ABSTRACT
The Nazi movement originated in Munich as the German Workers’ Party (DAP), one of a number of völkisch, or radical fringe, groups established immediately after the end of the First World War. Hitler, previously an impoverished Austrian artist who had served in the German army, joined in November 1919. He was placed in charge of the Party’s propaganda and was largely responsible for drafting the 25 Point Programme in 1920 and for renaming the movement the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP). The following year he supplanted Anton Drexler as party leader and extended National Socialist (Nazi) activities into the media, with the acquisition of the Munich Observer, and into paramilitary activism with the formation of the Sturm Abteilung (SA).
