The Nazi Party was a political party in Germany, led by Adolf Hitler from 1921 to 1945, whose

central tenets included the supremacy of the Aryan people and blaming Jews and others for the
problems within Germany. These extreme beliefs eventually led to World War II and
the Holocaust. At the end of World War II, the Nazi Party was declared illegal by the occupying
Allied Powers and officially ceased to exist in May 1945.
(The name Nazi is actually a shortened version of the partys full name:Nationalsozialistische
Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP, which translates to National Socialist German Workers
Party.)

Party Beginnings
In the immediate post-World-War-I period, Germany was the scene of widespread political
infighting between groups representing the far left and far right. The Weimar Republic (the
name of the German government from the end of WWI to 1933) was struggling as a result of its
tarnished birth accompanied by the Treaty of Versailles and the fringe groups sought to take
advantage of this political unrest.
It was in this environment that a locksmith, Anton Drexler, joined together with his journalist
friend, Karl Harrer, and two other individuals (journalist Dietrich Eckhart and German
economist Gottfried Feder) to create a right-wing political party, the German Workers Party, on
January 5, 1919. The partys founders had strong anti-Semitic and nationalist underpinnings
and sought to promote a paramilitary Friekorps culture that would target the scourge of
communism.
Adolf Hitler Joins the Party
After his service in the German Army (Reichswehr) during World War I, Adolf Hitler had difficulty
re-integrating into civilian society. He eagerly accepted a job serving the Army as a civilian spy
and informant, a task that required him to attend meetings of German political parties identified
as subversive by the newly formed Weimar government.
This job appealed to Hitler, particularly because it allowed him to feel that was still serving a
purpose to the military for which he would have eagerly given his life. On September 12, 1919,
this position took him to a meeting of the German Workers Party (DAP).
Hitlers superiors had previously instructed him to remain quiet and simply attend these
meetings as a non-descript observer, a role he was able to accomplish with success until this
meeting. Following a discussion on Feders views against capitalism, an audience member
questioned Feder and Hitler quickly rose to his defense.

No longer anonymous, Hitler was approached after the meeting by Drexler who asked Hitler to
join the party. Hitler accepted, resigned from his position with the Reichswehr and became
member #555 of the German Workers Party. (In reality, Hitler was the 55th member, Drexler
added the 5 prefix to the early membership cards to make the party appear larger than it was in
those years.)

Hitler Becomes Party Leader

Hitler quickly became a force to be reckoned with in the party. He was appointed to be a
member of the partys central committee and in January 1920, he was appointed by Drexler to
be the partys Chief of Propaganda.
A month later, Hitler organized a party rally in Munich that was attended by over 2000 people.
Hitler made a famous speech at this event outlining the newly created, 25-point platform of the
party. This platform was drawn up by Drexler, Hitler, and Feder. (Harrer, feeling increasingly left
out, resigned from the party in February 1920.)
The new platform emphasized the partys volkisch nature of promoting a unified national
community of pure Aryan Germans. It placed blame for the nations struggles on immigrants
(mainly Jews and Eastern Europeans) and stressed excluding these groups from the benefits of
a unified community that thrived under nationalized, profit-sharing enterprises instead of
capitalism. The platform also called for over-turning the tenants of the Treaty of Versailles, and
re-instating the power of the German military that Versailles had severely restricted.
With Harrer now out and the platform defined, the group decided to add in the word Socialist
into their name, becoming the National Socialist German Workers Party (Nationalsozialistische
Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP) in 1920.
Membership in party rose rapidly, reaching over 2,000 registered members by the end of 1920.
Hitlers powerful speeches were credited with attracting many of these new members. It was
because of his impact that party members were deeply troubled by his resignation from the
party in July 1921 following a movement within the group to merge with the German Socialist
Party (a rival party who had some overlapping ideals with the DAP).
When the dispute was resolved, Hitler rejoined the party at the end of July and was elected
party leader two days later on July 28, 1921.

Beer Hall Putsch

Hitlers influence on the Nazi Party continued to draw members. As the party grew, Hitler also
began to shift his focus more strongly towards antisemitic views and German expansionism.
Germanys economy continued to decline and this helped increase party membership. By the
fall of 1923, over 20,000 people were members of the Nazi Party. Despite Hitlers success,
other politicians within Germany did not respect him. Soon, Hitler would take action that they
could not ignore.
In the fall of 1923, Hitler decided to take the government by force through a putsch (coup). The
plan was to first take over the Bavarian government and then the German federal government.
On November 8, 1923, Hitler and his men attacked a beer hall where Bavarian-government
leaders were meeting. Despite the element of surprise and machine guns, the plan was soon
foiled. Hitler and his men then decided to march down the streets but were soon shot at by the
German military.
The group quickly disbanded, with a few dead and a number injured. Hitler was later caught,
arrested, tried, and sentenced to five years at Landsberg Prison. Hitler, however, only served
eight months, during which time he wrote Mein Kampf.
As a result of the Beer Hall Putsch, the Nazi Party was also banned in Germany.

The Party Begins Again

Although the party was banned, members continued to operate under the mantle of the
German Party between 1924 and 1925, with the ban officially ending on February 27, 1925.
On that day, Hitler, who had been released from prison in December 1924, re-founded the Nazi
Party.
With this fresh start, Hitler redirected the partys emphasis toward strengthening their power via
the political arena rather than the paramilitary route. The party also now had a structured
hierarchy with a section for general members and a more elite group known as the Leadership
Corps. Admission into the latter group was through special invitation from Hitler.
The party re-structuring also created a new position of Gauleiter, which were regional leaders
that were tasked with building party support in their specified areas of Germany. A second
paramilitary group was also created, the Schutzstaffel (SS), which served as the special
protection unit for Hitler and his inner circle.

Collectively, the party sought success via the state and federal parliamentary elections, but this
success was slow to come to fruition.

National Depression Fuels Nazi Rise

The burgeoning Great Depression in the United States soon spread throughout the world.
Germany was one of the worst countries to be affected by this economic domino effect and the
Nazis benefitted from the rise in both inflation and unemployment in the Weimar Republic.
These problems led Hitler and his followers to begin a broader campaign for public support of
their economic and political strategies, blaming both the Jews and communists for their
countrys backward slide.
By 1930, with Joseph Goebbels working as the partys chief of propaganda, the German
populace was really starting to listen to Hitler and the Nazis.
In September 1930, the Nazi Party captured 18.3% of the vote for the Reichstag (German
parliament). This made the party the second-most influential political party in Germany, with
only the Social Democratic Party holding more seats in the Reichstag.
Over the course of the next year and a half, the Nazi Partys influence continued to grow and in
March 1932, Hitler ran a surprisingly successful presidential campaign against aged World War I
hero, Paul Von Hindenburg. Although Hitler lost the election, he captured an impressive 30% of
the vote in the first round of the elections, forcing a run-off election during which he captured
36.8%.

Hitler Becomes Chancellor

The Nazi Partys strength within the Reichstag continued to grow following Hitlers presidential
run. In July 1932, an election was held following a coup on the Prussian state government. The
Nazis captured their highest number of votes yet, winning 37.4% of the seats in the Reichstag.
The party now held the majority of the seats in the parliament. The second largest party, the
German Communist Party (KPD), held only 14% of the seats. This made it difficult for the
government to operate without the support of a majority coalition. From this point forward, the
Weimar Republic began a rapid decline.

In an attempt to rectify the difficult political situation, Chancellor Fritz von Papen dissolved the
Reichstag in November 1932 and called for a new election. He hoped that support for both of
these parties would drop below 50% total and that the government would then be able to form a
majority coalition to strengthen itself.
Although the support for the Nazis did decline to 33.1%, the NDSAP and KDP still retained over
50% of the seats in the Reichstag, much to Papens chagrin. This event also fueled the Nazis
desire to seize power once and for all, and set in motion the events that would lead to Hitlers
appointment as chancellor.
A weakened and desperate Papen decided that his best strategy was to elevate the Nazi leader
to the position of chancellor so that he, himself, could maintain a role in the disintegrating
government. With the support of media magnet Alfred Hugenberg, and new chancellor Kurt von
Schleicher, Papen convinced President Hindenburg that placing Hitler into the role of chancellor
would be the best way to contain him.
The group believed that if Hitler were given this position then they, as members of his cabinet,
could keep his right-wing policies in check. Hindenburg reluctantly agreed to the political
maneuvering and on January 30, 1933, officially appointed Adolf Hitler as the chancellor of
Germany.

The Dictatorship Begins

On February 27, 1933, less than a month after Hitlers appointment as Chancellor, a mysterious
fire destroyed the Reichstag building. The government, under the influence of Hitler, was quick
to label the fire arson and place the blame on the communists.
Ultimately, five members of the Communist Party were put on trial for the fire and one, Marinus
van der Lubbe, was executed in January 1934 for the crime. Today, many historians believe that
the Nazis set the fire themselves so that Hitler would have a pretense for the events that
followed the fire.
On February 28, at the urging of Hitler, President Hindenburg passed the Decree for the
Protection of the People and the State. This emergency legislation extended the Decree for the
Protection of the German People, passed on February 4. It largely suspended the civil liberties
of the German people claiming that this sacrifice was necessary for personal and state safety.

Once this Reichstag Fire Decree was passed, Hitler used it as an excuse to raid the offices of
the KPD and arrest their officials, rendering them nearly useless despite the results of the next
election.
The last free election in Germany took place on March 5, 1933. In that election, members of
the SA flanked the entrances of polling stations, creating an atmosphere of intimidation that led
to the Nazi Party capturing their highest vote total to-date, 43.9% of the votes.
The Nazis were followed in the polls by the Social Democratic Party with 18.25% of the vote and
the KPD, which received 12.32% of the vote. It was not surprising that the election, which
occurred as a result of Hitlers urging to dissolve and reorganize the Reichstag, garnered these
results.
This election was also significant because the Catholic Centre Party captured 11.9% and the
German National Peoples Party (DNVP), led by Alfred Hugenberg, won 8.3% of the vote.
These parties joined together with Hitler and the Bavarian Peoples Party, which held 2.7% of
the seats in the Reichstag, to create the two-thirds majority that Hitler needed to pass the
Enabling Act.
Enacted on March 23, 1933, the Enabling Act was one of the final steps on Hitlers path to
becoming a dictator; it amended the Weimar constitution to allow Hitler and his cabinet to pass
laws without Reichstag approval.
From this point forward, the German government functioned without input from the other parties
and the Reichstag, which now met in the Kroll Opera House, was rendered useless. Hitler was
now fully in control of Germany.

World War II and the Holocaust

Conditions for minority political and ethnic groups continued to deteriorate in Germany. The
situation worsened after President Hindenburgs death in August 1934, which allowed Hitler to
combine the positions of president and chancellor into the supreme position of Fhrer.
With the official creation of the Third Reich, Germany was now on a path to war and attempted
racial domination. On September 1, 1939 Germany invaded Poland and World War II began.

As the war spread throughout Europe, Hitler and his followers also increased their campaign
against European Jewry and others that they had deemed undesirable. Occupation brought a
large amount of Jews under German control and as a result, the Final Solution was created and
implemented; leading to the death of over six million Jews and five million others during an event
known as the Holocaust.
Although the events of the war initially went in Germanys favor with the use of their powerful
Blitzkrieg strategy, the tide changed in the winter of early 1943 when the Russians stopped their
Eastern progress at the Battle of Stalingrad.
Over 14 months later, German prowess in Western Europe ended with the Allied invasion at
Normandy during D-Day. In May 1945, just eleven months after D-day, the war in Europe
officially ended with the defeat of Nazi Germany and the death of its leader, Adolf Hitler.

Conclusion

At the end of World War II, the Allied Powers officially banned the Nazi Party in May 1945.
Although many high-ranking Nazi officials were put on trial during a series of post-war trials in
the years following the conflict, the vast majority of rank and file party members were never
prosecuted for their beliefs.
Today, the Nazi party remains illegal in Germany and several other European countries, but
underground Neo-Nazi units have grown in number. In America, the Neo-Nazi movement is
frowned upon but not illegal and it continues to attract members.