Nazi Party Origins
In 1919, frustrated by Germany’s defeat in World War I—which had left the nation economically depressed and politically unstable—army veteran Adolf Hitler joined the fledgling German Workers’ Party. Founded earlier that year by locksmith Anton Drexler and journalist Karl Harrer, the party promoted German nationalism and anti-Semitism, believing the Treaty of Versailles unjustly burdened Germany with reparations it could never pay.
Hitler soon emerged as a charismatic public speaker, attracting new members with speeches blaming Jews and Marxists for Germany’s problems and espousing extreme nationalism and the concept of an Aryan “master race.” By July 1921, he assumed leadership of the organization, which had been renamed the National Socialist German Workers’ (Nazi) Party.
**Did you know?** Sales of Hitler's political autobiography “Mein Kampf” made him a millionaire. From 1933 to 1945, free copies were given to every newlywed German couple. After World War II, the publication of “Mein Kampf” in Germany became illegal.
Through the 1920s, Hitler’s speeches claimed that unemployment, inflation, hunger, and economic stagnation in postwar Germany would continue until there was a total revolution in German life. He argued most problems could be solved if communists and Jews were driven from the nation. His fiery rhetoric swelled the ranks of the Nazi Party, especially among young, economically disadvantaged Germans.
Many dissatisfied former army officers in Munich also joined the Nazis, including Ernst Röhm, who recruited the Sturmabteilung (SA) “strong arm” squads that Hitler used to protect party meetings and attack opponents.
Beer Hall Putsch
In 1923, Hitler and his followers staged the Beer Hall Putsch in Munich, a failed takeover of the government in Bavaria. Hitler hoped the putsch would spark a larger revolution against the national government. After its failure, Hitler was convicted of treason and sentenced to five years in prison but served less than a year, during which he dictated the first volume of “Mein Kampf.”
The publicity surrounding the Beer Hall Putsch and Hitler’s trial turned him into a national figure. Upon his release, he rebuilt the Nazi Party, aiming to gain power through elections.
Nazi Rise to Power
In 1929, Germany’s Weimar Republic faced severe economic depression and widespread unemployment. The Nazis capitalized on the situation by criticizing the ruling government and began to win elections. In July 1932, they captured 230 out of 608 seats in the Reichstag.
In January 1933, Hitler was appointed German chancellor, and the Nazi government soon controlled every aspect of German life, banning all other political parties.
Henryk Ross: Photographs from a Nazi Ghetto
In 1933, the Nazis established the Dachau concentration camp to detain political prisoners, which evolved into a death camp where countless Jews and others died from malnutrition, disease, overwork, or execution. The camp’s prisoners included Jews, artists, intellectuals, Roma, the physically and mentally handicapped, and homosexuals.
Nazi Foreign Policy
Once in power, Hitler directed Nazi Germany’s foreign policy toward undoing the Treaty of Versailles and restoring Germany’s global standing. He argued that the treaty’s redrawn map of Europe denied Germany “living space” for its growing population. Hitler pointed out that the treaty had separated Germans by creating new postwar states like Austria and Czechoslovakia.
Germany Invades Poland
In the mid-1930s, Hitler undermined the postwar international order, withdrawing Germany from the League of Nations, rebuilding the armed forces, reoccupying the Rhineland, annexing Austria, and invading Czechoslovakia. In 1939, Germany invaded Poland, prompting Britain and France to declare war on Germany, igniting World War II.
Nazis Fight to Dominate Europe
After conquering Poland, Hitler aimed to defeat Britain and France. The Nazi Party formed alliances with Japan and Italy and honored its nonaggression pact with the Soviet Union until 1941 when Germany invaded the Soviet Union. As the war expanded, Germany found itself fighting on multiple fronts, including North Africa, Italy, France, and the Soviet Union.
The Holocaust
When Hitler and the Nazis came to power in 1933, they instituted measures to persecute Germany’s Jewish citizens. By 1938, Jews were banned from most public places in Germany. During the war, the Nazis' anti-Jewish campaigns escalated. In Poland, German troops shot thousands of Jews, confined many to ghettos, and sent others to death camps.
In 1941, Nazi death squads killed tens of thousands of Jews in Soviet Russia. At the 1942 Wannsee Conference, the Nazi Party decided on the “Final Solution,” planning the systematic murder of all European Jews. Death camps like Auschwitz began operating with ruthless efficiency, killing millions of Jews, communists, homosexuals, political prisoners, and others.
The Nuremberg Trials
Although Hitler committed suicide in April 1945, a number of Nazi officials were convicted of war crimes in the Nuremberg trials, held from 1945 to 1949.
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