Theodor Morell: Hitler’s Particularly Odious Physician

Despised by many of his associates, Doctor Theodor Morell was the man responsible for Hitler’s health.

Written by Greg Beyer, BA History & Linguistics, Journalism Diploma

Adolf Hitler accrued a vast circle of close followers during his time in power. These men were powerful, and all had a hand in the atrocities committed in the name of the Reich. Of course, they didn’t all get along with each other.

Doctor Theodor Morell was one such character who gained a lot of negative opinions. He was seen as a boorish man with little interest in his own personal hygiene. He was also responsible for the health and well-being of Adolf Hitler, who rarely hesitated to sing his praises.

An oft-overlooked man in the story of Nazi Germany, Theodor Morell is remembered as one of the most self-serving and careless doctors in history, as much of his treatment turned the Führer into a hopeless drug addict, maddened by complex cocktails of drugs administered by his favored physician.

The Early Life of Theodor Morell

Theodor Gilbert Morell was born in the town of Trains-Münzenberg in the state of Hesse in central Germany on July 22, 1886. His father was a primary school teacher, and his mother came from a family of successful farmers. He was a middle child with an older brother, Adolf, and a younger sister, Emilie.

As a child, he suffered from chronic stomach pain, a problem that also affected Adolf Hitler in the 1930s. It was this complaint for which Theodor would be hired by the leader of the Third Reich.

Theodor was a brilliant student. He excelled in secondary school and was exempted from having to take oral exams on account of the quality of his written work. After school, he trained as a teacher and taught near Frankfurt am Main and then for one year in Bretzenheim near Mainz. Meanwhile, he studied medicine at the University of Heidelberg, where he achieved top marks in his class.

After his studies in Heidelberg, he moved to France, where he studied medicine in Grenoble and Paris. He then moved back to Germany, where he followed up his education by studying obstetrics and gynecology in Munich. He eventually finished his doctoral degree in May 1913 and became registered as a licensed physician after writing his dissertation on gynecology.

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