Editing Anton Drexler

{{Short description|German far-right politician (1884–1942)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox politician 
|name = Anton Drexler
|image = Anton Drexler at desk.jpg
|caption = Drexler in 1920
|office2 = [[German Workers' Party|Chairman of the German Workers' Party]]
|term_start2 = 5 January 1919
|term_end2 = 24 February 1920
|deputy2 = [[Karl Harrer]]
|successor2 = ''Position abolished''
|predecessor2 = ''Position established''
|office1 = [[Nazi Party|Chairman of the Nazi Party]]
|term_start1 = 24 February 1920
|term_end1 = 29 July 1921{{sfn|Evans|2003|p=180}}
| successor1 = [[Adolf Hitler]] (as dictatorial ''[[Führer]]'' of the party)
|predecessor1 = ''Position established''
|birth_date = {{Birth date|1884|6|13|df=y}}
|birth_place = Munich, German Empire
|death_date = {{death date and age|1942|2|24|1884|6|13|df=y}}
|death_place = Munich, Germany
|party = [[Nazi Party]] (1920–1923, 1933–1942)
|otherparty = [[German Fatherland Party]] (1917–1918)<br />[[German Workers' Party]] (1919–1920)<br />[[Völkisch-Social Bloc]] (1924–1928)
|spouse = 
|occupation = [[Locksmith]]<br/>[[Tool and die maker]]
|awards = [[Blood Order]]<br />[[Golden Party Badge]]
}}
'''Anton Drexler''' (13 June 1884 – 24 February 1942) was a German [[far-right]] political agitator for the [[Völkisch movement|''Völkisch'' movement]] in the 1920s. He founded the [[German Workers' Party]] (DAP), the [[pan-German]] and [[anti-Semitic]] antecedent of the [[Nazi Party]] (NSDAP). Drexler mentored his successor in the NSDAP, [[Adolf Hitler]], during his early years in politics.

==Early life==
Born in [[Munich]], Drexler was a machine-fitter before becoming a railway toolmaker and [[locksmith]] in Berlin.{{sfn|Kershaw|2008|p=82}} He is believed to have been disappointed with his income, and to have played the [[zither]] in restaurants to supplement his earnings.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/modern-world-history-1918-to-1980/weimar-germany/anton-drexler/|title=Anton Drexler|website=History Learning Site}}</ref> Drexler did not serve in the armed forces during [[World War I]] because he was deemed physically unfit for service.{{sfn|Wistrich|2002|page=46}}

==Politics==

During World War I, Drexler joined the [[German Fatherland Party]],{{sfn|Hamilton|1984|p=219}} a short-lived [[far-right]] party active during the last phase of the war, which played a significant role in the emergence of the [[stab-in-the-back myth]] and the defamation of certain politicians as the "[[November Criminals]]".

In March 1918, Drexler founded a branch of the Free Workers' Committee for a Good Peace (''Der Freie Arbeiterausschuss für einen guten Frieden'') league.{{sfn|Kershaw|2008|p=82}} [[Karl Harrer]], a journalist and member of the [[Thule Society]], convinced Drexler and several others to form the [[Politischer Arbeiter-Zirkel|Political Workers' Circle]] (''Politischer Arbeiter-Zirkel'') in 1918.{{sfn|Kershaw|2008|p=82}} The members met periodically for discussions about [[nationalism]] and [[antisemitism]].{{sfn|Kershaw|2008|p=82}}

===German Workers' Party===
Together with Harrer, Drexler founded the German Workers' Party (DAP) in Munich on 5 January 1919.{{sfn|Kershaw|2008|p=82}} At a DAP meeting in Munich on 12 September 1919, the main speaker was [[Gottfried Feder]], who held a lecture on the subject of 'the breaking of interest slavery'. When Feder's lecture concluded, Adolf Hitler{{Mdash}}who attended the meeting as part of his assignment from the German Army to watch political agitators{{Mdash}} got involved in a heated political argument with a visitor, Professor [[Adalbert Baumann]], who questioned the soundness of Feder's arguments and in turn spoke in favour of [[Bavarian separatism]].{{sfn|Kershaw|2008|p=75}} In vehemently attacking the man's arguments, Hitler made an impression on the other party members with his [[Public speaking|oratorical]] abilities, and according to him, the professor left the hall defeated.{{sfn|Kershaw|2008|p=75}} Drexler approached Hitler and gave him a copy of his pamphlet ''My Political Awakening''.{{sfn|Kershaw|2008|p=75}} Hitler later claimed the literature reflected the ideals he already held since his own "political awakening".{{sfn|Kershaw|2008|p=75}} Impressed with Hitler, Drexler encouraged him to join the DAP. On the orders of his army superiors, Hitler applied to join the party.{{sfn|Evans|2003|p=170}}

Once accepted, Hitler began to make the party more public by drawing people in with his speaking abilities, leading up to his organizing the party's biggest meeting yet, which attracted 2,000 people to the [[Staatliches Hofbräuhaus in München|Hofbräuhaus]] in Munich on 24 February 1920. It was in this speech that Hitler, for the first time, enunciated the [[National Socialist Program#German Party program|twenty-five points of the German Worker's Party's manifesto]] that he had authored with Drexler and Feder.{{sfn|Shirer|1960|p=40}} Through these points, he gave the organisation a foreign policy, including the abrogation of the [[Treaty of Versailles]], a [[German Question|Greater Germany]], Eastern expansion, and exclusion of Jews from citizenship.{{sfn|Shirer|1960|p=41}} On the same day the party was renamed the National Socialist German Workers' Party (''Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei'', NSDAP).{{sfn|Kershaw|2008|p=87}}

Following an intraparty dispute, Hitler angrily tendered his resignation on 11 July 1921. However, Drexler and the party's governing committee members realised that the resignation of their leading public figure and speaker would mean the end of the party. So [[Dietrich Eckart]] was asked by the Party leadership to speak with Hitler and relay the conditions in which he would agree to return.{{sfn|Kershaw|2008|pp=100-103}} Hitler announced he would rejoin the party on the condition that he would replace Drexler as party chairman, with dictatorial powers and the title of "''Führer''", and that the party headquarters would remain in Munich. The committee agreed and he rejoined the party as member 3,680.{{sfn|Kershaw|2008|pp=103–104}} Drexler was thereafter moved to the purely symbolic position of honorary president.{{sfn|Shirer|1960|p=45}}

Drexler was also a member of a ''[[Völkisch movement|völkisch]]'' political club for affluent members of Munich society known as the [[Thule Society]]. His membership in the Nazi Party ended when it was temporarily outlawed in 1923 following the [[Beer Hall Putsch]], although Drexler had not taken part in the coup attempt. In 1924, he was elected to the Bavarian state parliament for the [[Völkisch-Social Bloc]] party (VSB), in which he served as vice president until 1928. He played no role in the Nazi Party's re-founding in February 1925 and rejoined only after Hitler ascended to national power in 1933.{{sfn|Hamilton|1984|p=220}} In May 1925, he founded a group with other VSB deputies, the ''Nationalsozialer Volksbund'' (National Social People's League), but it was dissolved in 1927–1928.{{sfn|Zentner|Bedürftig|1991|p=209}} Drexler received the Nazi Party's [[Blood Order]] in 1934, and was still occasionally used as a [[Nazi propaganda|propaganda]] tool until about 1937, but was never allowed any power within the party.

==Death==
Drexler died in Munich in February 1942 after a lengthy illness due to alcoholism.{{sfn|Hamilton|1984|p=220}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Bibliography==
* {{cite book | last = Evans | first = Richard J. | author-link = Richard J. Evans | title = The Coming of the Third Reich | year = 2003 | publisher = Penguin Group | location = New York | isbn = 978-0-14-303469-8 | title-link = The Coming of the Third Reich }}
* {{cite book | last =  Hamilton  | first =  Charles  | title = Leaders & Personalities of the Third Reich |volume=I | year = 1984  | publisher = R. James Bender Publishing | isbn = 0-912138-27-0 }}
* {{cite book | last = Hitler | first = Adolf | author-link = Adolf Hitler | title = Mein Kampf | location = Boston | publisher = Houghton Mifflin | year = 1999 | orig-year = 1925 | isbn = 978-0-395-92503-4 | title-link = Mein Kampf }}
* {{cite book |last=Kershaw |first=Ian | author-link = Ian Kershaw |year=2008 |title=Hitler: A Biography |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |location=New York |isbn=978-0-393-06757-6 }}
* {{cite book |last=Shirer |first=William L. |author-link=William L. Shirer |title=The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich |publisher=Simon & Schuster |location=New York |year=1960 | lccn = 60-6729 |title-link=The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich }}
* {{cite book |last=Wistrich |first=Robert S. |author-link=Robert S. Wistrich |date=2002 |title=Who's Who in Nazi Germany |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7qlvzyEieyQC&pg=PA46 |location=New York, NY |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-4152-6038-1 |via=[[Google Books]]}}
* {{cite book | last1=Zentner | first1=Christian | last2=Bedürftig | first2 = Friedemann | year=1991 | title= [[The Encyclopedia of the Third Reich]] | location= New York | publisher= Macmillan | isbn=0-02-897500-6 }}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book | last = Mitcham | first = Samuel W.| author-link = Samuel W. Mitcham | title = Why Hitler?: The Genesis of the Nazi Reich | year = 1996 | publisher = Praeger | location = Westport, Conn | isbn = 978-0-275-95485-7 }}

==External links==
*''[https://archive.org/details/01Combine_201706 Mein politisches Erwachen; aus dem Tagebuch eines deutschen sozialistischen Arbeiters]''  München, Deutscher Volksverlag 4th ed.

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{{s-ppo}}
{{s-bef|before = none}}
{{s-ttl|title = [[German Workers' Party|Chairman of the DAP]]|years = 1919–1921}}
{{s-aft|after = [[Adolf Hitler]]}}
{{s-end}}
{{NSDAP}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Drexler, Anton}}
[[Category:1884 births]]
[[Category:1942 deaths]]
[[Category:German anti-capitalists]]
[[Category:German anti-communists]]
[[Category:German Workers Party members]]
[[Category:German Fatherland Party politicians]]
[[Category:German nationalists]]
[[Category:Nazi Party officials]]
[[Category:Politicians from the Kingdom of Bavaria]]
[[Category:German political party founders]]
[[Category:Politicians from Munich]]
[[Category:Right-wing anti-capitalism]]
[[Category:Thule Society members]]
[[Category:Alcohol-related deaths in Germany]]