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Anti-Tobacco moment in Nazi Germany.
By Jake Greenwood

What is the Anti-Tobacco movement?
The anti-tobacco or anti-smoking moment was a campaign to stop or at least lower the number of people smoking at the time in Nazi Germany.  It was known as the first ever public anti-smoking movement and proved to be very successful. Link with Adolf Hitler, Führer of Nazi Germany’s personal disliking of smoking Nazi reproductive policies, the campaign proved to have much motivation to the people, it was also later linked in with anti-Semitism and racism.
The movement itself managed to get smoking banned on trams, buses and city trains, promoted high quality health education on smoking and limited the cigarette rations to soldiers in the Wehrmacht, it also organized health lectures to the soldiers and raised the tobacco tax. The Nazis also made restrictions on advertising for tobacco products and smoking in public places, they also controlled smoking in restaurants and coffeehouses.

The anti-smoking campaign however wasn’t always as successful, as between the years 1933 and 1939 tobacco use actually increased, however smoking by personnel in the military decreased from 1939 to 1945.
Prelude.
Anti-smoking campaigns did exist in the early 20th century, they were however never as successful as the Nazis had made theirs. The first in Germany was called the Deutscher Tabakegnerverein zum Schutze der Nichtraucher (German Tobacco Opponents’ Association for the Protection of Non-Smokers). Formed in 1904 it soon disbanded after.
The next organization was called the Bund Deutscher Tabakgegner (Federation of German Tobacco Opponents) , which formed in 1912 in Trautenay, Bohemia. A few other anti-smoking organizations were formed in 1912 in Hanover and Dresden. In the 1920’s an organization called Bund Deutscher Tabakgegner in der Tschechoslowakei (Federation of German Tobacco Opponents in Czechoslovakia) was formed in Prague, Czechoslovakia after ww1 when Czechoslovakia separated from Austria.
Hitler’s Opinion on Smoking.
Adolf Hitler, who was very against smoking, was originally a heavy smoker in his earlier life. He would smoke between 25 to 40 cigarettes a day, but ended up giving the habit up as he considered it “A waste of money”. Later on in his life, he viewed smoking as immoral and that “So many excellent men have been lost to tobacco poisoning”.