In the beginning there was Adolph Hitler. Adolf was a earnest little lad who lived a somewhat uninteresting life as a child. His father, a costumes official for the border seperating Austria and Germany, was dominant and overpowering. When Adolf was fourteen his father died and it was then that he began to show signs of the vicious burning hate he would display in later life. When Adolf was only nineteen he left home for Vienna. He wanted to be a painter and even tried to be admitted to an art school but he was refused. It was during his years in Vienna that he picked up (or at least it is evident) an intense hatred for Jews and according to him is where he formed all of his Supreme Race theories.

World War One hit Europe with a storm and Hitler joined the German army. He was a fierce fighter, if not manical. At one point he captured 21 men single-handedly, but he was wounded with mustard gas later and he spent much time recovering in a hospital. When he finally recovered the war was over and so a still somewhat weakened Hitler found work in Munich as a courier. It was at this time that he came across the German Workers' Party and was entranced with their beliefs.
Hitler did not found or start the German Workers' Party , he only joined it and later dominated it.
In 1919 at age thirty, immediatly Hitler began a frenzied effort to make it, the party, succeed. Hitler was one of the seven members of the executive committee of the party. First he prepared invitations for other party members to give to friends and family...few people came. Slowly the party grew and then one night they rented a beer cellar that could hold a hundred people and overly filled the place. One of the speakers (much to the other committee members doubt of success) was Hitler. Much to everyone's surprise he was a passionate and stirring speaker...he later described this moment in his auto-biography Mein Kampf:

"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."

In 1920 Hitler became the head of the party's propaganda and in Feburary he pushed for the parties first mass meeting. Though the other leaders of the party apposed it, it was soon organized. It was feared that Marxist revolutionists would show up at the rally and be disruptive, but Hitler wanted this. He suspected correctly that this would only spur on the cause of the Worker's Party playing on the fears of the Germans that there would be a communist revolution.

On Feburary 24th, 1920, Hitler entered the meeting hall and was pleased to find 2000 people waiting for the rally to begin. Among this number was a recognizeable amount of Communists waiting to disrupt the meeting. Just a few minutes into Hitler's speach the communists started yelling which blossomed into a brawl...but as Hitler had hoped, the comunists were outnumbered and soon the shouting "was gradually drowned out by applause".
Hitler then proceeded to outline his Twenty Five Points of the German Workers Party. The rally was a success.

"When after nearly four hours the hall began to empty and the crowd, shoulder to shoulder, began to move, shove, press toward the exit like a slow stream, I knew that now the principles of a movement which could no longer be forgotten were moving out among the German people." (Mein Kampf)

It was also in 1920 that Hitler brought the swastika to the party as its official symbol along with a new name, the National Socialist German Worker's Party, Nazi for short. By the end of 1920 the party's membership had blossomed to 3000 people.

Hitler quickly gained notoriety throughout Germany as a person capable of leadership which could lead Germany away from a communist revolt similiar to what had recently occured in Russia. It was in this light that Hitler went to Berlin in July 1921 to raise support from other Nationalist groups. The other leaders of the Nazi party were skeptical, jealous, and strongly apposed to him leading the party. So while he was gone to Berlin, they quickly formed an alliance with another Nationalist group from Augsburg to weaken his postion. It was here he once again displayed his adept political manipulative powers: Hitler rushed back to Munich and on July 11th, 1921 resigned from the Nazi party.

The other party leaders quite quickly realized their mistake, to throw out Hitler would mean the end of all the advances the party had made with him, and eventually the death of the party. Hitler fully realized this and sent them a proposal that he would rejoin the party under the conditions that they make him chairman and give him almost complete power. At first the committee held out but then backed down and put it to a member vote. The votes were counted and Hitler was voted in by 543 for him and only 1 against him. So the Nazi party found its new leader and on July 29th, 1921 Adolf Hitler was introduced to the meeting as their new "Fuhrer", a title that would stay with him for the rest of his life.

By 1923 the party had exploded to 55,000 members and in November of 1923 Hitler led the "Beer Hall Putsch" which tried but did not succeed in overthrowing the government of Bavaria and eventually Berlin. It was spurred by the economic breakdown which had struck Germany. It failed dramatically and ended with several Nazi leaders (later to become iconized Nazi saints) and Hitler in prison. It was while in prison that Hitler wrote his infamous Mein Kampf. Nazism was somewhat outlawed which only lead to its becoming more popular among the young of Germany and Hitler's loyal SA, or Storm Troopers blossomed.

It was between the time Hitler was released from the prison until 1933 that what historians call the "quiet years" occured. Nothing happened, except that the Nazi party grew quickly in size.
The Hitler Jugend, or Hitler's Youth, was formed during these years.
In 1933, through Hitler's adept political manuvering he and his party were given just enough power to quickly take over the german goverment and form what they called a new "Reich". The Third Reich. Hopefully the final Reich.
Of course the rest is well known to any student of history. Hitler built Germany into a powerfull "war machine" and also destroyed the homes, families, and lives of many of what he called the "unfit races" which included Jews. It columnated in the mass murdering of millions of people, jews, polish, christians, and other minority and ethnic or religious groups. World War two then tore apart Europe, parts of Africa, Japan, and numerous other places, not to mention Germany. This was the end of what I call the "Hitlerist Nazi Era".

Today the problem has not disapeared. It still exists. A new front of hate has arisen, and though it is scattered with various faces and names, it still exists. They have been branded as the NeoNazis and they are a very present and extremely real problem. A group doesn't have to be branded "Nazi" to be a danger to humanity...ANY group or person who's belief is hate and who does not consider some other person or group of persons worthy of life is a menace to the human race.
The New Nazism is a growing problem througout the world, something political and religious leaders should be concerned about. In the United States, where I live, there is a huge increase of this activity right under our noses. History is yet to be written...will we be victims of the next Holocaust?
This was a short history of the Nazis, where they came from, what they did, and where they are today.

Hate is the Enemy -- unkown