Anti-Tobacco moment in Nazi Germany.
By Jake Greenwood
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. This movement was known as the first anti-smoking movement, and proved to be quite successful. With the added help of Adolf Hitler’s personal dislike for smoking and Nazi reproductive policies, the campaign was very successful with the people of Germany and ended up being later linked in with anti-Semitism and racism.

This non-smoking movement succeeded in having 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, didn't have even success. 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 condoned smoking, though he was actually a heavy smoker in his earlier life. He smoked between 25 to 40 cigarettes a day, but soon overcame his addiction, 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”.
Hitler personally encouraged his close friends not to smoke and became quite upset at the fact both Eva Braun and Martin Bormann smoked, and was concerned over Hermann Goering’s smoking in public places.
Reproductive Policies.
 The Nazi reproductive policies were a notable factor behind the anti-smoking campaign, as woman who smoked were considered endangered and vulnerable to premature aging and loss of attractiveness. Werner Huttig of the Nazi Party’s Rassenpolitisches Amt (Office of Racial Politics) stated that a smoking mother’s breast milk contained nicotine that could harm the child, which later on in modern research proved to be true.

Research
The research conducted by the Nazi’s on tobacco’s effect on people’s health was far more advance in Germany than anywhere else at the time.  The link between lung cancer and tobacco was actually first proven in Nazi Germany, opposing to popular belief that American and British scientists first discovered the fact in the 1950’s.  Many research projects conducted and funded by the Nazis also revealed the many disastrous effects of smoking, and the various harmful effects on health smoking had.
Physicians in the Third Reich had also become aware of the fact that smoking was responsible for cardiac diseases. Use of nicotine was considered sometimes to be responsible for an increase report of myocardial infarction in the country. In the later years of the Second World War, Nazi researchers had considered nicotine and smoking a cause of the coronary heart failures that were suffered by a large number of military personnel on the Eastern front.
Measures
The Nazis had ways of convincing the general population of Germany not to smoke. They used popular health magazines like Gesundes Volk (Healthy People) , Volksgesundheit (People’s health) , and Gesundes Leben (Healthy Life) publish warnings about the consequences smoking can have on your health, and poster showing the harmful effects of smoking. Anti-Smoking messages were also sent to people in their workplaces with the help of the Hitler-Jugend, and the Bund Deutscher Mädel.
After they recognized the harmful effects smoking had on health, the Nazis released several anti-smoking legislations. The 1930s saw an increase in anti-tobacco laws by the Nazis. In 1938, the Luftwaffe and the Reichspost had imposed a ban on smoking. Smoking was also banned in health care institutions, public offices and in rest homes. Midwives were restricted from smoking while on duty as well. In 1939 the NSDAP banned smoking in all its office premises, and Heinrich Himmler, head of the Schutzstaffel restricted police and SS officers from smoking while on duty. Smoking was in term banned in schools as well.
In 1941 smoking was banned in Trams and outlawed in over sixty German cities. Smoking in bomb shelters was always banned, however some shelters did have separate rooms for smoking. A special amount of effort was put into preventing woman from smoking and the President of the Medical Association in Germany said “German woman don’t smoke”. Woman who were pregnant and woman who were below the age of 25 or over the age of 55 were not given tobacco ration cards during the Second World War. Restrictions were also set on selling tobacco products to women.
The next step for the anti-smoking campaign was in July 1943 , when public smoking for persons under the age of 18 was outlawed. In the next year smoking on buses and city trains was also illegal.
Restrictions on smoking were also initiated in the Wehrmacht. Cigarette rations in the military were limited to six per soldier per day. Extra cigarettes were sometimes sold to soldiers, mostly when there was no military advances or retreat currently going on, however these were also restricted to 50 cigarettes per person per month. Teenaged soldiers serving in the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend, which was composed of Hitler Youth members, were given sweets and chocolate instead of tobacco products. Access to cigarettes was also not allowed for the Wehrmacht’s Female auxiliary personnel. Medical lectures were also arranged and conducted to attempt to persuade military personnel to quit smoking.
Effectiveness
The earlier anti-smoking campaigns were considered failures, and in 1933 to 1937 there was actually a rapid increase in tobacco consumption in Germany. Between 1932 and 1939 cigarette consumption in Germany increased from 570 to 900 per year.
Cigarette manufacturing companies in Germany made several attempts to weaken the anti-tobacco campaign. They published journals and articles and tried to the depict the anti-tobacco movement as “unscientific”. The tobacco industry also attempted to counter government campaigns that were made to prevent woman from smoking and used models in their advertisements. Despite the government regulations, a majority of woman in Germany regularly smoked, including the wives of many high ranking Nazi officials. For example, Magda Goebbels smoked during an interview with a journalist.
The Nazis had put into effect more anti-tobacco policies at the end of the 190s and by the early years of World War II however, and the rate of tobacco usage declined, and as results of the anti-tobacco campaign in effect with the Wehrmacht, smoking and tobacco consumption had declined between 1939 and 1945.
After World War II
After the collapse of Nazi Germany at the end of the Second World War, American cigarette manufacturers quickly entered the German black market. Illegal smuggling of tobacco products became very popular, and the anti-smoking campaigns started by the Nazi Party ceased to exist after the fall of the Third Reich.