Adolf Hitler joined the Nazi party after being inspired by Gottfried Feder’s 1919 speech about the new party’s ideals. An indication of those ideals is in Feder’s 1919 publication, Manifesto for the Abolition of Enslavement to Interest on Money. Here’s an excerpt from (Nazi sympathizer) Hadding Scott’s translation of Feder’s manifesto:
“The abolition of enslavement to interest on money signifies the only possible and conclusive liberation of productive labor from the hidden coercive money-powers. The abolition of enslavement to interest signifies the restoration of the free personality, the redemption of man from slavery, from the curse whereby Mammonism has bound his soul. Whoever wishes to fight capitalism, must abolish enslavement to interest.”
Gottfried Feder, Manifesto for the Abolition of Enslavement to Interest on Money (1919).
(Another datum in the “Were the Nazis really socialists?” debate.)
A year later, Feder, Hitler, and Anton Drexler published their co-authored 25-point Program for the National Socialist German Workers‘ Party, the founding document for the Nazi Party.
Related: Nietzsche and the Nazis: print and e-book via Amazon, audiobook at YouTube.
“Adolf Hitler joined the Nazi Party after being inspired by Gottfried Feder’s 1919 speech about the new party’s ideals.” — Is that strictly so?
My understanding is that there was no “Nazi” party for Hitler to join (in 1919). There was the “German Workers Party”. Hitler joined it and transformed it into the “National Socialist German Workers Party”.
I understand that the NS party officials always referred to their party as “National Socialist”, and their ideology as “National Socialism”. (Never “Nazi”, which was a pejorative, much like “Commie”.) They also never referred to their party or their movement as “Fascist”. The original Antifaschistische Aktion (AntiFa) regarded their main opponents the Sociald Democratic Party of Germany (“one of the earliest Marxist-influenced parties in the world”, according to Wikipedia).
Yes, the party he joined was the GWP in 1919, renamed NSDAP in 1920. So “Nazi” is a nickname for that set of people, ideas, and movement.