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The Rise of the Nazi Party
1919 – German Workers’ Party (later, Nazi Party) established.
1921 – Adolf Hitler becomes Party Chairman.
1921-1922 – Period of growth in support for the Nazis due to the appeal to young unemployed men who were suffering due to the economic crisis under the Weimar Republic.
1922 – Inspired by the National Fascist Party in Italy, Hitler introduced the straight-armed salute, which became synonymous with the Nazi party, and is still used by Neo-Nazi and Fascist groups today.
1923 – The Nazi Party carried out an unsuccessful coup against the government which resulted in imprisonment for Hitler. Whilst incarcerated Hitler wrote his manifesto Mein Kampf in which he outlined his ideology on a true ‘Aryan’ race and expressed his violent anti-semitism.
1923-27 – the Nazi Party continued to gain popularity.
1929 – By this point, the Nazi Party had approximately 130,000 members. The Nazis gained support by implanting the idea that the ongoing financial crisis, which saw unemployment rise and businesses fail was due to Jewish financiers, building on existing anti-semitism.
1933 – With over 400,000 party members, Hitler was appointed Chancellor. Once in office, he quickly secured almost unlimited power through manipulation and terror, though he remained publicly respectful to the President, Paul Von Hindenburg. When the latter died in 1934 Hitler became Fuhrer. Governmental practice was changed, with a law being passed which allowed the Nazis to pass laws without parliamentary approval. They later banned all other political parties, turning Germany into a one-party state.
