No one would have thought that a party that started out with seven members would become the sole political party of Germany. But sure enough it happened. The German Workers Party started out as a gang of unemployed soldiers in 1919. Anton Drexler, Gottfrieg Feder, and Dietrich Eckart formed the German Workers Party in Munich.

 When the German Army heard about this small group, they were worried that it might be a left-wing revolutionary group so they sent Adolf Hitler, one of there educated officers to spy on the small party. On September 2, in regular civilian clothes, Hitler went to spy on the small German Workers Party. When Hitler arrived, there was about twenty-five other people there also. Hitler then listened to a speech on economics by one of the party's leaders, Gottfried Feder. After Gottfried's speech a man in the crowd stood up and started speaking in favor of the German State of Bavaria which Hitler strongly apposed. Hitler was enraged and even though he was there as a spy he stood up and spoke aloud against the man. When the leaders from the party heard Hitler's speech, they were shocked. After his speech, the leaders rushed over to Hitler and asked if he would become part of their party. A day later Hitler became the seventh member of the German Workers Party.
When Hitler became part of the party, he also had a lot of things that he wanted to add on to the group, such as he had the group adopt the ancient Religion  and made the swastika sign the party's symbol. Hitler wanted the society to follow him and he wanted to control the government. Hitler also gave many speeches after he became part of the group. At a rented beer cellar that could hold a hundred people, Hitler gave a speech and the crowd went wild with excitement. On February 24,1920, Hitler entered a hall in Munich and began a speech but was rudely interrupted by a jealous party of Communists who started booing and yelling at him. They were soon drowned out by the applause of all of the followers of the German Workers Party,and they soon left. By the end of the 1920's, the party had grown to over 3,000 members.
When Hitler went to Berlin in the middle of July to get support from other Nationalist groups, some of the leaders from the Nazi Party were very jealous of Hitler and didn't want him to become the leader of the Nazi Party. So when Hitler was over in Berlin trying to get support they formed an alliance against Hitler to try and weaken his position in the party. When Hitler came back to Munich and found out what they were trying to do to him, he resigned and the Party then realized how much they needed him and how much they would lose, like all of his followers, and all of his great outstanding speeches that attracted all of those thousands of people. So the leaders asked Hitler to rejoin the Party and Hitler agreed under one condition - that he could have total and complete control over the party. At first some of the leaders resisted, but they soon gave in. After that, the Nazi Party grew from 27,000 members in 1925 to 178,000 by 1929.
When Hitler thought that everything was going so great, he decided to make a big mistake. Hitler attempted to overthrow the Munich authorities but failed by a long shot. On February 24, Hitler and his other Nazi leaders were tried for high treason. Hitler was sentenced to five years in prison and the other Nazi leaders were given light sentences. The Nazi Party seemed doomed without its great notorious leader. While Hitler was in prison, he wrote volume 1 of of his book titled Mein Kamph or (My Struggle), it went on to be published in 1925. Hitler was sentenced to 5 years but only served 9 months. On December 20th, Hitler was released on parole. Soon after that the Nazi party was re-formed in Munich, and the once doomed party was nom back to normal.  
Now that Hitler had better tactics and more knowledge, he formed his own army of storm troopers or also known as the SA which was a propaganda branch of the party.  They became know for their strong-arm tactics of street brawling and terror. He also established the SS which was an elite group with special duties with the SA. Hitler formed other groups to gain even more support such as the Hitler youth, the Students League, and the Pupils League.
In July, 1932, in Parliamentary elections the Nazi Party won 230 of the 608 seats. Hitler demanded the chancellor ship, but still Hindenburg refused to give it to him. Hitler finishes a strong second by Hindenburg, but then he was defeated in the runoff elections for presidency. On March 13, Joseph Goebbels was then made the minister for public enlightenment and propaganda.
On January 30, 1933, Hitler was sworn in as the chancellor of Germany. A month later the Reichstay was burned, and then two months later the Enabling Act stripped the parliament of any power that it had and made Hitler the dictator of Germany. Then a few months later the Nazi Party was declared the sole political party in Germany.
Now that Hitler had total and complete control over Germany, he now turned back to the people he most hated, the Jews. He started boycotting shops that the Jews owned. He had bonfires that he burnt books that he disagreed with or that were against him. Then Hitler opened Dachau, one of the first concentration camps in Germany.
As Hitler and his storm troopers were killing and beating up Jews, Hitler needed an excuse to just massacre the Jewish race, and then his chance came. Herschel Grynszpan, a 17-year old Jew living in Paris, was enraged about how poorly the Nazis were treating his parents. So he shot and killed a member of the German Embassy staff there in Paris. This made Hitler and many other Germans very angry. A day later Jewish synagogues were burned, and Jewish shops were broken into and wrecked. This night was known as Kristallnacht or the night of broken glass.
Now all there is is war and violence breaking out everywhere. In 1939 the Nazis and the Soviet Union took over Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Finland. In 1940 they took over Denmark, Norway, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Holland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. Then in 1941, Germany stabs her own partner in the back by attacking the Soviet Union.
Now Hitler has to think of another plan for exterminating the Jews, so he tells Gruppenfuhrer Heydrick to think up a plan for exterminating the Jews. Well, Heydrich thought and thought, and he decided to use concentration camps to get rid of them. So now concentration camps are being built in Germany such as Auschwitz and Treblinka. Now Jews from all over Germany are being rushed to these huge concentration camps  and any who resisted were beaten or shot. Hundreds of thousands of Jews were being gassed.
The Allied Powers from the West and the Russian armies from the East were slowly getting closer and closer to Germany each day. Soon they were so close that Auschwitz had to stop gassing, and Hitler knew that he couldn't stop the enemy. He knew that this was the end of him, of the Nazi Party, and of Germany. So Hitler and his wife Eva Braum committed suicide inside an underground bunker. After that Hitler's armies surrendered to the Allied forces, and the Nazi Party was once again back to nowhere. This act ended Hitler's reign over Germany.

 

 

 

Spensor Askren

7th Social Studies

Rossville Jr. High

Holocaust Project

2004

Bibliography