17. Anton Drexler.

Anton Drexler (1884-1942) one of the leading founders of the Deutscher Arbeiterpartei (DAP; German Workers’ Party). Drexler was born in Munich on 13 June 1884. A locksmith and toolmaker by trade, Drexler did not serve during the First World War; following medical examination he was deemed unfit. Drexler, together with journalist Karl Harrer, engineer and economic theoretician Gottfried Feder, and journalist/writer Dietrich Eckart founded the Deutscher Arbeiterpartei, a remnant of the earlier and once quite powerful Pan-German Fatherland Party following the armistice in 1919. Hitler, on attending a meeting of the fledgling Deutscher Arbeiterpartei, was impressed more by Drexler’s ideas than his oratory. Adolf Hitler became member No. 55 of the DAP on 19 September 1919.

While Hitler identified and fully agreed with the party’s ideology, he saw their agenda as lacking the necessary impetus and energy to carry it forward. The DAP asserted the idea of a Jewish-capitalist-Masonic conspiracy; something with which Hitler was in total agreement. It has been said that these first encounters with the DAP provided the spark that ignited Hitler’s feelings of anti-Semitism.

Hitler’s drive and excellent oratory soon led to his appointment as chairman of the German Workers’ Party. In April 1920, and at Hitler’s suggestion, the German Workers’ Party became the Nationalsozialistische Deutscher Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP; National Socialist German Workers’ Party). By July 1921 Adolf Hitler was the undisputed leader of the NSDAP with Drexler promoted honorary chairman; a purely symbolic position of no real importance. Drexler left the party in 1923 at a time when the NSDAP was proscribed; he took no part in the Beer-Hall Putsch. Following Hitler’s release from Landsberg Prison and the subsequent reorganization of the party in 1924/25, Drexler played no part in it; in fact he opposed Hitler. A form of reconciliation did come about in 1930. Anton Drexler rejoined the Nazi Party in 1933 following Hitler’s appointment as Chancellor. At the time of his death on 24 February 1942, Anton Drexler was, for the most part, a forgotten man.