Anti-tobacco movement in Nazi Germany facts for kids

Nazi Germany started a strong anti-tobacco movement and led the first public campaign against smoking in modern history. While other countries had small anti-tobacco groups, Germany's movement became very powerful in the 1930s and early 1940s. This was because the government, led by the Nazis, supported it.

Many Nazi leaders were against smoking. They openly talked about why tobacco was bad. Research into smoking and its health effects also grew a lot under Nazi rule. Adolf Hitler himself disliked tobacco. The Nazis also wanted German families to be strong and have many children, and they believed smoking was bad for this goal. Their campaign was also connected to their ideas about antisemitism (hatred of Jewish people) and racism.

The Nazis used many ways to stop people from smoking. They banned smoking in public places and limited tobacco advertising. They also restricted how much tobacco women could get. Smoking was banned in trams, buses, and city trains. They promoted health education and even limited cigarette amounts for soldiers. They also made tobacco taxes much higher. In the early years (1933-1939), tobacco use actually went up. But from 1939 to 1945, smoking by soldiers went down. This anti-smoking campaign was much stronger than later efforts in Germany.

Early Anti-Tobacco Efforts

Before the Nazis, some people in Germany already disliked tobacco. The first anti-tobacco group, called the Deutscher Tabakgegnerverein zum Schutze der Nichtraucher (German Tobacco Opponents' Association for the Protection of Non-smokers), started in 1904. It didn't last long.

Another group, the Bund Deutscher Tabakgegner (Federation of German Tobacco Opponents), began in 1910. More anti-smoking groups appeared in other German cities by 1912. After World War I, similar groups formed in Czechoslovakia and Austria.

These groups published magazines to encourage people not to smoke. Der Tabakgegner (The Tobacco Opponent) was one of the first, published from 1912 to 1932. Another, Deutsche Tabakgegner (German Tobacco Opponents), was published from 1919 to 1935.

Hitler's Views on Smoking

Adolf Hitler used to be a heavy smoker, smoking 25 to 40 cigarettes every day. He stopped because he thought it was a waste of money. Later, Hitler saw smoking as "decadent," meaning it was bad for health and society. He even called it "the wrath of the Red Man against the White Man."

Hitler was sad that "so many excellent men have been lost to tobacco poisoning." He was annoyed that people like Eva Braun and Martin Bormann smoked. He also worried about Hermann Göring smoking in public. Hitler is often seen as the first national leader to speak out against smoking.

During World War II, Hitler said it was a mistake to let soldiers smoke freely. He believed a soldier could live without smoking. He even promised to end tobacco use in the military after the war. Hitler encouraged his friends to quit smoking and rewarded those who did. However, his personal dislike was just one reason for the anti-smoking campaign.

Focus on Families and Health

The Nazi focus on families and having children was a big reason for their anti-tobacco campaign. They believed women who smoked would age faster and lose their looks. They thought smoking made women unsuitable as wives and mothers.

Werner Huttig, from the Nazi Party's Office of Racial Politics, claimed that smoking mothers' breast milk contained nicotine. Martin Staemmler, an important doctor, said that smoking by pregnant women led to more stillbirths and miscarriages. This was supported by doctor Agnes Bluhm in her 1936 book. Nazi leaders wanted German women to have many healthy children. A 1943 medical journal article said women who smoked three or more cigarettes a day were more likely to be childless.

Research on Tobacco's Effects

By the time the Nazis came to power, Germany had very advanced research on how tobacco affected health. The connection between lung cancer and tobacco was first shown in Nazi Germany. Many people wrongly think American or British scientists discovered this later. The term "passive smoking" was also created in Nazi Germany.

Nazi-funded research projects showed many harmful effects of smoking. They supported studies on how tobacco use affected large groups of people. Hitler even gave money to the Scientific Institute for the Study of Tobacco Hazards at the University of Jena. This institute, started in 1941, was the most important anti-tobacco center in Nazi Germany.

In 1939, Franz H. Müller published a study showing that lung cancer was more common among smokers. Müller's study was the world's first controlled study on the link between tobacco and lung cancer. He noted that tobacco smoke was becoming a major cause of lung cancer.

Doctors in Nazi Germany knew that smoking caused heart disease. They saw heart problems as the most serious diseases from smoking. Nicotine was sometimes blamed for the increase in heart attacks. During World War II, researchers thought nicotine caused heart failures in many soldiers on the Eastern Front. A doctor found that all 32 young soldiers who died from heart attacks at the front were "enthusiastic smokers."

Anti-Tobacco Rules and Campaigns

The Nazis used many ways to convince Germans not to smoke. Health magazines like Gesundes Volk (Healthy People) and Gesundes Leben (Healthy Life) warned about smoking. Posters showing tobacco's harmful effects were displayed. Anti-smoking messages were sent to workplaces, often with help from the Hitler Youth and the League of German Girls.

The Nazi campaign also included health education. Magazines like Reine Luft (Clean Air) published articles against smoking. Reine Luft was the main magazine of the Nazi anti-tobacco movement.

After seeing the health dangers, several anti-smoking laws were passed. In 1938, the air force and postal service banned smoking. Smoking was also banned in hospitals, public offices, and rest homes. Midwives could not smoke while working. In 1939, the Nazi Party banned smoking in all its offices. Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS, stopped police and SS officers from smoking on duty. Smoking was also banned in schools.

In 1941, smoking on trams was banned in 60 German cities. Smoking was also outlawed in bomb shelters, though some had special smoking rooms. They especially tried to stop women from smoking. The President of the Medical Association said, "German women don't smoke." Pregnant women and women under 25 or over 55 did not get tobacco ration cards during World War II. Stores were restricted from selling tobacco to women. Films against smoking were shown to women. Newspapers published articles about smoking's effects. A Nazi Party department even said it would kick out female members who smoked in public.

In July 1943, public smoking was banned for anyone under 18. The next year, smoking on buses and city trains became illegal. Hitler himself pushed for this, fearing female ticket takers might suffer from passive smoking.

Rules were also made for tobacco advertising. Ads that showed smoking as harmless or manly were banned. Making fun of anti-tobacco activists was also forbidden. Ads along train tracks, in rural areas, stadiums, and racing tracks were banned. Advertising by loudspeakers and mail was also stopped.

Smoking rules were also put in place for the army. Soldiers' cigarette rations were limited to six per day. Extra cigarettes were sometimes sold, but limited to 50 per month. Female army helpers were not allowed cigarettes. Medical talks were given to soldiers to encourage them to quit. In November 1941, tobacco taxes were raised by 80–95% of the price. This was the highest tobacco tax increase in Germany for over 25 years.

How Effective Was It?

At first, the anti-smoking campaign seemed to fail. From 1933 to 1937, tobacco use in Germany went up quickly. It rose faster than in France, where the anti-tobacco movement was very small. Between 1932 and 1939, the average number of cigarettes smoked per person in Germany went from 570 to 900 per year.

German cigarette companies tried to fight the campaign. They published new magazines and called the anti-tobacco movement "fanatic" and "unscientific." The tobacco industry also tried to stop the government from preventing women from smoking. They used smoking models in their ads. Despite the rules, many women in Germany smoked, even wives of high-ranking Nazi officials. For example, Magda Goebbels smoked during an interview. Fashion pictures often showed women with cigarettes. The cover of the song Lili Marleen showed singer Lale Andersen holding a cigarette.

The Nazis put more anti-tobacco rules in place in the late 1930s and early World War II. Then, tobacco use started to go down. Because of the rules in the army, total tobacco use by soldiers decreased between 1939 and 1945. A 1944 survey found that while more soldiers smoked, the average amount each soldier smoked dropped by 23.4% compared to before the war. The number of people who smoked 30 or more cigarettes a day fell from 4.4% to 0.3%.

The Nazi anti-tobacco rules had some strange parts. For example, they wanted people to be healthy, but they also gave cigarettes to groups they thought "deserved" them, like soldiers. But "undeserving" groups, like Jewish people and war prisoners, were not allowed to have tobacco.

Linked to Racism

Besides health concerns, the Nazis' anti-tobacco movement was strongly shaped by their beliefs about racial hygiene and keeping the body "pure." Nazi leaders thought it was wrong for the "master race" to smoke. They saw tobacco use as "racial degeneracy." The Nazis called tobacco a "genetic poison."

People who believed in racial hygiene were against tobacco use. They feared it would "corrupt" the "German germ plasm" (their idea of the German genetic makeup). Nazi anti-tobacco activists often said tobacco was a "vice" of "degenerate" Africans.

The Nazis also claimed that Jews were responsible for bringing tobacco and its harmful effects to Europe. A German church group even said smoking was an unhealthy habit spread by Jewish people. In 1941, Johann von Leers, an editor, said that "Jewish capitalism" was behind the spread of tobacco use. He claimed Jewish people brought the first tobacco to Germany and controlled the tobacco industry in Amsterdam.

After World War II

After Nazi Germany lost World War II, American cigarette makers quickly entered the German market. Illegal smuggling of tobacco became common. The leaders of the Nazi anti-smoking campaign were silenced. In 1949, about 400 million US-made cigarettes entered Germany illegally each month.

As part of the Marshall Plan, the United States sent free tobacco to Germany. In 1948, 24,000 tons were sent, and in 1949, it was 69,000 tons. The US government spent $70 million on this, which greatly helped American cigarette companies. After the war, the average number of cigarettes smoked per person in Germany steadily rose from 460 in 1950 to 1,523 in 1963. Today's anti-tobacco campaigns in Germany have not been as strong as the Nazi-era efforts from 1939–41.

Images for kids

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  An 1898 cartoon about smoking on a train in Bavaria.

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  Reine Luft, the main anti-tobacco magazine, used cartoons to say smoking was bad.

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  A Wehrmacht soldier smokes in a trench in Romania, 1944.

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  Cigarettes are present as propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels meets with military propaganda leaders, January 1941.

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  The Nazi Sturmabteilung group was funded by its own cigarette company, as shown in this ad.

See also

In Spanish: Movimiento antitabaco en la Alemania nazi para niños