Deutsche Arbeiterpartei

  • German Workers’ Party
Identifier
1037
Type of Entity
Corporate Body

Dates of Existence

Founded in 1919-01-05

History

During the last year of the First World War a political circle was formed in Munich, consisting of factory workers, most of them employed at the railway repair shops. Its aims were to enlighten the workers about the war aim of Germany’s enemies and thus to counter socialist peace propaganda, and to fight the war profiteers. The guiding spirit of this small circle was Anton Drexler. He and other railroad workers eventually founded the Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, which often held meetings in quarters of the Thule-Gesellschaft. In 1919, Hitler was sent by army intelligence to spy on the party and quickly became its chairman of propaganda and soon its leader. He added the term Nationalsozialistische to Deutsche Arbeiterpartei.

Places

  • Founded in Germany.

Sources

  • The Rise of Fascism, Second Edition / F.L. Carsten. - Berkeley/Los Angelos, 1980. - p. 91 Dictionary of the Holocaust : Biography, geography, and terminology / E.J. Epstein, P. Rosen. – Westport, 1997. – p. 206