Document de7048KG6MbEYQvrwMRJ68Zb

228 CHAPTER 6 twelve years of Hitler's rule than in the postwar climate of a di vided Germany. Even today, the German antitobacco movement has not sur passed the activism and seriousness of the climax years of 19391941. Tobacco health research is muted, and it is not hard to imag ine that memories of the earlier generation's activism must have helped to perpetuate the silence. Popular memory of Nazi tobacco temperance may well have handicapped the postwar German anti tobacco movement, though this would have to be explored as a topic in its own right. It does seems to have shaped how we regard the history of the science involved: the myth that English and American scientists were first to show that smoking causes lung cancer (Richard Doll was knighted for his work in this area) was a convenient one--both for scholars in the victorious nations and for Germans trying to forget the immediate past. The hoary specter of fascism is perhaps healthier than we are willing to admit. Reemtsma's Forbidden Fruit I do not want to exaggerate Nazi success in combating tobacco. Tobacco consumption grew dramatically during the first six or seven years of Nazi rule (see table 6.1 and figs. 6.21 and 6.22), a consequence of the post-1933 economic boom but also evidence that whatever propaganda may have been launched seems to have had--at least in these early years--little or no effect on habits. Table 6.1 Cigarette Consumption, per Capita per Year Year 1930 1935 1940 1944 Germany 490 510 1,022 743 U.S. 1,485 1,564 1,976 3,039 Year 1950 1955 1960 1963 Germany 460 866 1,280 1,523 U.S. 3,552 3,597 4,171 4345 Sources: "Rauchen: Wie Gut," Der Spiegel, January 22,1964, p. 61; Economic Research Service, U.S. Dept, of Agriculture. American figures are per capita for persons 18 and over. THE CAMPAIGN AGAINST TOBACCO 229 Legte man die 748Hili\ardsn Zigaretten nebensinander. so ergaben si eindand von 564 000 km Lange und wurden 15mal um den Aqoator reichen Man konnte auch einen Mplad von 93 cm Breile rund um die Erde damit belegen DieimRecnnunqsjahr 1940/41 verrauchten lOMilliorden Zigarren wurden ibr em belander zu beiden Seiten ausreichm Fig. 6.21. "Germany's Cigarette Consumption: Numbers That Make You Think." Caption below reads: "If you placed the 74.8 billion cigarettes [smoked by Germans in fiscal year 1940/41] end to end, this would extend for 564,000 kilometers and circle the earth fifteen times. Alternatively, you could build a footpath 93 cm wide all the way around the earth. The ten billion cigars smoked in 1940/41 would be enough to make a railing on both sides." From: Reine Luft 23 (1941): 191.