The German Workers' Party (German: Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, acronym DAP) was the short-lived predecessor of the Nazi Party (German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, acronym NSDAP).
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Origins
The DAP was founded in Munich in the hotel "Fürstenfelder Hof" on the 5th of January 1919 by Anton Drexler and Michael Lotter, a former marine. It developed out of the "Freien Arbeiterausschuss für einen guten Frieden" which Drexler had also founded and led. Its first members were mostly colleagues of Drexler's from the Munich rail depot. Drexler was encouraged to found the DAP by his mentor, Dr. Paul Tafel, a leader of the Alldeutscher Verband (Pan-Germanist Union), a director of the Maschinenfabrik Augsburg-Nürnberg, and a member of the Thule Society, and his wish was for a party which was both in touch with the masses and nationalist, unlike the middle class parties. The initial membership was about forty people.[1] On 24 March 1919, Karl Harrer (a sports journalist and member of the Thule Society) joined the DAP to increase the influence of the Thule Society over the DAP's activities, and the party name was changed to the "Political Workers' Circle". The membership was as scarce as the original DAP's and the meetings were reduced to the local beer houses.
Adolf Hitler joins the DAP
Adolf Hitler, then a corporal in the German army, was ordered to spy on the DAP in September 12th. 1919 during one of it's meetings at the Sterneckerbräu, a beer hall in the center of the city. While there, he got into a violent argument with one guest. Following this incident, Anton Drexler was impressed with Hitler's oratory skills and invited him to join the party. After some thinking, Hitler accepted the invitation and joined on late September. At the time Hitler joined the party, there weren't membership numbers or cards. It was on January 1920 when was issued for first time a numeration: given by alphabetical order, Hitler received the number 555, which means he really had the 55, because the numeration begun by the number 500 in order to make appear the party as bigger. Besides, he enter in the Work's Committee of the party as it's number 7 (later he used to talk about that number 7 as his original membership number, to appear as a DAP's founder member). After giving his first speech for the Party on October 16th. in the Hofbräukeller, Hitler quickly rose up to become a leading figure in the DAP.
From DAP to NSDAP
The small number of party members were quickly won over to Hitler's political beliefs. In an attempt to make the party more broadly appealing to larger segments of the population, the DAP was renamed on February 24 1920 to the National Socialist German Workers' Party. The name was borrowed from a different Austrian party active at the time (Deutsche Nationalsozialistische Arbeiterpartei, German National Socialist Workers' Party), although Hitler earlier suggested the party to be renamed the "Social Revolutionary Party"; it was Rudolf Jung who persuaded Hitler to follow the NSDAP naming.[2]
Membership
As stated above, Hitler was the 55th member of the party. The following are well-known earlier members:
References
- ^ Hitler: a study in Tyranny by Alan Bullock
- ^ Konrad Heiden, "Les débuts du national-socialisme", Revue d'Allemagne, VII, No. 71 (Sept. 15, 1933), p. 821
