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Originally Posted by buggyone
Village Golfer and BBQMan -
1. Nazism was founded out of the current of the far-right and racist German völkisch nationalist movement and the violent anti-communist Freikorps paramilitary culture that fought against the uprisings of communist revolutionaries in post-World War I Germany. The ideology was created by Anton Drexler as a means to draw workers away from communism and into völkisch nationalism.
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Bugs - Anton Drexler and Karl Harrer founded both the German Workers Party and the Political Workers Union. Harrer was to resign from the German Workers Party in 1920 and vanished from the political scene. Dexler attempted to throw Hitler out of the National Socialist German Worker's Party in 1921 but failed and became irrelevant although used as a propaganda tool as late as 1937. The idea of Hitler's political ideas being formed by these two is farfetched at best. Hitler used them just as he used President Paul von Hindenberg in his rise to power.
William L. Shirer lived through and reported on the events in Germany during Hitler's rise to power. He reported on the aftermath of the Reichstag fire, he was present for Kristallnacht and continued his reporting for the invasions of France, Norway, etc. He knew the main players as the drama played out. I know of no other historian that approaches his firsthand knowledge of events involving the Third Reich.