Nazi Party
국가사회주의 독일 노동자당
German far-right party formed in Munich in February 1920 when the German Workers' Party (DAP) changed its name. Led by Adolf Hitler from 1921, it built its programme on antisemitism and nationalism and on the rejection of democracy and Marxism. After taking power in 1933 it ruled the Third Reich as the only legal party, and in 1945 the Allied Control Council dissolved and banned it.
In depth
Its forerunner was the German Workers' Party, founded in Munich by Anton Drexler on 5 January 1919. Hitler, who had been sent by the army to watch the party, joined in September 1919, and at a meeting in the Hofbräuhaus on 24 February 1920 the 25-point programme was announced, calling for the abrogation of the Treaty of Versailles, the removal of citizenship from Jews and the strengthening of the 'people's community', as the party took the name National Socialist German Workers' Party. According to the German-language source, the formal change of registration had already been made on 20 February. At a special congress on 29 July 1921 Hitler replaced Drexler as chairman by 533 votes to 1, and the party was run from the top down under the leader principle. In the same year it formed the SA as its militia.
Inspired by Mussolini's March on Rome, the party staged the Beer Hall Putsch in Munich on 8–9 November 1923; it failed, and the party was banned on 9 November. Refounded in February 1925, it pursued a 'path of legality' through elections. It won only 2.6% in 1928, but in the Great Depression it became the second-largest party with 18% in September 1930 and the largest with 37% in July 1932. It had 130,000 members in 1929, and its main support came from the lower middle classes. On 30 January 1933 President Hindenburg appointed Hitler chancellor.
After the Reichstag fire an emergency decree suspended civil liberties; the party won 44% in the election of 5 March and took over legislative power through the Enabling Act of 23 March. The Law Against the Formation of Parties of 14 July fixed the one-party state in law, and the Law to Secure the Unity of Party and State of 1 December made the party a public corporation. After the SA leadership was killed in the Night of the Long Knives of 30 June–2 July 1934, the SS grew in importance. Membership reached 5.3 million in 1939 and about 8 million in 1945. The English-language source states that between 1939 and 1945 the regime led by the party was responsible for the deaths of at least twenty million people, including 5.5 to 6 million Jews.
Allied Control Council Proclamation No. 2 of 20 September 1945 declared the party dissolved and illegal, and Control Council Law No. 2 of 10 October 1945 abolished it with all its subsidiary organisations. The International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg declared the party's leadership corps a criminal organisation. Refounding the party and using its symbols are banned in Germany and Austria.