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What was the founding date and early history of the Nazi Party?
Executive summary
The organization that became the Nazi Party began as the German Workers’ Party (Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, DAP) in early 1919 and adopted the name Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP) around February 1920 [1] [2]. Adolf Hitler joined in 1919, rose to prominence as the party’s leading propagandist and orator, and by 1921 had consolidated leadership; the party’s major early milestones include the 1920 25-point programme, the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch and Hitler’s imprisonment, and a reformation and rebuilding of the party after 1924 that led to its growth in the late 1920s and early 1930s [3] [4] [5].
1. Origins in postwar turmoil — a small Bavarian group becomes the DAP
The DAP formed amid the chaos of defeat, revolution and economic dislocation that followed Germany’s World War I surrender; several accounts give an early founding date in January 1919 (commonly cited as 5 January 1919 or simply “January 1919”), crediting Anton Drexler and associates with creating the Deutsche Arbeiterpartei [1] [6] [7]. Institutional summaries from reference works and educational sites trace the party’s roots to that immediate postwar moment rather than to the later, more famous NSDAP label [8] [9].
2. Name change and platform — from DAP to NSDAP by 1920
The group formally adopted a new name and an explicit political platform in early 1920: by February 1920 the DAP was relabeled the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP) and promulgated a 25-point programme that combined nationalism and a form of “social” rhetoric intended to broaden appeal [2] [5]. Contemporary educational sources emphasize that the “Nazi” label came from this Nationalsozialistische name and only later became the common shorthand [5] [2].
3. Hitler’s arrival and ascent — speaker, organizer, then leader
Adolf Hitler attended a DAP meeting in 1919, joined that year, and rapidly became the party’s most effective public speaker; his energy, oratory and organizational skills enabled him to take control of the party’s direction by 1921 [1] [4] [10]. Reference articles note that Hitler helped professionalize party administration, recruit members, and publicize the 25-point programme, steps that set the stage for the NSDAP’s later mass appeal [8] [3].
4. Early paramilitaries and violent politics — SA, street fighting, and the 1923 putsch
The party’s early years included the formation and use of paramilitary units (for example, the SA as early as 1921 in some accounts) and frequent street-level violence with political opponents; these tactics culminated in the Beer Hall Putsch of November 1923, an attempted coup in Munich that failed, led to deaths, and resulted in Hitler’s arrest and trial for treason [5] [3]. The putsch’s aftermath briefly weakened the movement, but Hitler’s trial gave him national publicity and his later imprisonment produced Mein Kampf, both of which became central to the party’s myth-making [10] [3].
5. Banned, reorganized, and reborn — the mid‑1920s reformation
After the putsch and Hitler’s imprisonment, the party was largely disbanded for a time; following Hitler’s release in December 1924 he re-founded and reorganized the Nazi movement, taking steps to convert it from a fringe coup-oriented faction into a disciplined political organization pursuing power through elections and expanded propaganda [5] [3]. Histories emphasize a deliberate shift toward legal and organizational consolidation in 1925 and thereafter [11] [5].
6. From marginal group to mass movement — crisis, growth, and seizure of power
The NSDAP won little broad support in the early 1920s but capitalized on later crises — particularly the Great Depression — to attract mass support; by 1932 it became the largest Reichstag bloc and in January 1933 Hitler was appointed chancellor, after which the party moved rapidly to eliminate political rivals and consolidate total control [9] [4]. Britannica and the US Holocaust Memorial Museum both underline the trajectory from small postwar group to ruling party by 1933 [4] [9].
Limitations, disagreements and what the sources do not say
- Sources in this set vary slightly on the precise initial date: many give January/early 1919 as the DAP founding [1] [6] [7], while others emphasize the formal renaming in 1920 as the key founding moment of the “Nazi Party” label [2] [5]. Available sources do not mention a single universally accepted “founding date” for the NSDAP separate from the DAP’s founding (not found in current reporting).
- The provided materials agree on sequence (DAP → NSDAP; Hitler’s rise; 1923 putsch; reorganization after prison; growth in late 1920s and early 1930s) but differ in emphasis (some stress 1919 origins, others 1920 renaming) — readers should note that historians sometimes focus on either the DAP’s January 1919 founding or the 1920 renaming depending on whether they mean the organizational origin or the name “Nazi Party” [1] [2] [8].
Bottom line: the movement began as the DAP in early 1919, became the NSDAP by early 1920, and through Hitler’s takeover, a failed putsch in 1923, reorganization after 1924, and electoral growth during the Depression, transformed into Germany’s ruling party by 1933 [1] [2] [3] [4].