Norman Ohler

So only then the first negative reports came out.

Before that, what Temmler did and then what the universities did, they all thought methamphetamine is really good.

Well, Professor Ranke was employed by the army, so it was his job to find things that would improve the performance of the German soldier.

I always imagine him like a James Bond character, like Q, who develops gadgets and stuff, because he also developed gadgets.

So he was quite a, you know, he was an academic, but he was also a soldier, you know, he was employed, but he was basically running this institute, examining it.

And he was so convinced that Pavitin is the answer to his...

question how to beat the main opponent of the German soldier.

And that was not the British soldier, not the French soldier, not the Russian soldier.

That was fatigue.

He had been looking for a way to keep a soldier awake longer.

So when he read these reports from universities, he did his own tests in the military academy with young medical officers.

They came together at 8 p.m.

in the evening and then they received

either methamphetamine, caffeine pill, or placebo, or Benzedrine.

Like, he had different experiments.

And he always concluded at the end, like, they started at 8 p.m.

and, like, at 10 a.m.

in the morning, one time he notes the Pavitin people still want to go out and party.

Well, like, the caffeine guys are, like, sleeping on the bench.

And, you know, it was clear that Pavitin is the strongest.