Anton Drexler - the first leader of the Nazi Party.
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Anton Drexler was born in
Anton Drexler was born in Munich on 13 June 1884, his father worked on the railway. He followed in his father’s footsteps. After an apprenticeship as a locksmith, he first worked as a tool fitter in a Berlin locomotive factory and as from 1902 in a Munich railway workshop.
Despite being of military age – he was thirty when the war broke out – he did not volunteer and he was not called up allegedly for being unfit.
In 1917 he joined the newly founded and as it happened, short lived, German Fatherland Party. This party had been founded by conservative land owners including Admiral Tirpitz in Koenigsburg town hall but sought to reach out to working class people.
On 7 March 1918, together with 27 colleagues from his workplace in what was then the Royal Bavarian State Railroad Central Workshop in Munich , he founded a branch of the Free Workers Committee for a Good Peace . Using contacts such as the rather wealthy playwrite Dietrich Eckart, Drexler was able to have such dignitaries as General Felix Graf von Bothmer, noted for commanding troops on the eastern front, to address his group.
In January 1918, he used his organisation to oppose the striking munitions workers.
The Thule Society used right wing journalist Karl Harrer who edited the Münchener Beobachter und Sportblatt to approach Anton Drexler to form some sort of a secret society which led to the Political Workers’ Circle.
Soon afterwards Drexler decided he wanted to start his own political party. Thus was born the DAP on 5 January 1919. Around this time Drexler published "My political awakening. From the diary of a German socialist worker".
Drexler may not have wanted to continue running a sort of secret organisation but there was not much interest in the DAP at the beginning. The first meeting had only ten people present.
However word of the party did get out, someone in the army learned of its existence and Hitler was ordered to attend the meeting. The main speaker that day was Gottfried Feder. Drexler approached Hitler and gave him a copy of his pamphlet My Political Awakening. Hitler said that on reading the leaflet, it reflected his ideals and so he applied to join the party.
Hitler's first DAP speech was held in the Hofbräukeller on 16 October 1919. He was the second speaker of the evening, and spoke to 111 people.
Soon there were hundreds coming to hear him speak. Karl Harrer and his overlords at the Thule Society had wanted to keep it a secret organisation. Hitler wanted to form a mass party as did Drexler. Thus in January 1920 the link with the Thule Society was broken. The party needed to have a programme and what was to become its 25 points appear to have been hammered out in the restaurant Zum Deutschen Reich in Munich Neuhausen on 5 February 1920 at which Detrich Eckart was the main speaker. On 24 February 1920, 2,000 people came to the Hofbräuhaus in Munich. Here, for the first time, Hitler announced the unalterable twenty-five points of the German Worker's Party which he had authored with Drexler and Feder, a mixture of nationalist, racist, and communist aims. On the same day the party was renamed the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP).
In July 1921 Hitler and Eckart went to Berlin on a fund raising mission. In their absence, the committee, with Drexler at its head, attempted to merge the party with the German Socialist Party. Hitler was furious when he found out and on 11 July 1921 Hitler resigned from the party. The others however realised that it was Hitler who brought in the crowds. Dietrich Eckart, to whom Hitler treated as a father figure, persuaded him to return but on condition that he would replace Drexler as party chairman. On 29 July 1921, Hitler became party leader after a vote which he won by 533 votes to one. Drexler presumably voted for himself but no-one else did.
After his defeat and loss of party control, Drexler was moved to the symbolic position of honorary president. He left the party in 1923.
In 1924 he was elected to the Bavarian state parliament for the Völkischer Block, in which he served as vice president until 1928. In February 1925 he founded the National Socialist Peoples’ Union which was a group with the Völkischer Block. In 1928, he ceased to sit in the state parliament and lost all political influence.
The Nazi party was made illegal in the aftermath of the attempted coup. It was legalised again in 1925 but Drexler did not join. He did however become one of the hundreds of thousands who joined in the aftermath of the seizure of power in 1933.
Drexler received the Nazi Party's Blood Order in 1934 for his services in building up the NSDAP at the beginning.
Drexler died in Munich on 24 February 1942.
Production of independent researched history is time consuming and expensive. Please consider supporting me on Patreon. Patreon: alanheath
Despite being of military age – he was thirty when the war broke out – he did not volunteer and he was not called up allegedly for being unfit.
In 1917 he joined the newly founded and as it happened, short lived, German Fatherland Party. This party had been founded by conservative land owners including Admiral Tirpitz in Koenigsburg town hall but sought to reach out to working class people.
On 7 March 1918, together with 27 colleagues from his workplace in what was then the Royal Bavarian State Railroad Central Workshop in Munich , he founded a branch of the Free Workers Committee for a Good Peace . Using contacts such as the rather wealthy playwrite Dietrich Eckart, Drexler was able to have such dignitaries as General Felix Graf von Bothmer, noted for commanding troops on the eastern front, to address his group.
In January 1918, he used his organisation to oppose the striking munitions workers.
The Thule Society used right wing journalist Karl Harrer who edited the Münchener Beobachter und Sportblatt to approach Anton Drexler to form some sort of a secret society which led to the Political Workers’ Circle.
Soon afterwards Drexler decided he wanted to start his own political party. Thus was born the DAP on 5 January 1919. Around this time Drexler published "My political awakening. From the diary of a German socialist worker".
Drexler may not have wanted to continue running a sort of secret organisation but there was not much interest in the DAP at the beginning. The first meeting had only ten people present.
However word of the party did get out, someone in the army learned of its existence and Hitler was ordered to attend the meeting. The main speaker that day was Gottfried Feder. Drexler approached Hitler and gave him a copy of his pamphlet My Political Awakening. Hitler said that on reading the leaflet, it reflected his ideals and so he applied to join the party.
Hitler's first DAP speech was held in the Hofbräukeller on 16 October 1919. He was the second speaker of the evening, and spoke to 111 people.
Soon there were hundreds coming to hear him speak. Karl Harrer and his overlords at the Thule Society had wanted to keep it a secret organisation. Hitler wanted to form a mass party as did Drexler. Thus in January 1920 the link with the Thule Society was broken. The party needed to have a programme and what was to become its 25 points appear to have been hammered out in the restaurant Zum Deutschen Reich in Munich Neuhausen on 5 February 1920 at which Detrich Eckart was the main speaker. On 24 February 1920, 2,000 people came to the Hofbräuhaus in Munich. Here, for the first time, Hitler announced the unalterable twenty-five points of the German Worker's Party which he had authored with Drexler and Feder, a mixture of nationalist, racist, and communist aims. On the same day the party was renamed the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP).
In July 1921 Hitler and Eckart went to Berlin on a fund raising mission. In their absence, the committee, with Drexler at its head, attempted to merge the party with the German Socialist Party. Hitler was furious when he found out and on 11 July 1921 Hitler resigned from the party. The others however realised that it was Hitler who brought in the crowds. Dietrich Eckart, to whom Hitler treated as a father figure, persuaded him to return but on condition that he would replace Drexler as party chairman. On 29 July 1921, Hitler became party leader after a vote which he won by 533 votes to one. Drexler presumably voted for himself but no-one else did.
After his defeat and loss of party control, Drexler was moved to the symbolic position of honorary president. He left the party in 1923.
In 1924 he was elected to the Bavarian state parliament for the Völkischer Block, in which he served as vice president until 1928. In February 1925 he founded the National Socialist Peoples’ Union which was a group with the Völkischer Block. In 1928, he ceased to sit in the state parliament and lost all political influence.
The Nazi party was made illegal in the aftermath of the attempted coup. It was legalised again in 1925 but Drexler did not join. He did however become one of the hundreds of thousands who joined in the aftermath of the seizure of power in 1933.
Drexler received the Nazi Party's Blood Order in 1934 for his services in building up the NSDAP at the beginning.
Drexler died in Munich on 24 February 1942.
Production of independent researched history is time consuming and expensive. Please consider supporting me on Patreon. Patreon: alanheath
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در تاریخ 1400/08/27 منتشر شده
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