The National Socialist German Workers Party

Not many people know that the Nazi or NSDAP political party existed prior to

Adolf Hitler’s rule in Germany. This paper will provide the history of this group, from its beginning, to the Hitler years and after World War II.

In 1918, a political party called the Freier Ausschuss für einen deutschen Arbeiterfrieden or the “Free Committee for a German Workers’ Peace” was created in Bremen, Germany. Anton Drexler, a worker and poet, formed a separate group on

March 7, 1918, in Munich, Germany. Later in 1919, Drexler, with Gottfried Feder, Dietrich Eckart and Karl Harrer, changed its name to the Deutsche Arbeiterpartei aka “German Workers’ Party” with the abbreviation of DAP.

This party was one of several Volkisch movements in Germany after their defeat in World War I. Their beliefs consisted of patriotism for German folklore, local history and a “back to the land” anti-urban Populism. Populist groups gain members by their political philosophy that says government should put people first. Populists usually concentrate on the economic, social and common sense concerns of the average person to gain popularity. Their stand says that the common man is oppressed by the wealthy and they promise to stand up to corporate power and corrupt elites. Sometimes these groups promoted racism and usually appealed to a specific class such as the working class, middle class or farmers and often claimed to represent the majority of the people.

As the Volkisch movement evolved it sometimes combined “racial adoration” and anti-Semitism, and included ideas of anti-communist, anti-capitalist, anti-immigration, and anti-Parlimentarian principles. These ideas lead up to the development of Nazism.

In a move that would later change the course of the World, German army intelligence sent a young corporal by the name of Adolf Hitler to monitor DAP party activities. During his investigations, he became impressed by what he saw and joined as Member Number 555, membership began at 500 to make it look bigger than it really was, and the 7th member of the central committee. At that time, Hitler attempted to change the name of the DAP to the “Social Revolutionary Party” however on February 24th, 1920, the party was renamed Deutsche Nationalsozialistische Arbeiterpartei hence the abbreviation of NSDAP or the Nazi Party.

On July 28th, 1921 Adolph Hitler became Nazi Party chairman and immediately began to change the Nazi Party to a radical and revolutionary organization by using fear, intimidation and violent attacks on other political parties to expand the Nazi Party. He was assisted with the help of “Sturmabteilung” or storm troopers founded by Hans Ulrich Klintzsch. At this time the Nazi Party was located mostly in Munich, Bavaria.