Hitler’s gas chamber

November 3, 2007 9:00 AM

Scent of a Führer - The dictator who smelt it, dealt it. Hitler wanted to control the world. But he couldn't even control his flatulence. (Via)
posted by growabrain (56 comments total)

Fascinating, particularly about his incompetent doctor.

There's always a temptation to regard past events as the inevitable result of the movement of the tides of history, rather than of unpredictable personality quirks and happenstance.
posted by ibmcginty at 9:06 AM on November 3, 2007

You know who else had a problem with flatulence?
posted by psmealey at 9:12 AM on November 3, 2007 [9 favorites]

Wow. At first I thought it was simply amusing trivia to learn that Hitler was the Emperor of Farts (if not the Chancellor of IBS), but if the article is at all reliable, there's a healthy chance that his health problems actually swayed the course of history.

It's funny to think that all those bomb plots against him probably had less overall impact than his chronic stomach troubles.
posted by Sticherbeast at 9:12 AM on November 3, 2007

So the mustache was a filter?
posted by 517 at 9:16 AM on November 3, 2007 [2 favorites]

So on top of being a genocidal maniac, Hitler was a farty cokehead? Now I really find him offensive!
posted by autodidact at 9:19 AM on November 3, 2007

Sorry, I meant to say Ann Coulter.
posted by psmealey at 9:24 AM on November 3, 2007 [2 favorites]

One bad plate of gefilte fish and look what happened.
posted by thewalrusispaul at 9:24 AM on November 3, 2007 [1 favorite]

Best. Tags. Ever.
posted by cerebus19 at 9:29 AM on November 3, 2007

Das Poot.
posted by tepidmonkey at 9:30 AM on November 3, 2007 [14 favorites]

Wrap him in cling film, Roy. It's the only sure thing.
posted by loquacious at 9:32 AM on November 3, 2007

FURTHER READING: ... Irving, David ...

Huh?
posted by AwkwardPause at 9:34 AM on November 3, 2007

"Outside Blondi!"
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 9:35 AM on November 3, 2007

"gas chamber", ouch.

Baby fart.

Bush farts, breaking wind, from the Oval Orifice.

Fun with farts. The poor cat. Cat farts.

Killer fart.
posted by nickyskye at 9:38 AM on November 3, 2007

Flatulence indicates human digestion. I guess abovetopsecret will have (half)? (quarter)? a fit.
posted by Mblue at 9:44 AM on November 3, 2007

The book On Deep History and the Brain (2007). Harvard historian Daniel Lord Smail makes the case that history can be written from the perspective of how neuro-chemical changes in the brain, over time from various inputs (external and internal), have been a primary shaper of human history. This Hitler example is a good one, he uses the example of the introduction of caffeine and other drugs to European culture in the 17th century.
posted by stbalbach at 9:48 AM on November 3, 2007 [6 favorites]

great piles of vegetables, raw or pulped into a baby mulch, were Hitler’s daily staple. (All cooked foods, he decided, were carcinogenic). He showed a particular fondness, culinary historians assure us, for oatmeal with linseed oil, cauliflower, cottage cheese, boiled apples, artichoke hearts and asparagus tips in white sauce. Strangely, Hitler was unfazed by the fact that this high-fiber diet was having the opposite effect on his digestion than what he had intended: His private physician, Dr. Theo Morell, recorded in his diary that after Hitler downed a typical vegetable platter, “constipation and colossal flatulence occurred on a scale I have seldom encountered before.”

Dang, Hitler had a great diet. How interesting it constipated him. I wonder why?


“Dr. Köster’s Anti-gas pills,” which contained significant amounts of strychnine

Amazing!
posted by nickyskye at 9:54 AM on November 3, 2007

Huh.

If not for that idiotic doctor, we might be all spraching the Deutsch and heiling the Fuhrer right now.
posted by blacklite at 9:54 AM on November 3, 2007

So, nickyskye, did you not read the article before you made your first comment?
posted by blacklite at 9:55 AM on November 3, 2007

Daniel Lord Smail makes the case that history can be written from the perspective of how neuro-chemical changes in the brain.....

..instead of actual events.
posted by Mblue at 9:56 AM on November 3, 2007

Thank god no one here has the appallingly poor taste to make a joke about Hitler's gas chamber.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 9:56 AM on November 3, 2007

You know who else was a vegetarian?
posted by furtive at 10:04 AM on November 3, 2007

Don't know, furtive, but there are plenty who dispute that Hitler was one.
posted by IndigoJones at 10:11 AM on November 3, 2007

Hitler was a farty cokehead?

But he only did coke in his eyedrops... what would that do?

lots of John Birch society types like to claim that Roosevelt's impending death precipitated the 'loss' of eastern europe. however, I think the Red Army might have begged to differ...
posted by geos at 10:11 AM on November 3, 2007

Hitler was unfazed by the fact that this high-fiber diet was having the opposite effect on his digestion than what he had intended: His private physician, Dr. Theo Morell, recorded in his diary that after Hitler downed a typical vegetable platter, “constipation and colossal flatulence occurred on a scale I have seldom encountered before.”

Fiber -> constipated? Hmm....
posted by telstar at 10:18 AM on November 3, 2007

..instead of actual events.

Hmm.. sounds like a misunderstanding, this is a historiography book, about how to write history, not a history book about actual events.
posted by stbalbach at 10:19 AM on November 3, 2007

Hitler's asceticism played an important part in the image he projected over Germany. According to the widely believed legend, he neither smoked nor drank, nor did he eat meat or have anything to do with women.

You know who else projects an ascetic image over the nation he rules?
posted by telstar at 10:22 AM on November 3, 2007

Der Fuhrer's face with Donald Duck. Saturday Morning Cartoons circa 1943.
posted by kuujjuarapik at 10:24 AM on November 3, 2007 [2 favorites]

blacklite, so what are you, the commenting and reading police?
posted by nickyskye at 10:28 AM on November 3, 2007

You know who else tells the same joke over and over again?
posted by Rock Steady at 10:30 AM on November 3, 2007 [2 favorites]

Thank god no one here has the appallingly poor taste to make a joke about Hitler's gas chamber.

So, Slarty Bartfast, did you not read the nickyskye's first comment before you made your comment?
posted by quonsar at 10:31 AM on November 3, 2007

blacklite reads the links!

*points and laughs*
posted by quonsar at 10:32 AM on November 3, 2007 [5 favorites]

Great post.

Der Fuhrer's face with Donald Duck. Saturday Morning Cartoons circa 1943.

Wow, that's crazy. Though, it would have been shown in a movie theater, for adults.
posted by mkultra at 10:37 AM on November 3, 2007 [1 favorite]

since ya know, all the televisions were serving overseas.
posted by quonsar at 10:38 AM on November 3, 2007

"Outside Blondi!"
...before that nasty man with the moustache shits all over you.
posted by Wolfdog at 10:49 AM on November 3, 2007

Thank god no one here has the appallingly poor taste to make a joke about Hitler's gas chamber.

So, Slarty Bartfast, did you not read the nickyskye's first comment before you made your comment?

Nope. I never read the comments on Metafilter. This place is worse than youtube.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 11:08 AM on November 3, 2007

FURTHER READING: ... Irving, David ...

Huh?

Once upon a time Irving was a somewhat-respected historian (or at least a "historical writer," depending upon who you ask). As the wiki notes, "Irving was once highly regarded for his expert knowledge of German military archives." It wasn't until relatively late in his career that he went off the rails entirely.
posted by Rangeboy at 11:20 AM on November 3, 2007

The ministrations* of Dr. Theodor Morell [photo] to his "Patient A" — and their possible historical side effects — echo those of starets Gregori Rasputin towards Alexis, the heir of Nicholas and Alexandra.

*FWIW, David Irving's 1983 book about Morell, The Secret Diaries of Hitler's Doctor, can be downloaded here.
posted by cenoxo at 11:24 AM on November 3, 2007

You know who else had a problem with flatulence?

You know, psmealy, for some reason, this one doesn't work so well here.

But I'm looking forward to using the following line with my annoyingly vegetarian colleague:

You know who else was a vegetarian?
posted by sour cream at 11:24 AM on November 3, 2007

I suppose Stalin avoided a similar fate by his reliance on frequent purgings.
posted by Haruspex at 11:38 AM on November 3, 2007 [1 favorite]

Das Poot.

I lol'd to this which, ironically, caused me to fart suddenly.
posted by dopamine at 11:40 AM on November 3, 2007

I can't help but imagine this as a film with Al Pacino incessantly crying out "Hoo Heil!"
posted by Astro Zombie at 12:02 PM on November 3, 2007 [1 favorite]

Peculiarly enough, I was just reading about the perils of excessive fiber in a Straight Dope book, and heh, here's the column on the Internet. Summary: too much fiber and not enough liquids can have exactly the effect described in the Hitler article.

I'm sure the amphetamines, which notoriously dry you out like most stimulants do, played their part.

It's astonishing to think what part a quack doctor played in world history...
posted by lupus_yonderboy at 12:21 PM on November 3, 2007

There's some speculation* that Karl Marx's Hidradenitis suppurativa contributed to his writing and ideas.

*warning, that site made my mouse cursor act up in Firefox...
posted by porpoise at 12:34 PM on November 3, 2007

Don't tell Tom Cruise about this.
posted by Cyrano at 12:49 PM on November 3, 2007

So the good doctor Morell was shooting Hitler up with amphetamines, and he developed Parkinson's disease.

I wonder which amphetamines? Ecstasy is an amphetamine, patented in Germany in 1914, now strongly suspected of causing Parkinson's.
posted by jamjam at 12:52 PM on November 3, 2007

Maybe I'm biased by my innate distrust of doctors, but wow, poor Hitler.

Ecstasy is an amphetamine, patented in Germany in 1914, now strongly suspected of causing Parkinson's

As if the dancing and hugging weren't damning enough.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 1:30 PM on November 3, 2007

Ecstasy is an amphetamine, patented in Germany in 1914, now strongly suspected of causing Parkinson's.

That study was retracted.
posted by flaterik at 1:33 PM on November 3, 2007

jamjam -- not the case. the parkinsons results were from a 'scientist' injecting monkeys with inhuman amounts of pure amphetamine.

Also, no one tried MDMA on humans until Shulgyin in the 70s.
posted by empath at 1:46 PM on November 3, 2007

too much fibre, not enough fluids, strychnine & amphetamines (if true) could easly cause those kind of gut disorders.
posted by Wilder at 1:55 PM on November 3, 2007

I wasn't aware of that retraction; thank you flaterik.

The point may remain, however. According to the Wikipedia article (and empath):

The retraction of the September 2002 Ricaurte article was published in the 12 September 2003 issue of Science (volume 301, page 1479). Ricaurte said that methamphetamine had been the cause of the previously reported dopaminergic neurotoxicity, not "ecstasy". The retraction letter seemed to suggest that the supplier of the drugs had switched the labels on two bottles (one containing "ecstasy" and one containing methamphetamine) that were shipped to the Ricaurte lab on the same day.
posted by jamjam at 2:36 PM on November 3, 2007

sour cream: Your colleague has probably already heard the Hitler comparison (often through this email forward). Vegetarians hear that one more than sometimes. Usually, they already think it's stupid, and the ones who deign to reply could point out all the dictators who ate meat. I mean, that retort doesn't make a lot of sense, but if you're trying to annoy people with nonsense, they may as well reply in turn. If your aim is just to be obnoxious, then you'll do it; but if your aim is to be obnoxious in a brand new way, it's not happening.
posted by Coatlicue at 4:00 PM on November 3, 2007

Metafilter: This place is worse than youtube
posted by psmealey at 4:24 PM on November 3, 2007

Speaking of Youtube: Hitler Farts
posted by Xurando at 4:33 PM on November 3, 2007

You know who else was obnoxious in a brand new way?
posted by Citizen Premier at 5:58 PM on November 3, 2007

Oh ho ho, Farty Fartifast.
posted by tehloki at 9:15 AM on November 4, 2007 [1 favorite]

But he only did coke in his eyedrops... what would that do?
About as much as shoveling it up your nose, only faster since it's a more direct route to the brain and doesn't need to be absorbed from powder through the membranes, I'd wager.

And I suspect his medical-grade coke in liquid was no less concentrated than the typical "bought this at a club" cut with whatever street version today.
posted by Kellydamnit at 9:21 AM on November 4, 2007