German Labour Party

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
logo

German Workers 'Party ( DAP ) was the first name of the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP). It was founded on January 5, 1919 in Munich, shortly after the November Revolution . On February 24, 1920, the name was changed to NSDAP. The then still unknown Adolf Hitler , member since September 1919, became chairman in 1921 instead of chairman and co-founder Anton Drexler .

Founding history

The DAP was founded on January 5, 1919 (one week before the state elections in Bavaria in 1919 ) in Munich in the Fürstenfelder Hof (Fürstenfelder Strasse 14) by the tool fitter Anton Drexler and the sports journalist Karl Harrer and 22 other people present. It emerged from the Munich Free Workers Committee for a Good Peace , which was also founded by Drexler in 1918. Drexler was elected as chairman of the new party that belonged to the Volkish movement . Drexler's work colleagues from the Munich railway works were among the first members of the DAP. Other early members were the economic ideologist Gottfried Feder , the Baltic German refugee Alfred Rosenberg and Dietrich Eckart . The first party meetings of the DAP took place in the back rooms of small beer bars in Munich. The less enthusiastic speaker Drexler mostly gave hardly any motivating speeches, which were often lost in the background noise of the restaurant.

In October 1919, the first DAP office was set up in a side room of the Sterneckerbräu in the valley . In January 1920, the party headquarters were moved to the Cornelius inn at 12 Corneliusstrasse.

Adolf Hitler joins

Hitler's DAP membership card with the alleged membership number 7 (January 1, 1920). According to Anton Drexler, number 555 was retouched and number 7 was inserted in its place.

Adolf Hitler first came into contact with the DAP on September 12, 1919. At the instigation of the "Propaganda Department Ib / P" of Reichswehrgruppenkommando 4, he took part as an undercover agent in meetings of the numerous political parties newly founded in Munich at that time. The head of the department was Karl Mayr , who was thus - unintentionally - considered one of Hitler's political pioneers.

In this context, Hitler attended a meeting of the DAP on September 12, 1919 in the Sterneckerbräu. Gottfried Feder gave a lecture in the Leiberzimmer on the subject of "How and with what means do you eliminate capitalism?" At the end of the following discussion, Hitler claims to have vehemently opposed the secession of Bavaria from the Reich called for by panelist Adalbert Baumann . Baumann had only been present at a DAP meeting on November 12, 1919. Hitler probably became a member of the DAP “a week” after his visit to the DAP meeting on September 12, 1919. Contrary to the previously sectarian orientation of the splinter party, Hitler relied on activating the popular masses; On October 16, 1919, he held his first public party speech after the main speaker Erich Kühn at a DAP event announced in Munich Observer in Munich's Hofbräukeller , to which 111 visitors appeared .

From the DAP to the NSDAP

For the next few months, Hitler acted as the party's propaganda officer, but was not represented on the executive committee. Nevertheless, he soon gained growing importance for the party, also by taking important decisions on his own. So he signed z. B. the lease for the party's first permanent office on behalf of the party chairman. He was also responsible for organizing all events and for public relations for the party. However, he found the party's democratic structure to be a burden. In his eyes a leader with dictatorial powers was necessary. With this attitude Hitler took on the entire leadership of the DAP, but above all with Drexler and Harrer.

In addition, he spent his time with rallies and gatherings of all kinds, which slowly but steadily attracted more and more Munich audiences. Thus, money also came into the coffers of the party (membership fees, donations and entrance fees).

Against Drexler's concerns, Hitler set the DAP's first “mass meeting” on February 24, 1920 under the motto “What is need for us!”. The venue was the ballroom of the Hofbräuhaus am Platzl . 2000 people appeared on the evening in question. Hitler announced the 25-point program of the new party, which was largely determined by Gottfried Feder.

That evening, the renaming to NSDAP was announced. The NSDAP's entry in the register of associations had already been completed on February 20, 1920. The party was the only permitted party in Germany from 1933 to 1945 and was eventually banned by the Allies. Today's Germany and Austria also prohibit the party or a new foundation.

literature

  1. 1889-1936 . 1998, ISBN 3-421-05131-3 (5th chapter: The beer cellar agitator , p. 173ff. About the DAP as a forerunner of the NSDAP and the Thule Society).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ John Toland: Adolf Hitler - A biography
  2. ^ Benjamin Ziemann : Wanderer between the worlds - The military critic and opponent of decided pacifism Major retired Karl Mayr (1883-1945) . In: Wolfram Wette (ed.): Pacifist officers in Germany 1871–1933 . Donat, Bremen 1999, p. 274.
  3. ↑ However, there is no report from Hitler to Mayr about a visit to a party meeting. The allegedly handwritten documents signed by Hitler in connection with a DAP membership or a visit to a DAP meeting of Hitler ( Eberhard Jäckel , Axel Kuhn: Hitler. All records 1905-1924. Stuttgart 1980, pp. 90 f.) Are likely Products of the forger Konrad Kujau , as announced by the two editors in New Findings on the Forgery of Hitler Documents (in: Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte , Volume 32 (1984), Issue 1).
  4. ↑ Whether Hitler was the only one who actually visited the DAP meeting on September 12, 1919 on Mayr's behalf for the purpose of surveillance, is questioned by the fact that, among the 40 people present, seven other soldiers from Hitler's circle, such as Mayr, attended the meeting . Six of them were Hitler’s colleagues from the reconnaissance command for the army camp in Lechfeld (Othmar Plöckinger: Under soldiers and agitators . Paderborn 2013, p. 149). These were Ewald Bolle, Johann Stricker, Karl Schauböck, Hans Knodn, Heinrich Braun and Karl Eicher. They can all be found on the list of participants of the reconnaissance command for the Lechfeld military camp shown in Plöckinger, soldiers , p. 120. Another soldier was Sergeant Alois Grillmeier (Plöckinger, Unter soldiers , p. 149). After the fall of the Munich Soviet Republic at the beginning of May 1919, Hitler had worked with him in the investigative commission of the 2nd Infantry Regiment, with which the sympathizers and activists of the overthrown Soviet Republic were persecuted within the regiment. All six of Hitler's comrades present from the reconnaissance command could also have attended this DAP meeting on behalf of Mayr.
  5. ↑ Albrecht Tyrell: From the "drummer" to the "leader". The change in Hitler's self-image between 1919 and 1924 and the development of the NSDAP. Fink, Munich 1975, ISBN 3-7705-1221-9 , p. 27 and Note 99.
  6. ↑ Othmar Plöckinger: Among soldiers and agitators . Paderborn 2013, pp. 151–152. Plöckinger went through the attendance lists of the DAP meetings for the period in question.
  7. ^ Thomas Weber: Hitler's First War . Berlin 2011, p. 341.
  8. ^ The one in Eberhard Jäckel / Axel Kuhn: Hitler. All records 1905-1924. Stuttgart 1980. pp. 90-91 reproduced, allegedly handwritten and signed by Hitler documents in connection with Hitler's accession to the DAP are probably products of the forger Konrad Kujau , as the two editors in New Findings on the Forgery of Hitler Documents (in : Quarterly issues for contemporary history , volume 32 (1984), issue 1) announced.
  9. ^ Paul Bruppacher: Adolf Hitler and the history of the NSDAP. A chronicle. Part 1: 1889-1937. 4th edition. Books on Demand, Norderstedt 2018, ISBN 978-3-7322-6870-2 , p. 68.