Something that always fascinated me (for lack of a better word) about Hitler was the double standards he applied. As the leader of his country, he always portrayed himself as someone with principles. However, he broke those principles—time and time again.
Hitler hated smoking and had been a smoker himself but had stopped at a young age. In 1939, German scientists were the first to identify the link between smoking and lung cancer in the first epidemiological study. After those findings, Germany initiated a strong anti-tobacco movement.
The campaign announced that cigarettes were the enemy of the people and included posters, lectures, psychological counselling, and nicotine gums. As well as methods to make the cigarettes less tasteful by injecting chemicals into the cigarettes. Smoking had become non-Aryan.
However, due to the cigarette’s addictive nature, it created one fact that the Nazis couldn’t ignore—the revenue (ie money).
Smoking cigarettes became a mass phenomenon after World War I and the interwar years. So popular, in fact, that by 1929, the SA decided to set up their own cigarette company in order to create a line of revenue.
The factory operated under the umbrella name ‘ Sturm Zigaretten’ it produced four brands: Trommler, Alarm, Sturm and Neue Front. The latter one was the most expensive brand.
Coercion tactics were used to encourage the sale of these cigarettes. Members of the SA were expected to exclusively smoke Sturm Cigarette Company cigarettes. They were even compelled to only smoke Sturm cigarettes; bags were searched, and if any other brand were found, there would be a fine. The SA was bullied against and punished for using different brands, especially the market leader, Reemtsma. SA gangs attacked shops that sold rival brands.
Sturm Zigaretten first paid dividends to the SA in 1930. By 1932, it had a turnover of 36 million Reichsmarks, and the SA made considerable profits; 1933 saw even higher returns.
No longer allowed to advertise in the Nazi party publication, Reemtsma resulted in a negative income stream for the Nazi party. In June 1932, the head of the company, Philipp Fürchtegott Reemtsma, met with Adolf Hitler, Rudolf Hess, and Max Amann, the head of the Nazi party’s printing house, Eher Verlag. Although Hitler was furious about Reemtsma’s Jewish partners, he did allow them to advertise again.
Reemtsma also had a pending court case in relation to Germany’s oldest cigarette company, Batschari, which went bust. In 1933, Philipp Fürchtegott Reemtsma approached and bribed Hermann Göring to make this court case disappear. Görring agreed to the sum of three million marks; Reemtsma subsequently paid him a million a year, in addition to substantial donations to the Nazi party.
By July 1934, the Night of the Long Knives had removed the threat of the SA.
At this stage, Reemtsma’s Jewish partners had emigrated, along with many of its Jewish employees, with help from the company.
Reemtsma approached the new SA leader, SA-Stabschef Viktor Lutze, to see if a deal could be made. Lutze cancelled the SA’s contract with Sturm Cigarettes and made a deal with Reemtsma in exchange for a fixed sum of 250,000 Reichsmarks to be paid annually. Reemtsma would now produce the SA’s cigarettes. Sturm filed for bankruptcy in 1935.
In 1937, Reemstra merged with Haus Neuerburg cigarettes in Cologne and achieved 65% of the total market share.
Between 1933 and 1939, the firm’s profits increased to 114 Million Reichsmark. In 1939, Philipp F. Reemtsma was promoted to leader of the Fachuntergruppe Zigarettenindustrie part of the National Socialist economy and recognized by Göring as an economic leader.
Cigarettes were distributed free to soldiers, including minors, as part of their pay, and the market continued to rapidly grow.
Forced labour was used by Reemtsma during the war, with prison camps set up at some locations. Reemtsma also used forced labour, including child labour, to harvest tobacco in the Crimea.
By 1941, tobacco taxes made up about a twelfth of state income, and the anti-smoking efforts, which had started two years prior, were being discouraged. In 1942, there was a shortage of tobacco, and two-thirds of all German tobacco factories were shut down. Several factories were converted into armaments factories. Tobacco went on the ration, but despite all of that, Reemtsma remained a profitable entity.
Reemtsma’s financial support of the Nazis was unparalleled among German companies. The SA and other party organizations were given six-figure sums, and the Hitler Youth were given an aircraft.
Reemtsma Cigarettenfabriken GmbH is STILL one of the largest tobacco and cigarette producers in Europe and a subsidiary of Imperial Tobacco. The company’s headquarters are in Hamburg, Germany. Among their brands are famous cigarette names like Gauloises, Davidoff and John Player Special.
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