Norman Ohler

But it was the first time in modern history, in Germany at least, that there was no emperor.

Before that, Kaiser Wilhelm, everything was very strict.

You couldn't go crazy as a young person.

You couldn't be a young person.

But now in the Weimar Republic in the 20s, you could.

No one stopped you.

So people went crazy.

That's what made Berlin into the city that it still somehow is.

And maybe later we talk about

contemporary Berlin, it still has that vibe.

That's why people still come to Berlin.

Drugs are cheap.

You can move however you want.

There's no authority.

So that created a rift between the Nazis in Munich, and they always hated Berlin and what was going on in Berlin.

So, for example, Goebbels, the later propaganda minister, he called the situation in Berlin the hated asphalt reality of Berlin.

He hated that.

And when the Nazis then were able to take power in 1933, one of the first things they did was to really prosecute people who were taking drugs because they wanted to bring everyone back into the fold.

And I think that's, you asked, what was the reason for people taking so many drugs?

They were accessible.