitler: With Predictions of His Future Behavior and Suggestions for Dealing with Him Now and After Germany's Surrender |date=1943 |url=http://library.lawschool.cornell.edu/WhatWeHave/SpecialCollections/Donovan/Hitler/index.cfm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050130100645/http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FQP/is_n4406_v127/ai_21238666 |archive-date=2005-01-30 }}
• {{cite book|last=Waite|first=Robert G. L.|title=The Psychopathic God: Adolf Hitler|publisher=DaCapo Press|location=New York|date=1993|isbn=0-306-80514-6|orig-year=1977|url=https://archive.org/details/psychopathicgoda00wait_0}}

• [http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_128b.html Did Hitler have only one testicle?] from The Straight Dope
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20060710194334/http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/hitleross5.html OSS document alleging sexual deviancy]
• [http://www.history.com/shows.do?action=detail&episodeId=276803 History Channel's Episode - High Hitler]{{dead link|date=October 2016 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}

{{Adolf Hitler|state=collapsed}}

Health

Hitler, Adolf

Category:Huntington's disease