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How did people enjoy themselves during the Third Reich? In light of the Nazis’ barbarism, the question seems potentially crass. Yet, recent scholarship has revealed multiple forms of entertainment under a dictatorship and the ability of popular amusement to bolster a brutal regime. Whether on cruise ship tours sponsored by the Nazis’ Strength through Joy organization or in drinking Coca-Cola at the 1936 Olympics, Germans who were deemed racially acceptable found multiple opportunities for pleasure, which in turn helped Hitler promote his vision of a volkisch economic and spiritual recovery.1 The year 1933 did not represent a break of such proportions that modern forms of enjoyment — film, music, radio — were altered beyond recognition. The Nazis employed these media both to propagate their ideological vision and to give the public familiar forms of visual and aural satisfaction.2

As we saw in the two preceding chapters, Nazi economic policy was not only centered on putting people back to work and preparing the country for war. It was also about engineering a proper racial and commercial sensibility. In the Nazi marketplace, the state and private companies communicated with Germans in their capacities as consumers, who held symbolic and actual power. Consumers had the ability to withhold support from the regime if the economy remained weak and to undermine a company by not buying its goods. Marketers and the Nazi Advertising Council therefore relied upon a number of tools to both appease and educate consumers. In the Third Reich companies found multiple opportunities for business, but the disparate aims of private industry and the regime created an uneasy tension. Schooling consumers in patience, frugality, and racial difference could be at odds with the desire to move products. Business leaders, who were encouraged to maintain a semblance of normality, were confused about how to implement a National Socialist agenda while protecting their own interests. Who exactly were these business leaders? How did they understand the new ideological terrain on which they operated? This chapter takes a closer look at these individuals – managers, company owners, and economists – and their participation in German Rotary Clubs during the Third Reich in order to understand the milieu in which Nazi ideas about commerce and consumption circulated. In a sense, this chapter uses the example of one civic association to understand the broader social and intellectual context of the Nazis’ market vision. As we will see, business in the Third Reich was not only about maintaining profits and healthy markets. The ascent of National Socialism also gave economic leaders an opportunity to explore their self-understanding as elites and to ask how their unfolding relationship with the consuming masses might be transformed after the tumultuous Weimar years. Nazism challenged them to forge an understanding of modern consumer society that would serve both their business interests and the Volksgemeinschaft. In their weekly conversations and debates, these bourgeois gentlemen breathed life into the ideas about achievement, trust, and virtuous economic behavior that were the hallmarks of the Nazi marketplace.

When the Nazis came to power in 1933, they promised to build a vibrant consumer society. But they faced a dilemma. They recognized that consolidating support for the regime required providing Germans with the products they desired. At the same time, the Nazis worried about the degrading cultural effects of mass consumption and its association with 'Jewish' interests. This book examines how both the state and private companies sought to overcome this predicament. Drawing on a wide range of sources - advertisements, exhibition programs, films, consumer research and marketing publications - the book traces the ways National Socialists attempted to create their own distinctive world of buying and selling. At the same time, it shows how corporate leaders and everyday Germans navigated what S. Jonathan Wiesen calls 'the Nazi marketplace'. A groundbreaking work that combines cultural, intellectual and business history, Creating the Nazi Marketplace offers an innovative interpretation of commerce and ideology in the Third Reich.

The sheer intensity and violence of Germany’s twentieth century—through the end of an empire, two world wars, two democracies, and two dictatorships—provide a unique opportunity to assess the power and endurance of commercial imagery in the most extreme circumstances. Selling Modernity places advertising and advertisements in this tumultuous historical setting, exploring such themes as the relationship between advertising and propaganda in Nazi Germany, the influence of the United States on German advertising, the use of advertising to promote mass consumption in West Germany, and the ideological uses and eventual prohibition of advertising in East Germany. While the essays are informed by the burgeoning literature on consumer society, Selling Modernity focuses on the actors who had the greatest stake in successful merchandising: company managers, advertising executives, copywriters, graphic artists, market researchers, and salespeople, all of whom helped shape the depiction of a company’s products, reputation, and visions of modern life. The contributors consider topics ranging from critiques of capitalism triggered by the growth of advertising in the 1890s to the racial politics of Coca-Cola’s marketing strategies during the Nazi era, and from the post-1945 career of an erotica entrepreneur to a federal anti-drug campaign in West Germany. Whether analyzing the growing fascination with racialized discourse reflected in early-twentieth-century professional advertising journals or the postwar efforts of Lufthansa to lure holiday and business travelers back to a country associated with mass murder, the contributors reveal advertising’s central role in debates about German culture, business, politics, and society. Contributors . Shelley Baranowski, Greg Castillo, Victoria de Grazia, Guillaume de Syon, Holm Friebe, Rainer Gries, Elizabeth Heineman, Michael Imort, Anne Kaminsky, Kevin Repp , Corey Ross, Jeff Schutts, Robert P. Stephens, Pamela E. Swett, S. Jonathan Wiesen, Jonathan R. Zatlin

The incidence of kidney stones in adults has increased in the last 30 years. This retrospective, single site review was done to test the hypotheses that the incidence of urolithiasis in pediatric patients increased from 1994 to 2005, and that metabolic abnormalities were more common in patients with renal stones in the final 3 years of the study period.Charts from 2 time periods were reviewed, 1994 to 1996 (period 1) and 2003 to 2005 (period 2). Clinical and laboratory data, including demographics, presenting complaints, laboratory assessment, treatment and outcome, were tabulated in patients with confirmed urolithiasis.The number of patients with urolithiasis increased from 7 in period 1 to 61 in period 2. When expressed as cases per 100 new patients the incidence increased 4.6 times (p = 0.014). Focusing on period 2, 28% of patients were younger than 10 years. While blood tests were generally normal, 76% of patients had at least 1 abnormality in the 24-hour urine collection. Hypocitraturia, which was the most common metabolic abnormality, was noted in 52% of patients. The small number of patients in period 1 precluded determination as to whether metabolic abnormalities were more common in period 2. Surgery and/or lithotripsy was required in 12 children. Stone disease recurred in 39% of the patients.The incidence of urolithiasis in the pediatric population increased nearly 5-fold at our institution during the last decade. We recommend that the primary diagnostic test be a 24-hour urine collection. The most common metabolic abnormality was hypocitraturia, followed by hypercalciuria. Recurrence of stones is common (approximately 40% rate) and followup is advised.

For historians of postwar Germany and America, writing about “business relations” poses a formidable challenge. Although such a study might begin with a focus on finance and trade, one quickly discovers that “business” always transcends the realm of the economy proper. After 1945, transatlantic business relations were not only about trade or corporate partnerships, they were also about the transmission of mentalities and ideas. Postwar business relations entailed a collection of “sociopolitical,” “socioeconomic,” and “sociocultural interlacings.” Whether over a glass of wine or at a seminar on management strategies, whether in New York or in Frankfurt, American and West German businessmen met regularly to forge a vibrant transatlantic relationship. Corporate executives, company managers, economic publicists, and entrepreneurs came together to discuss not only business ventures and export statistics but also the political developments in both countries, the spiritual condition of “the West,” and the nature of democracy and totalitarianism. If we could eavesdrop on these private dialogues from 1945 to 1968, we would discover that West German and American businessmen were not immune to the broader preoccupations of the postwar period.

Hereditary angioedema (HAE) is an autosomal dominant disorder characterised by attacks of self-limited swelling affecting extremities, face and intra-abdominal organs, most often caused by mutations in the C1-inhibitor gene with secondary Bradykinin-mediated increased vascular permeability. We describe a 36-year-old man with a history of HAE who presented with painful interdigital bullae secondary to an acute oedema exacerbation. Biopsy and cultures of the lesions were negative and they resolved spontaneously. It is important to highlight and recognise the development of oedema blisters after resolution of a flare of HAE (only 1 previous case report), and hence avoid unnecessary dermatological diagnostic workup and treatment.

It has been fifty years since German industrialists stood trial for war crimes in Nuremberg. In this period, countless volumes have been published about every aspect of the big business / Nazi relationship—from the rise of Hitler, to Nazi economics, to rearmament and forced labor, to prosecution, denazification, and dismantling after 1945.1 Of all the branches of German business, the chemical industry—by virtue of the powerfully compromised I.G. Farben—has received the most scrutiny. Much of this can be attributed to both the popular allure and the ideological utility of the I.G. story.2 In films and in television specials, in popular anti-business tracts and in scholarly literature, I.G. Farben has been invoked repeatedly as a study in technology’s dark side. The world’s greatest chemists and industrialists, whether willfully or cravenly, whether as individuals or as “capitalists,” are transformed into the accomplices of an evil regime. Notwithstanding the often exaggerated, fable-like quality of I.G. Farben’s history, the links between the chemical trust and National Socialism are real and well documented.3

To the Editor: Aplastic anemia is a rare but documented side affect of mesalamine. Typically, occurring months to years after initial exposure, its diagnosis is difficult to make and is generally one of the exclusion. Most patients present with septic shock or with a complication of an infection. Mortality in mesalazine-induced aplastic anemia is exceptionally high.

Background Critical illness due to 2009 H1N1 influenza has been characterized by respiratory complications, including acute lung injury (ALI) or acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), and associated with high mortality. We studied the severity, outcomes, and hospital charges of patients with ALI/ARDS secondary to pandemic influenza A infection compared with ALI and ARDS from other etiologies. Methods A retrospective review was conducted that included patients admitted to the Cleveland Clinic MICU with ALI/ARDS and confirmed influenza A infection, and all patients admitted with ALI/ARDS from any other etiology from September 2009 to March 2010. An itemized list of individual hospital charges was obtained for each patient from the hospital billing office and organized by billing code into a database. Continuous data that were normally distributed are presented as the mean ± SD and were analyzed by the Student’s t test. The chi-square and Fisher exact tests were used to evaluate differences in proportions between patient subgroups. Data that were not normally distributed were compared with the Wilcoxon rank-sum test. Results Forty-five patients were studied: 23 in the H1N1 group and 22 in the noninfluenza group. Mean ± SD age was similar (44 ± 13 and 51 ± 17 years, respectively, p = 0.15). H1N1 patients had lower APACHE III scores (66 ± 20 vs. 89 ± 32, p = 0.015) and had higher Pplat and PEEP on days 1, 3, and 14. Hospital and ICU length of stay and duration of mechanical ventilation were comparable. SOFA scores over the first 2 weeks in the ICU indicate more severe organ failure in the noninfluenza group (p = 0.017). Hospital mortality was significantly higher in the noninfluenza group (77 vs. 39%, p = 0.016). The noninfluenza group tended to have higher overall charges, including significantly higher cost of blood products in the ICU. Conclusions ALI/ARDS secondary to pandemic influenza infection is associated with more severe respiratory compromise but has lower overall acuity and better survival rates than ALI/ARDS due to other causes. Higher absolute charges in the noninfluenza group are likely due to underlying comorbid medical conditions.