These men, Anton Drexler, Dietrich Eckart and Gottfried Feder, firmly and adamantly upheld the idea of right wing politics. They fervently upheld the Nationalist, racist, anti-Semitic, anti-capitalist, anti-communist outlook and were intractably determined to see a return to pre-war Germany. On January 5th 1919, they founded and initiated the Deutsche Arbeiterpartei DAP, better known as the German Worker’s Party (History on the net, 2009).
Although the group’s numbers only consisted of approximately 40 members, authorities of the German army, believing them to be a communist party, elected Adolf Hitler, who was an army intelligence agent at that time, to secretly spy on the party. Inconspicuous amongst the crowd, Hitler listened quietly to the happenings until a view conflicting with his own came into debate. He interrupted the meeting and passionately opposed this analysis with the fervent and enthusiastic speech of a skilled orator. Impressed by his talented lecturing abilities, Anton Drexler suggested that Hitler join the German Worker’s Party. Uncertain at first, he disagreed, but Anton nevertheless insisted, and Hitler eventually consented. This marked the beginning of Hitler’s promising political career. In October of 1920, He took on the responsibility as the organizer of the DAP’s first public meeting, which attracted a large crowd. Another successful public convention took place in February of 1920; at this event Hitler himself addressed the crowd, captivating nearly two thousand individuals with his enamoring manifesto (Witherbee, 2009).
On April 1, 1920, Hitler expanded on the party’s name, calling it the National Socialist German Worker’s Party (National Sozialischtische Deutche Arbeiter Partei, NSDAP) and as time went on the group abbreviated the name to ‘Nazi,’ representing the German word for nationalist. The Nazi party grew and flourished with Hitler as its spokesperson throughout the spring and summer of 1920. And to assist in keeping peace and order, Hitler initiated a faction of men to patrol the crowds during the conferences. He also adopted the Swastika symbol of good luck to signify the firm belief that the German race contained a pure and untainted blood line as far back as the Aryan empire, taking a stand against intermarriage and interracial proliferation. As well as rebuffing certain groups such as Jews, Catholics, Marxists, etc. who continually threatened the progress and overall wellbeing of their faith (Witherbee, 2009).
As the party expanded and Hitler’s supremacy over the group’s activities heightened, the members of the party began to harbor resentment towards him and attempted to overthrow his authority. Hitler retaliated against them and seized absolute control of the Nazi party, thwarting any endeavors they may have had to relegate his ultimate power. With this step Hitler became more confident and staged an attempt to conquer and kidnap the government authorities in Munich (University of South Florida, 2005).
His overconfidence caused him to fail and he was convicted of treason and sentenced to five years in prison. At his trial Hitler raged about the unfairness of this harsh sentence and his dislike of the Weimar government. The trial lasted 24 days and Hitler’s consistent speeches and courage gained him the support and sympathy of the judges and he was only made to serve six months of his five year sentence (University of South Florida, 2005).
Upon release from prison in December of 1925, Hitler began the slow process of restructuring the Nazi party, patiently awaiting the right time to seize ultimate political power in Germany. The party was up for election, but initially was only able to acquire a small number of votes in the Reichstag (German Parliament) (History on the net, 2009). But, due to the economic changes and financial crisis caused by the Great Depression along with rising unemployment rates, an increased amount of people began to desire change and looked to establish a new direction for the country. The support the party needed was gained in 1932, when the German Chancellor Heinrich Bruening was unable to gain popular support, which led to a re-election. By July of 1932 the Nazi party had obtained the majority of votes in the Reichstag and its president Paul von Hindenburg had no other choice but to appoint Hitler as Chancellor on January 30, 1933 (Witherbee, 2009).
On February 27, 1933, the Reichstag was obliterated by arsonists. Many individuals suspected Hitler of staging the fire, but Hitler was unstoppable, he used this to his advantage and arrested all the communist governments’ officials and initiated a decree allowing his Nazi army to arrest and hold prisoners without trial, restraining their right to freedom of speech. The Enabling Act of March 1933 afforded Hitler’s executives absolute power over the government (Witherbee, 2009).
Then on July 14, Hitler publicly announced that the Nazi party would be the only legal political party in Germany, all teenagers were forced to become members of the party, the Nazi’s took control of the local government and trade unions were prohibited. The Gestapo and secret police were then formed under Hitler’s authority. Hitler named himself Fuhrer of Germany and until the collapse of his German Socialist Worker’s Party in 1945, he ruled with supreme power throughout Germany (History on the net, 2009).
References
Colorado Technical University. (2001-2009). World history since 1500 task detail. Retrieved
October 3, 2009, from
https://campus.ctuonline.edu/MainFrame.aspx?ContentFrame=/Default.aspx
History on the Net. (2009). The Nazi party. Retrieved October 1, 2009, from
http://www.historyonthenet.com/Nazi_Germany/nazi_party.htm
University of South Florida. (2005). The rise of the Nazi party. Retrieved October 2, 2009, from
http://fcit.usf.edu/holocaust/timeline/nazirise.htm
Witherbee, A. (2009). Adolf Hitler. Retrieved October 1, 2009, from
http://wf2dnvr6.webfeat.org/vO45N11442/url=http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?
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