The "Wonder Girls"

"The worst thing is they took away from me the opportunity to ever know if I could have won the gold medals without the steroids. That's the greatest betrayal of all." ~Rica Reinisch; retired East German Olympic swimmer


All Humans were born with a competitive drive to be the best for as long as our existence. The thought of a product that had the ability to make oneself the best, would naturally create an eruption; and this is what happened exactly. Anabolic steroids, first introduced in the 1930’s, were designed to mentally and physically develop that athlete’s fantasy. Anabolic steroids first began in weight lifting in the 1950’s, but throughout just a couple decades, the use of them increased between other sports as well. And later were anabolic steroids not just used for men, but were eventually taken by women too.

In 1976, the Summer Olympics were taken place in Montreal, Canada. Private labs in East Germany have been producing steroids along with other muscle-strengthening pills. The Germans, being a strong and successful country, were determined to beat the United States, let alone the world, in the Olympics that year. In order to accomplish this goal, the East Germans had to do something different from anyone else that would allow the athletes to push and strengthen their bodies more than what was known to man at that time. The answer was steroids. Without permission by the adolescents’ parents and the adolescents themselves, the intense East German coaches fed the women swimmers up to 30 pills of steroids every day during their multiple daily practices. Their goal was to end up with swimmers who were better and stronger than any other swimmer on the planet by the time they were fully grown, the only problem being that by the time they were fully grown they would have had several temporary, and permanent, affects from taking the steroids (deepened voice, irregular menstrual cycles, facial hair, cancer, heart disease, liver damage, and others). The coaches knew of the “benefits” of the drug, but little did they know about the incredibly negative side of taking them.

By the time the 1976 Summer Olympics came, the German coaches already planned to stop taking the anabolic steroids two weeks prior to the drug testing required for entering the competition. Fortunately to the Germans, none of the women swimmers were tested positive for the drug testing because of their extreme precautions. It was clear to all the athletes across the world that something was being done to the German swimmers because of the massive size of their muscles and deepened voice making the swimmers seem like men.The East German women swimmers won eleven out of the thirteen medals, while altogether taking home forty-six medals; six more than the United States.

At the time, anabolic steroids may have seemed like the ultimate answer, but years later most of the East German women swimmers have either died from multiple cancers and liver problems, or still live today with wretched side effects. During an interview with former U.S. Olympic swimmer Wendy Boglioli, she was encountered with Heidi Krieger, now Andreas Krieger, who had a complete sex change because of how much she was mistaken as a man and even felt more comfortable as a man as a result from the damage of the steroids. But what’s most shocking is even though most of the swimmers suffered the side effects, one woman stated that she was tempted to take the drugs at the time if it made her faster. This explains exactly why the statistics of teenagers alone using anabolic steroids has increased drastically since the introduction of the drug. Although anabolic steroids are far more negative than positive from an average person, to desperate athletes willing to do anything for success in their sport it seems like “the final solution.” Since steroids have been introduced to the world of athletics, the bar of expectation has been raised even further putting a greater amount of pressure on the athletes. Competition may have a strong contribution to human society, but is it worth risking your life?

Germany's Chase for Oil

“He who owns the oil will own the world, for he will rule the sea by means of the heavy oils, the air by means of the ultra-refined fuels, and the land means of gasoline and the illuminating oils.”
~Henri Berenger 1921


It is said that money makes the world go ‘round. Generally speaking this is true, but since 1908 when a mass of oil was discovered in Persia, now known as Iran, oil has been one of the most controversial and sought-after resources in the world. Although Germany first began to use tanks, planes, and machine guns in World War I, this was extremely tedious war, centering on trench warfare, with a minimal need for oil. Once Germany began World War II, the demand for oil sky-rocketed due to the oil-based machinery used in Germany’s quick and efficient military tactic called Blitzkrieg . The insatiable need for oil rapidly became a much greater obstacle to the success of the Third Reich’s ongoing war campaign, overshadowing Hitler’s initial goal of exterminating the Jews (Anti-Semitism). Within three years of the start of the war, Germany nearly ran out of oil. Because of this unceasing issue, it eventually resulted in Germany’s defeat.

Hitler’s plans to conquer Europe started by going east to Poland and north from there. After two full years of conquering nearly every country in Europe, the supply of oil for Germany was decreasing rapidly. Even though Blitzkrieg (also referred to as “lightening war”) was an incredibly fast and effective tactic, it required massive amounts of oil. In cases such as Germany’s battles against small, weak countries, Blitzkrieg was more efficient because of the shorter time period required to conquer each country. This approach worked perfectly as planned until the Battle of Britain. Since the battles between Germany and each previous country had been kept to a minimal two to three month time frame, the nearly year-long Battle of Britain wiped out most of Germany’s oil supply. Although the continuous use of Blitzkrieg was effective once Germany won the battle, Hitler realized that he needed to find more dependable and abundant sources of oil.

After the Battle of Britain, Hitler’s focus went immediately to conquering Iran, which contained vast, amounts of oil. At the outbreak of World War II, both Great Britain and the Soviet Union laid claim to the Middle East, including the vast stores of Iranian oil. Hitler then created a plan to conquer Iran by successfully executing critical battles in four theaters: Moscow, Leningrad, Stalingrad and Northern Africa. The first of the four battles began at the Battle of Leningrad on September 8, 1941 . Only a month later, troops were then sent to Moscow, and for three full months Germany fought through bitter winter weather until it became too much for the German soldiers to handle. While Hitler’s troops were rapidly dying off due to starvation and extreme weather, the Soviets became even stronger. On January 7, 1942 Germany surrendered, ending the Leningrad campaign. By the end of these two battles, Germany’s resources were nearly exhausted. By winter of 1942, Germany hoped that they would have a chance to defeat the Soviets at Stalingrad. The Commander of Germany’s sixth army, General Paulus, was ordered by Hitler to establish control over the oil fields in the Caucasus Mountains. But after nearly four months, the Soviets defeated the Germans.

For over two years, Hitler and the German army attempted to secure oil in the Middle East, losing hundreds of thousands of men in the process. In a war which Germany originally directed their focus to seizing the world, in the end resulted in only trying to obtain the resources in order for them to succeed. Hitler needed to conquer several countries primarily to provide Germany with an ongoing supply of oil, detracting from the initial goal of world domination. Because of the fact Germany's focus after two years became primarily on oil, Hitler's success came to an extreme halt. Because of this continuous fight for oil, the triple defeat over the Germans by the USSR was not only understandable, but readily anticipated. In the end, a great part of the war effort had been dedicated to key battles against the Soviet Union and the search for oil, eventually putting global conquest out of Hitler’s reach.