# Is there actually heroin from the Harz Mountains of Germany? (Pulp Fiction) **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 7, 2018, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-actually-heroin-from-the-harz-mountains-of-germany-pulp-fiction/815594 "2018-06-07T04:14:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lamoral](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lamoral/32/16078_2.png) [@Lamoral](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamoral)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2018, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-actually-heroin-from-the-harz-mountains-of-germany-pulp-fiction/815594/1 "2018-06-07T04:14:57Z")
I always thought it was weird how Vincent Vega’s heroin dealer in _Pulp Fiction_ describes his best heroin as being “from the Harz Mountains in Germany.” Even at whatever age I was when I first saw that movie, I was suspicious. I had never heard of heroin coming from Germany, I always associated heroin/opium with China and the Middle East. The idea of heroin coming from the mountains of Germany seems ridiculous. But is it? Is this an actual thing, or did Tarantino just make it up? ---
**Author:** ![DavidwithanR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3bc359/32.png) [@DavidwithanR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidwithanR)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2018, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-actually-heroin-from-the-harz-mountains-of-germany-pulp-fiction/815594/2 "2018-06-07T04:17:41Z")
I don’t think opium poppies grow there - aren’t the winters pretty cold and the growing season kind of short? Maybe Tarantino just was listening to Brahms’s _Alto Rhapsody_ and saw that it was from _Harzreise im Winter_. Who knows. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2018, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-actually-heroin-from-the-harz-mountains-of-germany-pulp-fiction/815594/3 "2018-06-07T04:48:50Z")
Tarantino may have been making a joke about the historical origins of heroin. Felix Hoffman who discovered\* heroin (and aspirin) did so in a laboratory that was near the Harz Mountains. \*Technically, he re-discovered heroin. An English chemist named Charles Wright had discovered it twenty-three years earlier but he hadn’t followed through on his discovery. ---
**Author:** ![Go\_Arachnid\_Laser\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b2d939/32.png) [@Go\_Arachnid\_Laser\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Go_Arachnid_Laser_1)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2018, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-actually-heroin-from-the-harz-mountains-of-germany-pulp-fiction/815594/4 "2018-06-07T05:14:43Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > \*Technically, he re-discovered heroin. An English chemist named Charles Wright had discovered it twenty-three years earlier but he hadn’t followed through on his discovery. Let me guess: for some mysterious reason, he lost all of his motivation to do anything but stare at the walls scratching himself for hours? ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2018, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-actually-heroin-from-the-harz-mountains-of-germany-pulp-fiction/815594/5 "2018-06-07T12:07:41Z")
Heroin in general manufactured in a different locale than where the opium is produced. Back in the 50s, for example, Italy was a major processing center. Never heard about any area in Germany being a notable producer. It could also intended be the character’s usual salesmanship BS. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2018, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-actually-heroin-from-the-harz-mountains-of-germany-pulp-fiction/815594/6 "2018-06-07T12:13:45Z")
ftg, I think Little Nemo nailed it in his post. By the way, quite a coincidence that the discoverer of LSD was another chemist named Hoffmann, unrelated to Felix. True, the acid guy (Albert) was Swiss, but Felix did die in Switzerland. ETA: Albert was ‘Hofmann,’ one f. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2018, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-actually-heroin-from-the-harz-mountains-of-germany-pulp-fiction/815594/7 "2018-06-07T12:23:21Z")
First of all, there is no reason to think Tarantino had any real location in mind or was trying to describe anything that existed in real life. He may just have had a parakeet. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2018, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-actually-heroin-from-the-harz-mountains-of-germany-pulp-fiction/815594/8 "2018-06-07T13:59:28Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > It could also intended be the character’s usual salesmanship BS. This is my guess. ---
**Author:** ![Mops](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mops/32/16494_2.png) [@Mops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mops)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2018, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-actually-heroin-from-the-harz-mountains-of-germany-pulp-fiction/815594/9 "2018-06-07T18:06:16Z")
By the way in the German version of _Pulp Fiction_ the heroin is from the [Erzgebirge](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ore_Mountains) (probably for reasons of syllable count). Makes as much sense i.e. none. ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2018, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-actually-heroin-from-the-harz-mountains-of-germany-pulp-fiction/815594/10 "2018-06-08T18:52:18Z")
I’ve never heard of the Harz being known to be a source of heroine (much less a particularly praised variety of it), but it certainly is possible, from a climate point of view, to produce it in Germany and neighbouring countries with a similar climate. Austria is a non-negligible producer, as [FAO statistics](http://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#search/Poppy%20seed) indicate. These statistics give you a production of about 3,000 tonnes of poppy seeds in Germany in 2016 (Austria, on a much smaller territory: 2,500 tonnes). The same statistics say that the harvested area of poppy seeds in Germany is about 5,600 hectares, though it does not break it down by regions within Germany. Of course a very different question is how much illegal heroine production is going on in parallel to legal poppy seed production; the stats don’t tell you that, but they do show that it is possible to grow the crop in Central Europe. ---
**Author:** ![anomalous1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e56c9b/32.png) [@anomalous1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anomalous1)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2018, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-actually-heroin-from-the-harz-mountains-of-germany-pulp-fiction/815594/11 "2018-06-09T20:09:30Z")
Eric Stoltz was just ad libbing and making things up because he’s still sour he got removed from Back To The Future (As Marty) for being a dickhead. Just kidding of course, but there is a lot of truth to that. As to the question; nope. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2018, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-actually-heroin-from-the-harz-mountains-of-germany-pulp-fiction/815594/12 "2018-06-09T20:47:30Z")
Everyone knows the best product out of Hartz is dog good. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2018, 10:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-actually-heroin-from-the-harz-mountains-of-germany-pulp-fiction/815594/13 "2018-06-10T10:23:40Z")
> [@Schnitte](#): > > I’ve never heard of the Harz being known to be a source of heroine (much less a particularly praised variety of it), but it certainly is possible, from a climate point of view, to produce it in Germany and neighbouring countries with a similar climate. To what extent does Heroin even have “varieties”? There is chemically pure, pharmaceutical diamorphine, and then there are adulterated street versions with various crap in, but what does it matter where they grow the opium?