Nazi Party

In 1919 few would have thought that the Nazi Party, starting as a gang of unemployed soldiers would become the legal government of Germany by 1933. A once obscure corporal, Adolf Hitler, would become the chancellor of Germany in fourteen years. With a grisly total of thirty-seven casualties, including nine million dead combatants World War I ended in 1918. Resulting in a sense of injured German national pride, German propaganda had not prepared the nation for defeat. Those military and political leaders who were responsible claimed that Germany had been "stabbed in the back" by its left-wing politicians, Communists, and Jews. The Weimar Republic, a new government, tried to establish a democratic course. Extreme political parties from both the right and left struggled violently for control. The new regime could neither handle the depressed economy nor the rampant lawlessness and disorder. As the victorious allies punished Germany severely, the German population swallowed the bitter pill of defeat. Germany was disarmed and forced to pay reparations to France and Britain for the huge costs of war, in the treaty of Versailles The forerunner of the Nazi Party, The German Workers Party, espoused right-winged ideas, like many similar groups of demobilized soldiers. Adolf Hitler joined this small political party in 1919 and rose to leadership through his emotional and captivating speeches. He encouraged national pride, militarism, and a commitment to the Volk and racially pure Germany. Exploiting anti-Semitic feelings Hitler condemned the Jews, that had prevailed in Europe for centuries. He changed the name of the party to the National Socialist German Workers Party, called for short, the Nazi Party (or NSDAP). The Nazi Party had about three thousand members by the end of 1920. A year later Hitler became its official leader. Adolf Hitler's attempt at an armed overthrow of local authorities in Munich failed miserably