I'm also curious about what the vegetarian movement was like at the time.
Hitler was known for being a vegetarian in the 1930s and 1940s, which probably didn't do wonders for its PR. The other famous vegetarian of the time was Kellogg, who was marketing his cereals to do things like lessen masturbation and so on, so there was an element of the snake oil cure to it. Many advocates of vegetarianism were members of Christian sects or Eastern-influenced fringe groups (like Mazdaznan, and, in the Christian vein, Kellogg again). So at the time, it probably had a reputation of being a common symptom of some sort of slightly wacky zealotry and snake oil salesmen/cult leaders, rather than a strictly food-related choice.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2007-03-08 01:03 am (UTC)Hitler was known for being a vegetarian in the 1930s and 1940s, which probably didn't do wonders for its PR. The other famous vegetarian of the time was Kellogg, who was marketing his cereals to do things like lessen masturbation and so on, so there was an element of the snake oil cure to it. Many advocates of vegetarianism were members of Christian sects or Eastern-influenced fringe groups (like Mazdaznan, and, in the Christian vein, Kellogg again). So at the time, it probably had a reputation of being a common symptom of some sort of slightly wacky zealotry and snake oil salesmen/cult leaders, rather than a strictly food-related choice.