 (Bockmühl and Ehrhart, 1949) It was brought to market in 1943 and was widely used by the German army during WWII.In the 1930s, pethidine (meperidine) went into production in Germany; however, production of methadone, then being developed under the designation Hoechst 10820, was not carried forward because of side effects discovered in the early research.After the war, all German patents, trade names and research records were requisitioned and expropriated by the Allies.