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Germany’s Non-War Against Smoking and
the Tobacco Policy of the European Union
This article explores why Germany lags in tobacco control legislation domestically and
why it has fought against European Union proposals to reduce the smoking rate and thus
the premature mortality rate by banning tobacco advertising, a step that has been adopted
by many OECD countries. We explain the opposition of Germany to this public health
measure by focusing on the close political ties between tobacco companies and the
political elite, and by exploring the Nazi legacy on the field of public health.
Introduction
The puzzle we want to explore is why Germany, in spite of its superb record in
environmental policy and health care, has systematically thwarted measures to reduce
smoking rates. At this point, thousands of large-scale epidemiological findings
demonstrate a relationship between smoking and disease. Moreover, unlike alcohol, there
is no safe amount of smoking. Cigarettes kill, and smoking is the single largest source of
preventable death. By various estimates, tobacco kills 500,000 Europeans per year,
including 120,000 Germans. Globally, in the years 2025 to 2030, smoking will kill 7
million people in the developing world and 3 million in the industrialized world. No
other consumer product is as dangerous as tobacco, which kills more people than AIDS,
legal and illegal drugs, road accidents, murder, and suicide combined.
1
The political controversy over cigarette production and usage has increased over
time, for the stakes are high. Cigarette production is concentrated in a few extremely
large international companies and is very profitable. Philip Morris (renamed Altria) has
an annual worldwide turnover of tobacco and other products that exceeds the gross
Convention