Dictionary of the Holocaust : Biography, geography, and terminology / E.J. Epstein, P. Rosen. – Westport, 1997. – p. 206
The Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei started as an appendage of the Thule-Gesellschaft formed in 1917. Anton Drexler and other railroad workers founded the Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, which often held meetings in Thule quarters. In 1919, Hitler was sent by army intelligence to spy on the party and quickly became its chairman of propaganda and soon its leader. He added the term Nationalsozialistische to Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, which became ‘Nazi’ in common vernacular. By 1932, it was the largest single party in Germany, but not the majority. In the election that year, Nazis polled 38 percent of the vote. Its popularity was due to a number of factors: fear of the Bolsheviks, economic chaos, political and social instability, supernationalism, and anti-Semitism. Hitler was carefully portrayed as Germany’s savoir.
Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei