Nazi Party (NSDAP/ Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei) A Fascist party founded by Anton Drexler (b. 1884, d. 1942) as the German Workers' Party on 5 January 1919, it was renamed the National Socialist German Workers' Party in 1920. The following year, Hitler took over as party leader and subsequently led it according to the Führerprinzip, whereby all authority came from the führer (leader), so that the whole party was organized hierarchically, from top to bottom. In the same way, the party derived its ideology entirely from Hitler's speeches and his book Mein Kampf. Banned after the abortive Hitler Putsch in 1923, the party was refounded in 1925. It was unable to make substantial gains in the following years during the relative stability of the Stresemann era, but in the severe economic crisis which resulted in a total of 3.2 million unemployed by January 1930, many desperate Germans chose to ignore the negative aspects of the party and were drawn by its positive message of renewal and strength.The success of the Nazi Party, as opposed to other radical right-wing groups with similar ideas, was the result less of its ideology than of the outstanding quality of Hitler's mesmerizing oratory, and of Goebbels's innovative propaganda. Following the worsening of the crisis, which led to an increase in unemployment to six million by January 1932, the party more than doubled its vote to become the largest party in the elections of July and November 1932. When...
Nazi Party (NSDAP/ Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei) A Fascist party founded by Anton Drexler (b. 1884, d. 1942) as the German Workers' Party on 5 January 1919, it was renamed the National Socialist German Workers' Party in 1920. The following year, Hitler took over as party leader and subsequently led it according to the Führerprinzip, whereby all authority came from the führer (leader), so that the whole party was organized hierarchically, from top to bottom. In the same way, the party derived its ideology entirely from Hitler's speeches and his book Mein Kampf. Banned after the abortive Hitler Putsch in 1923, the party was refounded in 1925. It was unable to make substantial gains in the following years during the relative stability of the Stresemann era, but in the severe economic crisis which resulted in a total of 3.2 million unemployed by January 1930, many desperate Germans chose to ignore the negative aspects of the party and were drawn by its positive message of renewal and strength.The success of the Nazi Party, as opposed to other radical right-wing groups with similar ideas, was the result less of its ideology than of the outstanding quality of Hitler's mesmerizing oratory, and of Goebbels's innovative propaganda. Following the worsening of the crisis, which led to an increase in unemployment to six million by January 1932, the party more than doubled its vote to become the largest party in the elections of July and November 1932. When...