"I spoke for thirty minutes, and what before I had
simply felt within me, without in any way knowing it, was now proved by
reality: I could speak! After thirty minutes the people in the small room were
electrified and the enthusiasm was first expressed by the fact that my appeal
to the self-sacrifice of those present led to the donation of three hundred
marks."-Adolf Hitler
On
February 24, 1920, Hitler was thrilled when he entered the large meeting hall
in Munich and saw two thousand people waiting, including a large number of
Communists.
A few
minutes into his speech, he was drowned out by shouting followed by open
brawling between German Workers' Party associates and disruptive Communists.
Eventually, Hitler resumed speaking and claims in Mein Kampf the shouting was gradually drowned out
by applause.
He proceeded to outline the Twenty Five
Points of the German
Workers' Party Hitler realized one thing the
movement lacked was a recognizable symbol or flag. In the summer of 1920,
Hitler chose the symbol which to this day remains perhaps the most infamous in
history, the swastika.
The German Workers' Party name was changed by
Hitler to include the term National Socialist. Thus the full name was the
National Socialist German Workers' Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche
Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP)
called for short, Nazi.
By the end of 1920 it had about three
thousand members.
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