The National Socialist German Workers Party (German: ⓘ), better known as the NSDAP or the Nazi Party was a political party that was led to power in Germany by Adolf Hitler in 1933. The term Nazi is a short form of the German word Nazionalsozialist shortened to the first two syllables, and spelled with -zi, because the ti syllable is pronounced [tsi] in German (National Socialist), reflecting the ideology of the NSDAP. The NSDAP set up the Third Reich after Hitler being appointed chancellor by the president and the party being democratically elected to lead the German government in 1933.
The NSDAP was the main political force in Nazi Germany from the fall of the Weimar Republic in 1933 until the end of World War II in 1945, when it was declared illegal and its leaders were arrested and convicted of crimes against humanity at the Nuremberg Trials. The beliefs and practices of the Nazi Party gave rise to a significantly new political ideology, commonly known as "Nazism".
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Nazi Party Structure
1921 – 1923
When the Nazi party was first established in February 1920, it consisted of a leadership board based in Munich, Bavaria with a general membership of just under 2000. The NSDAP Leadership Board was democratically elected who, in turn, elected a Board Chairman. On July 29, 1921, Adolf Hitler was elected Chairman of the Nazi Party after previously having served as “Party Speaker” in the summer of 1920. The exact circumstances of Hitler having been elected as Chairman have been lost in history, but it is certainly one of the pivotal events in German politics. Hitler’s charisma no doubt played a part in his assumption of the Chairmanship as did promises to the leadership board that the Nazi Party would grow in numbers and achieve great power and prosperity.
Almost immediately, Hitler abandoned all democratic notions in the Nazi party. He declared himself the Führer of the Party and the leadership board became a permanent “inner circle”. Many top Nazis of the Second World War can trace their political beginnings to this point.
By the end of 1921, the Nazi Party had become more or less a paramilitary radical organization. All Nazi Party members wore paramilitary uniforms and the Sturmabteilung (SA) had been founded that same year based on the model of the old Freikorps. By 1923, the Nazi party and the SA stormtroopers were considered almost one and the same with the first Nazi paramilitary ranks, those being the ranks and insignia of the Sturmabteilung, in use.
1925 – 1933
Following the abortive Beer Hall Putsch, and a two year period of the Nazi Party having been disbanded, the NSDAP was refounded under a more benign platform that the Party would only seek power through legal means and by use of the Weimar Republic democratic system. To accomplish this, it was necessary for the Nazi party to expand outside of Bavaria and in this way a new Nazi organizational system developed which would last until the Party’s collapse in 1945.
The NSDAP of 1925 was divided into two “classes”, those being the leadership corps of the Nazi Party, known as the Korps der politischen Leiter, and the general membership known as the Partei Mitglieder. Gone were the days where all Nazis wore paramilitary uniforms with the average Nazi Party member indistinguishable from the general citizenry. For the first time, the Nazi Party also began to admit women.
The SA stormtroopers were refounded in 1925 as was another Nazi paramilitary group, the Schutzstaffel (SS). These organizations, and the many Nazi paramilitary groups that would follow, were considered “support groups” to the Nazi Party as a whole and all members of these groups had first to become regular Nazi Party members. It was also possible for a Nazi Party member to not join a paramilitary group but simple serve as a regular Nazi Mitglied. The Hitler Youth, with origins in 1921 was a Nazi youth corps group whose members were not actually Nazi party members, but were in training to be so.
The leadership of the NSDAP in the late 1920s began at the top with Adolf Hitler and extended to his inner circle from the early days of the Party. As the Nazis were now operating on a national level, the NSDAP maintained a position known as Gauleiter who was a Nazi headman in a particular region of Germany. An even higher position, that of Reichsleiter, was intended for the most senior of Nazis who were part of the inner circle.
Beneath the Gauleiters were several junior Nazi political leaders with a variety of titles such as Kreisleiter, Zellenleiter and Blockleiter. Such Nazi political officers wore paramilitary brown uniforms, the same as Hitler and his senior Nazi inner circle. In this way, the first Nazi Party ranks came into being.
1933 – 1938
When Hitler became Chancellor of Germany, the Nazi Party suddenly found itself in control of a modern state government. Hitler and top Nazis saw immediately that for Germany to become a dictatorship, the Nazi Party and the German government had to become one and the same. To accomplish this, measures were enacted to merge the German government with the Nazi Party. On the federal level, all German Ministries were staffed with Nazi officials who, in turn, appointed other Nazis to civil service positions within the government. A vast and complex Nazi party civil service system then developed which had, by 1935, completely taken over the German government. Such Nazi Party government officials held regular government postings, but also held ranks in the Nazi Party, wore paramilitary uniforms (a wide variety of which existed by this time) and reported to Adolf Hitler both as the Chancellor of Germany and the Führer of the Nazi Party.
On the state and local level, German town and city governments were allowed to continue as before but the Nazi Party political chain, extending upwards to the Gauleiters, existed side by side with the local government establishments.
Thus, a town could possibly have a non-Nazi Bürgermeister and town council, but such persons were merely “rubber stamps” for the local head Nazi leader.
In 1933, the paramilitary groups of the Nazi Party began merging with the German state, as well, the most notable of which was the SS which would eventually take over all law enforcement functions of Germany and also serve as a political police force. The German Labor Front was another state run Nazi Party organization along with several less known Nazi paramilitary groups.
1938 – 1939
By 1938, there was virtually no distinction between the Nazi Party and the German government. Hitler, by this time, had merged the office of Chancellor and President into the new office of Führer und Reichkanzler of Germany and remained Führer of the Nazi Party. The swastika flag was now the official Flag of Germany and the German armed forces now wore Nazi insignia and swore personal allegiance to Hitler. In addition, nearly all Nazi Party paramilitary groups were sponsored and in some way connected to the German government.
When Austria was annexed by Germany in the Anschluss of 1938, the existing Austrian Nazi Party was quickly installed to replace the old Austrian government. By 1939, Austria had been completely incorporated into Germany with the leadership of Austria little more than a local Nazi administration taking orders from Berlin. When Czechoslovakia was added to German gains, the newly formed “Reich Protectorate” was a strict dictatorship which would eventually come under the control of the SS in the person of Reinhard Heydrich.
1939 – 1945
During World War II, the Nazi Party continued as usual in the homeland of the “Greater German Reich” with the federal government staffed by Nazis and the local and state governments under the control of Nazi political leaders.
As Germany expanded its territory and began conquering other countries, the Nazi Party began establishing dictatorial regimes to replace the fallen governments, all of which were controlled by Nazi appointed puppet leaders with the exception of France which was run by a military government under the control of the Wehrmacht.
The General Government of Poland was the most ruthless of all the installed Nazi Party regimes with the “Reichkommisariats”, established in Russia, coming in a close second. Rule in these regions was based on ruthless terror with civilian reprisals and instant executions a common occurrence.
Party composition
General membership
The general membership of the Nazi Party, known as the Partei Mitglieder, mainly consisted of the urban and rural lower middle classes. Seven percent belonged to the upper class, seven percent were peasants, thirty five percent were industrial workers and fifty one percent were what can be described as middle class. The largest single occupational group was elementary school teachers.
When the Nazi Party began in the 1920s, it averaged 2000 members. When the Nazi Party came to power in 1933, party membership had risen to 2.5 million. In 1945, when the Nazi Party was disbanded, official membership rolls listed a total of 8.5 million.
Military membership
Nazi members with military ambitions were encouraged to join the Waffen SS, but a great number enlisted in the Wehrmacht and even more were drafted for service after World War II began. Early regulations required that all Wehrmacht members be non-political, and therefore any National Socialist member joining in the 1930s was required to resign from the Nazi Party.
This regulation was soon waived, however, and there is ample evidence that full Nazi Party members served in the Wehrmacht in particular after the outbreak of World War II. The Wehrmacht Reserves also saw a high number of senior Nazis enlisting, with such figures as Reinhard Heydrich and Fritz Todt joining the Luftwaffe, as well as Karl Hanke who served in the Army.
Paramilitary groups
In addition to the NSDAP proper, several paramilitary groups existed which "supported" Nazi aims. All such members of these paramilitary organizations were required to become regular Nazi Party members first, and could then enlist in the group of their choice. A vast system of Nazi party paramilitary ranks developed for each of the various paramilitary groups.
The major Nazi Party paramilitary groups were as follows:
- Schutzstaffel (SS): Protection Service
- Sturmabteilung (SA): Storm Troopers
- Nationalsozialistisches Fliegerkorps (NSFK): National Socialist Flyers Corps
- Nationalsozialistisches Kraftfahrerkorps (NSKK): National Socialist Motor Corps
The Hitler Youth was a paramilitary group divided into an adult leadership corps and a general membership open to boys aged fourteen to eighteen.
Party symbols
- Nazi Flags: The Nazi party used a right-facing swastika as their symbol and the red and black colors were said to represent Blut und Boden (blood and soil). Black, white, and red were in fact the colors of the old North German Confederation flag (invented by Otto von Bismarck, based on the Prussian colors black and white). In 1871, with the foundation of the German Reich, the flag of the North German Confederation became the German Reichsflagge (Reich's flag). Black, white, and red became the colors of the nationalists through the following history (for example World War I and the Weimar Republic).
- Swastika
- The Roman Eagle
- Nazi anthem: Horst Wessel Lied.
Sayings, mottos and slogans
- "Sieg Heil! Sieg Heil! Sieg Heil!"
- "Hail Victory" (common Nazi chant at rallies)
- "Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer!"
- "One people, one nation, one leader!".
- "Deutschland, erwache!"
- "Germany, Awake!" (Coined by Dietrich Eckart, this was the title to a popular Nazi song and put on many propoganda banners.) (5)
- "Die Juden sind unser Unglück!"
- "The Jews are Our Misfortune!"
- "Lang lebe unser ruhmvoller Führer!"
- "Long Live Our Glorious leader!"
- "Heute Deutschland, morgen die Welt!"
- "Today Germany, Tomorrow the World!"
- "Die Deutschen immer vor dem Ausländer und den Juden!"
- "The German Always Before the Foreigner and Jew!"
- "Sicher ist der Jude auch ein Mann, aber der Floh ist auch ein Tier"
- "Certainly the Jew is Also a Man, But the Flea is Also an Animal".
Election statistics
| date | votes in millions | share | number of deputies |
| May 20, 1928 | 0.81 | 2.6% | 12 |
| September 14, 1930 | 6.41 | 18.3% | 107 |
| July 31, 1932 | 13.75 | 37.3% | 230 |
| November 6, 1932 | 11.74 | 33.1% | 196 |
| March 5, 1933 | 17.28 | 43.9% | 288 |
Related topics
References
- The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, William L. Shirer (1960). Gramercy. (ISBN 0517102943)
- The Encyclopedia of the Third Reich by Christian Zenter and Friedemann Bedurftig. (1985 by Sudwest Verlag GmbH & co. KG, Munich)
- Reappraisals of Fascism, ed. by Henry Ashby Turner, New Viewpoints, NY, 1975. pg 99 and Leftism Revisited, Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn, Regenery Gateway, Washington, D.C., 1990, pg 163.
- Hitler and Nazism, Louis Leo Snyder, pg 21. Leftism Revisited, Von Kuehnelt-Leddihn, pg 162.
- Hitler and Nazism, Louis L. Snyder, Franklin Watts, Inc., NY, 1961. pp 23, 69, 80-81. (The author was in Germany and witnessed the mass meetings.)
- Liberty or Equality, von Kuehnelt-Leddihn, pg 259. Ref. Konrad Heiden, "Les débuts du national-socialisme", Revue d'Allemagne, VII, No. 71 (Sept. 15, 1933), p 821. Also confirmed by Dr. Hans Fabricius, Geschichte der Nationalsozialistischen Bewegung (2nd ed.; Berlin; Spaeth, 1937), p 15.
- Where Ghosts Walked, Munich's Road to the Third Reich, David C. Large, W.W. Norton & Co., NY, 1997. pg 165.
- Konrad Heiden Geschichte des Nationalsozialismus; die Karriere einer Idee, pg 19 as quoted in Liberty or Equality, pg 258; Nazism and the Third Reich, Henry A. Turner, Quadrangle Books, NY, 1972, pg 8.
- German Resistance Against Hitler, Klemens von Klemperer, Clarendon Press, 1992, p.38 ( Prelate Ludwig Kaas' importance) .
- The Hitler State : the Foundation and Development of the Internal Structure of the Third Reich by Martin Broszat, translated by John W. Hiden, London : Longman, 1981 ISBN 0582492009