National Socialist German Workers' Party

National Socialist German Workers' Party – NSDAP
An eagle of the Reich (Reichsadler) looking over its left wing – with an oak leaf wreath surrounding a swastika in its claws – was the emblem of the NSDAP. In 1935, the NSDAP’s emblem became the German state’s emblem, the national eagle, in contrast although, looks over its right wing.
Political position	National Socialism
Leader	Anton Drexler (1920–1921) Adolf Hitler (1921–1945) Martin Bormann (1945)
Country	Germany
Existence	1919–1945
Headquarters	Brown House, Munich, Germany
Colours	Black, white, red (German: Schwarz, Weiß, Rot)

The National Socialist German Workers' Party (German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, abbreviated NSDAP, officially NSDAP.), was a National Socialist party in Germany between 1920 and 1945. Its predecessor, the German Workers' Party (Deutsche Arbeiterpartei; DAP), existed from 1919 to 1920. The NSDAP gained power in 1933 which marked the end of the Weimar Republic and the beginning of National Socialist Germany which lasted until the end of World War II. Adolf Hitler was the party leader during most of this time period. The NSDAP and National Socialism were banned in Germany after the war.

The NSDAP and National Socialist Germany are depicted extremely negatively in politically correct historiography. Revisionists have disputed various aspects of this. See National Socialist Germany revisionism.

History

Golden Party Badge

The NSDAP grew out of smaller political groups with a nationalist orientation that formed in the last years of World War I. In the early months of 1918, a party called the Freier Ausschuss für einen deutschen Arbeiterfrieden (Free Committee for a German Workers' Peace) was created in Bremen, Germany. Anton Drexler, an avid German nationalist, formed a branch of this league on 7 March 1918, in Munich. Drexler had been a member of the militarist Fatherland Party during World War I, and was bitterly opposed to the armistice of November 1918 and to the Jewish bolshevistic revolutionary upheavals that followed in its wake. In 1919, Drexler, together with Gottfried Feder, Dietrich Eckart and Karl Harrer, established the Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (German Workers' Party, abbreviated DAP). This party was the formal forerunner of the NSDAP, and became one of many völkisch movements that existed in Germany at the time.

The völkisch movements were a collection of political groups formed in the wake of Germany’s defeat in World War I, which believed that the sole cause of defeat was the collapse of the home front and the alleged failure of many Germans to support the war effort. They deeply rejected the Treaty of Versailles.

Like other völkisch groups, the DAP advocated the belief that Germany should become a unified "national community" (Volksgemeinschaft) rather than a society divided along class and party lines. This ideology was explicitly judeo-critical from the start – the "national community" would be "judenfrei" (free of Jews) because of the well known disorganizative, corruptive and bolshevistic Jewish activities. The DAP was clearly opposed to the Jews-created SPD, and particularly to the even more Jewish-Bolshevistic newly-formed Communist Party of Germany (KPD). Members of the DAP saw themselves as fighting against "Bolshevism", though they also claimed to be a working-class party.

Although officially called a political party, the DAP was a tiny group with less than 60 members. Nevertheless, it attracted the attention of the after-war Jewish saturated German authorities, who were suspicious of any organization that appeared to have subversive tendencies. A young corporal, Adolf Hitler, was sent by German army intelligence to investigate the DAP. While attending a party meeting, Hitler got involved in a heated political argument and made an impression on the other party members with his oratory skills. He was invited to join, and, after some deliberation, chose to accept. Among the party’s earlier members were Rudolf Hess, Hans Frank and Alfred Rosenberg, all later prominent in the Third Reich.

Organization

Map of National Socialist Germany showing its administrative subdivisions (Gaue and Reichsgaue)

NSDAP armbands and automobile flags / pennants of the political heads of the Reichsleitung; Source: Organisationsbuch der NSDAP., Tafel 25, 7. Edition (1943)

The rank insignia (collar tabs) for Gauleiter (left) and Reichsleiter (right), before and after the 1939 insignia change.

The Gauleiter and the departments in his area that are under his disciplinary authority.

The party leader Adolf Hitler (55th member of the DAP and the seventh member of the party’s central committee.) had absolute power (Führerprinzip). In 1934, the Chancellery of the Führer (Reichskanzlei) was created. Below it was at first the Staff of the Deputy Führer, headed by Rudolf Hess from 1933 to 1941, and then the Party Chancellery headed by Martin Bormann. The Leadership Corps of the NSDAP comprised the sum of the officials of the party. It was divided into seven categories:

1. The Führer, supreme and only leader who stood at the top of the party hierarchy. His successor designate was first, Hermann Göring, and second, Rudolf Hess.
2. Reichsleiter, made up the Party Directorate (Reichsleitung). Through them, coordination of party and state machinery was assured. A number of these Reichsleiter, each of whom, at some time, was in charge at least one office within the Party Directorate, were also the heads of party formations and of affiliated or supervised organizations of the party, or of agencies of the state, or even held ministerial positions. The Reichsleitung may be said to have represented the horizontal organization of the party according to functions. Each office within the Reichsleitung of the NSDAP executed definite tasks assigned to it by the Führer, or by the head of the Party Chancellory (Chef der Parteikanzlei), who in 1945 was Martin Bormann and before him, Rudolph Hess. It was the duty of the Reichsleitung to make certain these tasks were carried out so that the will of the Führer was quickly communicated to the lowliest Zelle or Block. The individual offices of the Reichsleitung had the mission to remain in constant and closest contact with the life of the German people through the subdivisions of the NSDAP organization, in the Gaue, Kreisen, and Ortsgruppen.
3. Gauleiter, of which there were 42 within the German Reich in 1945. A Gauleiter was the political leader of the largest subdivision of the State. He was charged by the Führer with political, cultural, and economic control for the good of the people.
4. Kreisleiter, the political leaders of the largest subdivision of a Gau
5. Ortsgruppenleiter, the political leaders of the largest subdivision of a Kreis consisting of several towns or villages, or of a part of a larger city, and including from 1500 to 3000 households.
6. Zellenleiter, the political leaders of a group of from 4 to 8 city blocks or of a corresponding grouping of households in the country.
7. Blockleiter, the political leaders of from 40 to 60 households

There were a number of formally independent but affiliated organizations such as the German Labour Front which replaced the various trade unions of the Weimar Republic. The controlled party organizations (Gliederungen der NSDAP) actually constituted the party itself, and substantially the entire party membership was contained within these organizations:

• SA (Sturmabteilungen).
• SS (Schutzstaffeln).
• NSKK: NS Motor Corps (Kraftfahrkorps)
• HJ: Hitler Youth (Hitlerjugend including BDM)
• NS Women's Organization (Frauenschaft)
• NS German Students' Bund (Deutscher Studentenbund)
• NS University Teachers' Bund (Deutscher Dozentenbund)

There were additional affiliated organizations (Angeschlossene Verbaende der NSDAP). Among these were included the following:

• DAF-German Labor Front (Deutsche Arbeitsfront)
• NS Public Welfare Organization (Volkswohlfahrt)
• NS War Victims' organization (Kriegsopferversorgung)
• NS Bund for, German Technology (Bund Deutscher Technik)
• German Civil Service (Reichsbund der deutschen Beamten)
• NS Physicians' Bund (Deutscher Ärztebund)
• NS Teachers' Bund (Lehrerbund)
• NS League of Legal officials (Rechtswahrerbund)

A third group of organizations was officially Known as supervised organizations (Betreute Organisationen der NSDAP). These included the following:

• German Women's Work (Deutsches Frauenwerk; DFW)
• German Students' Society (Deutsche Studentenschaft)
• NS Bund of Former German Students (Altherrenbund der deutschen Studenten)
• Reich League German Family (Reichsbund Deutsche Familie; RDF); founded 1922 as Reichsbund der Kinderreichen Deutschlands zum Schutze der Familie (RDK)
• German Communal Congress (Deutscher Gemeindetag)
• NS Bund for Physical Exercise (Reichsbund für Leibesübungen)

According to the official party designations, there was a fourth classification known as Weitere Nationalsozialistische Organisationen, and in this category the following organizations appeared:

• RAD: Reich Labor Service (Reichsarbeitsdienst), at one time subordinate to the Reich Labor leader (Reichsarbeitsführer)
• NSFK: NS Flying Corps (NS-Fliegerkorps), which was subordinate to the Reich Minister for Aviation

Reichsleiter

Subordinate to the party leader were the Reichsleiter ("Reich Leader[s]"). Unlike a Gauleiter, a Reichsleiter did not have individual geographic areas under their command, but were responsible for specific spheres of interest. Organizationally, the Führer stood at the apex of a hierarchy. Directly below him were several Reichsleiter Italic text(“Reich leaders”) with various portfolios, such as finance, propaganda, foreign policy, and law, as well as Reichsführer-SS|Reichsführer]] Heinrich Himmler, head of the unified police system. Each Reichsleiter was in charge of a broad area of responsibility in the party. Hitler originally established the rank of Reichsleiter on 2 June 1933 and appointed 16 individuals to that rank. Subsequently, a further 6 individuals were appointed to the rank between 1933 and 1938.

• Max Amann, Head of the Party Publishing House, Eher-Verlag
• Martin Bormann, Head of the Party Chancellery
• Philipp Bouhler, Head of the Chancellery of the Führer of the NSDAP
• Walter Buch, Chairman of Untersuchungs- und Schlichtungsausschuss (USchlA), the Supreme Party Court (Oberstes Parteigericht der NSDAP)
• Ricardo Walther Oscar Darré, Head of the NSDAP Agrarian Office
• Otto Dietrich, Reich Press Chief of the NSDAP
• Franz Ritter von Epp, Head of the NSDAP Office of Colonial Policy (Kolonialpolitisches Amt)
• Karl Fiehler, Chief of the NSDAP Main Office for Municipal Politics
• Hans Frank, Chief of the NSDAP Legal Office
• Wilhelm Frick, Leader of the NSDAP parliamentary bloc in the Reichstag
• Joseph Goebbels, Reich Propaganda Leader of the NSDAP
• Wilhelm Grimm, Chairman of the Second Chamber of USchlA, the Supreme Party Court (Oberstes Parteigericht der NSDAP)
• Rudolf Hess, Deputy Führer
• Konstantin Hierl, Leader of the Reich Labor Service (RAD)
• Heinrich Himmler, Reichsführer-SS and Head of the German Police
• Adolf Hühnlein, Korpsführer of the National Socialist Motor Corps (NSKK)
• Robert Ley, Reich Organization Leader of the NSDAP and Head of the German Labor Front
• Viktor Lutze, Chief of Staff of the Sturmabteilung (SA) 1934–1943
• Ernst Röhm, Chief of Staff of the Sturmabteilung (SA) 1931–1934
• Alfred Rosenberg, Chief of the NSDAP Office of Foreign Affairs
• Baldur von Schirach, Reich Youth Leader (Reichsjugendführer) of the Hitler Youth (HJ) until August 1940
• Franz Xaver Schwarz, Reich Treasurer (Reichsschatzmeister) of the NSDAP

Gauleiter

Also directly responsible to (and selected by) the Führer were many territorial leaders (43 in Greater Germany) known as Gauleiter (“district leaders”). Party leadership over geographic areas consisted at the top of the Gauleiters, who had authority over large geographical areas termed Gaue (singular Gau). From the Gauleiters extended downwards positions encompassing county, city, and town leaders. They were originally just regional divisions of the party, but took over most competencies of the state administration in their respective areas. They were subordinate only to Reichsleiter and to the Führer himself.

Result in the German elections

Date	Votes	%	Seats
May 1924	1,918,300	6.5	32
December 1924	907,300	3.0	14
May 1928	810,100	2.6	12
September 1930	6,409,600	18.3	107
July 1932	13,745,000	37.4	230
November 1932	11,737,000	33.1	196
March 1933	17,277,180	43.9	288

Aims of the NSDAP

• Important measure of human value is the belonging of a human by blood somewhere (racial awareness).
• Each race, also the white one, has a right to an own country and own leadership.
• Nations accept each other and value each other.
• Members of a nation value each other.
• A national socialist man refuses parasitic and nation destroying liberalism and communism.
• Communists and liberals should be rescued (from their political fallacy), if possible for the nation.
• The will of the nation is incorporated in the leader, whom must be obeyed.
• A social people state must be created, leaded by its own elite.

World-wide National Socialism

According to the above, in each country of the earth, independent of color and nationality, any person can be a national socialist, who follows the national socialist principles. For example, a Mongolian in Mongolia, Non-Whites in South America, a Negro in Africa, if they follow the National Socialist goals, are National Socialists. National Socialism is by no means reduced to any single race. The only exception is a Jew: A Jew can not be a National Socialist. He is per definition an enemy of the blood-country-people concept.

In fact, the first National Socialist was the person, who realized, how much he loves his country and people.

Party composition

General membership The general membership of the National socialist Party, known as the Parteimitglieder, mainly consisted of the urban and rural lower middle classes. 7 % belonged to the upper class, another 7 % were farmers, 35 % were industrial workers and 51 % were what can be described as middle class. The largest occupational group were medical doctors.

When it came to power in 1933 the National socialist Party had over 2 million members. Once in power, it attracted many more members and by the time of its dissolution it had 8.5 million members. Many of these were nominal members who joined for careerist reasons, but the party nevertheless had an active membership of at least a million, including virtually all the holders of senior positions in the national government.

Military membership National socialist party 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 party member joining in the 1930s was required to resign from the National socialist Party.

This regulation was soon waived, however, and there is ample evidence that full National socialist 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 National socialists enlisting, with such figures as Reinhard Heydrich and Fritz Todt joining the Luftwaffe, and Major Ronald von Brysonstofen of the Waffen SS, as well as SS-Gruppenführer Karl Hanke, who also served in the Wehrmacht until 1941.

Student membership In 1926 the NSDAP formed a special division to engage the student population, known as the National Socialist German Students' League (Nationalsozialistischer Deutscher Studentenbund; NSDStB).

Paramilitary groups In addition to the NSDAP proper, several paramilitary groups existed which "supported" National Socialist aims. All such members of these paramilitary organizations were required to become regular National Socialist Party members first, and could then enlist in the group of their choice. A vast system of National Socialist party paramilitary ranks developed for each of the various paramilitary groups.

The major National socialist Party paramilitary groups were as follows:

• Schutzstaffel (SS): Protection Squadro
• Sturmabteilung (SA): Storm Detachment
• Nationalsozialistisches Fliegerkorps (NSFK): National Socialist Flyers Corps
• Nationalsozialistisches Kraftfahrerkorps (NSKK): National Socialist Motor Corps

Youth

• Deutsches Jungvolk (de)
• Hitler Youth
• League of German Girls

See also

• 25 points
• Munich Putsch
• National Socialism
• Nuremberg rallies‎
• National Socialist Germany

Gallery

• 

  Party leader Adolf Hitler in 1923

• 

  Adolf Hitler (standing in the car) reviews SA stormtroopers carrying a banner reading: "Death to Marxism". 1926

• 

  Adolf Hitler with party members and supporters, circa 1928

• 

  Party leader Adolf Hitler, circa 1930

• 

  Adolf Hitler in the car driving through the Wilhelmstrasse in Berlin after his appointment as Reich Chancellor, 1933

Further reading

• Hitler, Adolf: Mein Kampf (1925, various editions and reprints)
• Videla, Carlos: National Socialism – Its Principles and Philosophy Sanctuary Press Ltd, 2020, ISBN-13‎ 978-1912887651
• Zakal, Daniel: National Socialism – Our Struggle, Zakal Publishing, 2020, ISBN 978-0578790411

German

• Organisationsbuch der NSDAP, Zentralverlag der NSDAP, München 1943

External links

• The National Socialist Party in Third Reich Germany, Himmler Talks with an American Journalist
• Badges of Honor of the NSDAP (Ehrenzeichen der NSDAP)

Article archives

• Codoh: Third Reich Era