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Theodor (Theo) Gilbert Morell (July 22 1886 - May 26 1948) was Adolf Hitler's personal physician from 1936 until his suicide in 1945. Morell was well known in Germany for his unconventional, holistic and alternative treatments.
Although Morell had medical training and was licensed as a general practitioner in Germany long before he met Hitler, following World War II there were investigations into his practice along with interrogation by the Allies and he came to be widely regarded as a quack. Historians have speculated his treatment contributed to Hitler's ill health.
Early life
Morell was the second son of a primary school teacher, born and raised in a small village called Trais-Munzenberg in Upper Hesse. He studied medicine in Grenoble and Paris then trained in obstetrics and gynaecology in Munich beginning in 1910. By 1913 he had a PhD and was licensed as a medical doctor. After a year serving as an assistant doctor on cruise ships he bought a practice in Dietzenbach. He served at the front during WWI, then as a medical officer. By 1919 he was in Berlin with a medical practice and in 1920 married Johanna Moller, a wealthy actress. He targeted unconventional treatments at an upscale market and eventually turned down invitations to be personal physician to both the Shah of Persia and the King of Romania.
Morell claimed to have studied under Nobel Prize-winning bacteriologist Ilya Mechnikov along with having taught medicine at prestigious universities and sometimes called himself professor. He also owned significant interests in several medium-sized European pharmaceutical companies.
However, by 1933 his practice was threatened because many of his patients were Jewish and his personal appearance also led to his sometimes being "mistakenly" thought to be a Jew. In fact, many people claimed he was actually half-Jewish. In April he joined the Nazi party, moved his practice to a prestigious address and began describing himself as a venereologist. In 1936 he treated Heinrich Hoffmann for gonorrhoea and claimed to have cured him. Hoffman and his assistant Eva Braun introduced Morell to Adolf Hitler.
Hitler's physician
Hitler was suffering from a skin rash and intestinal gas when, during a party at the Berghof near Berchtesgaden, he first met Morell, who said he could cure him within a year. Morell's wife was unhappy when he accepted the job as Hitler's personal physician. Morell began treating Hitler with various commercial preparations, including a combination of vitamins and E. coli bacteria called Multiflor. Hitler seemed to recover and Morell eventually became a part of Hitler's social inner circle, remaining there until shortly before the war ended. Some historians have attempted to explain this association by citing Morell's reputation in Germany for success in treating syphilis, along with Hitler's own (speculated) fears of the disease which he associated closely with Jews. Other observers have commented on the possibility Hitler had visible symptoms of both Parkinson's disease and syphilis, especially towards the end of the war.
As Hitler's physician Morell was constantly recommended to other members of the Nazi leadership but most of them, including Hermann Goering and Heinrich Himmler immediately dismissed him as a quack. As Albert Speer related in his autobiography:
- In 1936, when my circulation and stomach rebelled...I called at Morell's private office. After a superficial examination...Morell prescribed for me his intestinal bacteria, dextrose, vitamins, and hormone tablets.
- For safety's sake I afterward had a thorough examination by Professor von Bergmann, the specialist in internal medicine at Berlin University. I was not suffering from any organic trouble, he concluded, but only from nervous symptoms caused by overwork.
- I slowed down my pace as best I could and the symptoms abated. To avoid offending Hitler I pretended that I was carefully following Morell's instructions, and since my health improved, I became for a time Morell's showpiece. (Albert Speer, Inside the Third Reich, 1970).
Goering called Morell Der Reichsspritzenmeister, a nickname that stuck. This term does not have a precise English translation. Among the translations of this nickname are "Herr Reich Injection Master" (Speer, Inside the Third Reich), "The Reich's Injections Impresario" (Junge, Until the Final Hour), and "The Master of the Imperial Needle" (O'Donnell, The Bunker). However this term is translated, its underlying meaning is the same - it implied that Morell always resorted to using injections and drugs when faced with any medical problem, and that he overused these drug injections.
Morell developed a rivalry with Dr. Karl Brandt, who had been attending Hitler since 1933. The two often argued, though Hitler usually sided with Morell. Eva Braun later changed her opinion of Morell, calling his office a "pig sty" and refusing to see him anymore.
In 1939 Morell inadvertently got involved with the forced annexation of Czechoslovakia. Its 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 these were only vitamins, they may have included methamphetamines. Hacha meanwhile soon caved in to Hitler's demands.
Following the July 20, 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 he was interrogated by American intelligence officers after the war. Moreover, 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.
By April 1945 Hitler was taking 28 different pills a day along with numerous injections (including many of glucose). On April 22, 1945 Morell was dismissed from the Fuhrerbunker in Berlin by Hitler, who said he didn't need any more medical help.
Morell escaped Berlin on one of the last German flights out of the city but was soon captured by the Americans. One of his interrogators was reportedly "disgusted" by his obesity and complete lack of hygiene. Although he was held in an American internment camp (on the site of the former Buchenwald concentration camp) and questioned because of his proximity to Hitler, Morell was never charged with any crimes. His health declined rapidly. Grossly obese and suffering from speech impairment, he died in May 1948 after a stroke.
Substances given to Hitler
Morell kept a medical diary of the drugs, tonics, vitamins and other substances he administered to Hitler, usually by either injection or in pill form. Most were commercial preparations, some were his own. Since some of these compounds are considered toxic, many historians have speculated Morell may have accidentally contributed to Hitler's poor health. This fragmentary list of representative ingredients would have seemed somewhat less shocking during the 1940s:
- Potassium bromide
- Nux Vomica (a form of strychnine)
- Atropine
- Sodium barbitone
- Oxedrine Tartrate
- Chamomile
- Testosterone
- Prophenazone
- Caffeine
- Belladonna
- E. coli
- Dihydroxycodeine
- Sulphonamide
- Cocaine (via eye drops)
- Enzymes
- Vitamins
- Amphetamines
- Methamphetamines
- Proteins and lipids derived from animal tissues and fats
Morell apparently never told Hitler (or anyone else) what he was administering, other than to say the preparations contained various vitamins and "natural" ingredients. Some ingredients were later confirmed by doctors who had been shown pills by Hitler while temporarily treating him. A few of the preparations (such as Glyconorm, a tonic popular in Switzerland for fighting infections) contained rendered forms of animal tissues such as placenta, cardiac muscle, liver and bull testicles. During his interrogation after the war, Morell claimed another doctor had prescribed cocaine to Hitler and at least one other doctor is known to have administered it through eyedrops after he requested it in the hours following an almost successful assassination attempt on July 20, 1944. Cocaine was routinely used for medical purposes in Germany during that time but Morell is said to have increased the dosage ten-fold. Overuse of cocaine eyedrops has been associated with psychotic behavior, hypertension and other symptoms but historians have generally tended to discount any effects of Morell's treatments on Hitler's decision-making.
Morell was subject to many accusations by members of Hitler's inner circle. Several people claimed he regularly injected Hitler with morphine without telling him and that Morell himself was a morphine addict. Some went so far as to claim Morell used Hitler as a "guinea pig" for several of the drugs he tried to develop and sell but these latter claims were made by people without medical backgrounds and may not be reliable.
Trivia
The song "Gramme Friday" by The Fall mentions Morell in the context of amphetamine abuse:
- Hitler lost his nerve on it.
- Dr. Morel prescribed it well
See also
Further reading
- Doyle, D. (2005). Hitler's Medical Care. PDF File Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
- Morell, Dr. T. et al. (1983). Adolf Hitler : The Secret Diaries of Hitler's Doctor. PDF File Focal Point Publications. ISBN 0283989815
- O'Donnell, J. (1978). The Bunker. New York: Da Capo Press. ISBN 0306809583
- Snyder, L. Hitler's Elite. New York: Hippocrene Books. ISBN 087052738X
"Theodor Morell"