National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP)/German Workers’ Party (DAP ) – Reich Administration

On March 7, 1918, Anton Drexler, who was employed by the ‘Münchner Eisenbahnerwerkstätten’ (Munich Railway Workshops), established the ‘Freier Arbeitsausschuss für einen guten Frieden’ (Free Working Committee for a Good Peace). The group’s first public appearance was on October 2, 1918. Also present was the sports journalist Karl Harrer, like Drexler a member of the Thule Society, at whose behest he formed the ‘Politischer Arbeiterzirkel’ (Political Workers’ Circle). From this group, in turn, on January 5, 1919 came the establishment of the German Workers’ party (DAP). On September 12, 1919, Hitler, who had already appeared a few times as a propaganda speaker, attended at a party meeting in the Sterneckerbräu. It is possible that this occurred based on an order from the Munich ‘Stadtkommandantur’ (City Command), but the actual initiative probably lay with the director of the propaganda office of the intelligence service of the Bavarian Reichswehr Group Command 4, Karl Mayr, who wanted to support the counter-revolutionary DAP with the delegation of a series of his propagandists. Gottfried Feder spoke on this occasion about the elimination of capitalism. After him, a speaker advocated for the separation of Bavaria from the Third Reich, at which point Adolf Hitler, who had been deputized by the Reichswehr, responded with passionate protest. A few days later, he was informed that he had been accepted as a member. Harrer wanted to act with restraint and exert crucial influence over the workers’ circle; Hitler, by contrast, wanted to have an impact on the outside world through public meeting propaganda. Harrer departed on January 5, 1920. Drexler then named himself Reich Chair. The large majority of members lived in Munich. In January 1920, there were about 200. The first mass meeting was held in the Hofbräuhaus on February 24, 1920 in front of about 2,000 people; this is where the party program was announced. The party now called itself the Nazi Party (NSDAP).

Due to his successful activity as a speaker to the masses, Hitler became ever more important. From the outset, he asserted the exclusive claim to power over rival groups from the ethnic-chauvinist camp. In June 1921, Hitler went to Berlin with Dietrich Eckart to raise money for the Völkischer Beobachter. In July 1921 - Hitler was still in Berlin - during Hitler's absence, Drexler negotiated with the high school teacher Otto Dickel to arrange a meeting with his ‘Deutscher Werkgemeinschaft’ (German Workers’ Association) in Augsburg. Dickel stood for ethnic-chauvinist and constitutional ideas and was an admirer of England. Hitler rejected Dickel’s ideas summarily. When Drexler did not cease negotiations, Hitler left the party on July 11, 1921. Because with this, the party had lost its drawing card, Drexler capitulated. Hitler was elected Party Chair by the members’ meeting on July 29, 1921, with almost dictatorial powers. Dietrich Eckart and Rudolf Heß characterized him even at this time as a leader figure. On October 8, 1922, Julius Streicher also subjected himself to Hitler, with his Nuremberg Local Group of the ‘Deutsch-Sozialistische Partei’ (German Socialist Party). Hitler also demanded that the center of the National Socialist movement must always remain in Munich. With the change of the by-laws, the link between the leadership of the party as a whole and that of the Munich local group was also established. The elected party committee now existed only pro forma.

The first ‘Reichsparteitag’ (Reich Party Day) held on January 27-29, 1923 in Munich clarified Hitler's undisputed position. In the following months, with a series of provocative appearances, namely with an armed march of the SA on May 1, 1923, he underscored the independence and readiness of his party to resort to violence. When the German post-war crisis reached its height in fall 1923, Hitler assumed leadership of the ‘Deutscher Kampfbund’ (German Combat League), a merger of right-wing extreme militias, and attempted with a putsch on November 8, 1923 in Munich, to put the leadership of the Bavarian state under pressure to participate in a ‘March on Berlin’. The ‘Großdeutsche Volksgemeinschaft’ (Greater German Peoples’ Association) was established on January 1, 1924 as a substitute for the party, which was banned after the failed putsch on November 8, 1923. Alfred Rosenberg, who had been commissioned by Hitler to maintain the cohesion of the National Socialists, was not able to prevail against the radicals Hermann Esser and Streicher, who refused to participate in the elections. On January 7, 1924, the ‘Völkischer Block’ (People’s Block) (a group rejected by Hitler) was formed in Bamberg as a collective organization of the old-style ethnic-chauvinist forces. The group around Rosenberg joined with this group to form a Völkische Arbeitsgemeinschaft (People's Working Association) for the local parliament elections on April 6, 1924.

On February 27, 1925, Hitler held the first mass assembly after he was released from prison, in the Bürgerbräukeller. The new by-laws of the restored Nazi Party set down its dictatorial leadership position in writing once again. The Reich Administration was formed from the Munich Local Group, whose center remained in Munich. Hitler’s private secretary was Heß, Reich business manager Philipp Bouhler, and Reich treasurer Franz Xaver Schwarz. Gregor Straßer was initially Reich propaganda leader, then beginning in 1929, Josef Goebbels. Straßer was also responsible for organizational questions. In 1927, he organized the Reich Party Day in Nuremberg, which after that became a fixed ritual. At his suggestion, a Reich Organizational Administration II was established in September 1929. Subject to the Reich Organizational Leader I were the foreign department, the press office, and the National Socialist Works Cell Organization (NSBO), as well as the directors of offices for civil service questions, municipal affairs, and the war-damaged. Among other things, the Reich Organizational Leader II was responsible for the agricultural policy department and the economic policy department, the race and culture department, the department for labor service, as well as the domestic and legal departments. In June 1932, the two Reich Organizational Administrations were combined.

Since 1930, the dominance of the Munich central party was declining because Hitler and his closest advisors were spending more time in Berlin. Nevertheless, the Munich bureaucracy was expanded incessantly. In December 1932, Straßer, due to his willingness to support the Reich government under Kurt von Schleicher, came into irreconcilable conflict with Hitler and resigned from all party positions. Hitler now took over leadership of the political organization himself and named Robert Ley his Chief of Staff. Ley added another office in Berlin, where the mass organizations German Labor Front (DAF) and the NS organization ‘Kraft durch Freude’ (Strength through Joy) were located. As the Reich Organizational Leader, his influence declined over the course of time. Furthermore, Hitler brought the leader of the Reich business office, Philipp Bouhler, to Berlin, who became Chief of the new Chancellery of the Führer of the Nazi Party on November 17, 1934. It was not especially influential in terms of power. However, it was able to exert an ominous influence: It determined the criteria according to which people were murdered in the course of the NS euthanasia.

Hitler named Rudolf Heß as his deputy for party matters. Subject to him was the staff of the Führer’s Deputy in Munich. This was where, now as before, most of the offices of the Reich Administration of the Nazi Party were located. These included the High Party Court, the Reich Legal Office, the Reich Propaganda Leadership, the Reich Office of Agricultural Policy, the Colonial-Political Office, and the National Socialist Motor Corps (NSKK), the headquarters of the National Socialist German Student Association, and the National Socialist Teachers’ Association, parts of the leadership of SA and SS, also the main offices for municipal politics, for war victims, people's health, civil service, technology, craftsmen and trade, and the National Socialist Works Cell Organization (NSBO). Not subjected to Heß were the Reich Treasurer Franz Xaver Schwarz as general authorized officer for party financial matters and the leader of the party publishing house, Max Amann.

The Reich Administration employed 1598 people in 1934; in 1942, the figure was 5802. According to unrealized plans, the expansion of the Maxvorstadt district of Munich into a party quarter was supposed to continue. A giant chancellery building was planned across from the Alte Pinakothek; also a forum and a “party hall”. For personnel, a separate residential area was built in Pullach, the ‘Reich Residential Area Rudolf Heß,’ which later became the premises of the Federal Intelligence Service. Via his staff, Heß, who was also Reich Minister without portfolio starting in 1934, influenced all legislative procedures. He and his successor Martin Bormann especially ensured the ongoing decline of Jews’ living conditions. After Heß fled to England on May 10, 1941, his party office was renamed the Party Chancellery of the Nazi Party and it was subjected to Martin Bormann, who had acted as his Chief of Staff since July 1933. From then on, Bormann always remained close to Hitler. In 1943, his title was Secretary to the Führer.