If you think Berlin runs on nothing but Club-Mate and techno today, you should have seen it in 1938. Long before the chemically-enhanced weekends at Berghain, Berlin was the birthplace of a different kind of miracle: Pervitin.

Synthesized right here in Berlin at Temmler-Werke in Adlershof, Pervitin was methamphetamine marketed as a harmless pick-me-up. It wasn't just for soldiers; it was for everyone. Housekeepers used it to breeze through chores, students used it to cram for exams, and Berlin’s famous Hildebrand chocolates were even infused with it, 14mg of meth per box. Enough to run a small power plant.

When the Wehrmacht rolled into France in 1940, they weren’t just motivated, they were wired. The military ordered 35 million doses of the stuff to keep soldiers marching for 72 hours without sleep. Behind the Nazi propaganda of Purity was a high-functioning drug culture that achieved some of the most astonishing victories in history, the Blitzkrieg, but paid for it with interest as the war progressed.

Walking through Berlin today, the traces of this chemical history are hidden in plain sight. From the site of the Reich Chancellery, where Hitler received his daily cocktail of injections from Dr. Morell, to the quiet remains of the factories that produced it, the city is a map of addiction.