IB History Role of Ideas Key Definitions

The Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, the Nazi Party. Founded in 1919 as the German Workers' Party (DAP) and renamed in 1920, it was led by Adolf Hitler from 1921. The party combined extreme German nationalism, anti-Semitism, anti-communism, and opposition to the Weimar Republic's democracy. Its paramilitary wing, the SA (Sturmabteilung), used violence against political opponents. The NSDAP won only 2.6% of the vote in 1928 but surged to 18.3% in 1930 and 37.4% in July 1932 as the Great Depression deepened. Hitler became Chancellor on January 30, 1933, and the party established a one-party state within months.

The false claim that Germany's army was never defeated in battle in the First World War but was betrayed on the home front by civilians, socialists, and Jews. It let nationalists blame Germany's defeat and the Treaty of Versailles on internal enemies rather than military failure, and Nazi propaganda used it extensively.

The Nazi concept of a racially pure "people's community" that transcended class divisions. It was used to promote national unity and justify the exclusion and persecution of Jews, Roma, and other "non-Aryans."