The birth of the NSDAP

Adolf Hitler announces his programme

Sent in 1919 by his employers the Bavarian Army to spy on a little-known political party, Adolf Hitler soon liked what he saw and decided to join the group, which called itself the German Workers’ Party. Hitler soon rose through the ranks of the organization and persuaded its members to adopt the strategy of mobilizing the masses. The party was renamed on 24 February 1920 as the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP).

Speaking on the same day to an audience of 2,000 in Munich’s Hofbräuhaus beer hall, Hitler announced a new party programme. Decrying the Treaty of Versailles, the programme called for the establishment of a Greater German Empire, rejected German citizenship for Jews and demanded the creation of an authoritarian state. As these goals violated the constitution of the Weimar Republic, the NSDAP was soon banned in several German states, and after launching a failed coup in 1923, throughout the entire Republic.