User blog:ARTaylor/100 Years of the Nazi Party

Today marks the one-hundredth anniversary of the beginnings of the Nazi Party. It was on this day in 1919 that a political organization was founded named German Workers' Party, or DAP in German for short. Following Germany's defeat in the Great War, four men formed the group to get in touch with the masses and nationalists. It was founded in Munich and they focused on issues of German nationalism, Pan-Germanism, Anti-communism, and Antisemitism.

In July of 1919, a Great War veteran and intelligence agent named Adolf Hitler was ordered to infiltrate the group. Hitler became enamored with founder's Anton Drexler's far-right remarks. After an argument with a visiting professor impressed the members with his oratory skills, he was quickly made a member. He rose in the party's ranks winning over the others with his views. Little more than a year after its founding, on February 24th, the German Workers' Party was renamed to National Socialist German Workers' Party, or more commonly known as Nazis.

The rest, as we know, is history.