In an effort to make its front-line soldiers and fighter pilots fight longer, harder, and with less concern for individual safety, the German army ordered them to take military-issue pills made from methamphetamine and a primarily cocaine-based stimulant. Pervitin, a methamphetamine drug newly developed by the Berlin-based Temmler pharmaceutical company, first entered the civilian market in 1938; it quickly became a top seller among the German population. The drug was brought to the attention of Ranke, at the time a military doctor and director of the Institute for General and Defense Physiology at Berlin's Academy of Military Medicine.[4] The effects of amphetamines are similar to those of the adrenaline produced by the body, triggering a heightened state of alert.