Socialists?

The people who founded the party probably believed in some form of socialism, but Hitler and company took it over. It was very much the vogue in the '20s and '30s to claim to be socialist--the Italian fascists did so. But it was just lip service.

See this Wikipedia article on the foundation of the National Socialists. One of the hallmarks of fascism and nazism was a combination of a socialist rhetoric with nationalism. Any notional socialist intention fell by the wayside in the face of political realities.

Sorry for stealing your knowledge. I am totally self-educated and rely on too many questions, to enrich my life. Thanks for your wisdom. Forgive typing errors, I find it hard to do two things at a time (a male problem!).

Most think that the people, who founded the party, didn't believe in Socialism but only wanted to get party members from the working class. That's why the party origianally was called DAP (Deutsche Arbeiter Partei) [German Workers' Party].

When that got the 'NSDAP' in 1920, Hitler [and Eckart, Esser, Heß, Röhm, Feder] added the 'NS' to the party's name without informing the party's leaders. (The name was already used - though a bit differently - by an Austrian party, DNSAP.)

I'm not surprised. It was a scam of fascist parties throughout Europe to claim to be socialist and to claim to be concerned for the proletariat. Of course, their only concern was to gain power, by any means. The most notable characteristics of fascist parties were nationalism and militarism.

Between 1919 and late 1920's, there have been several racial ("völkisch") parties in Germany, which claimed to be "social" or "socialist": the Nationalsozialistische Freiheitspartei (National Socialist Freedom Party) [especially during the period after the 'Munich Putsch'], the Deutschsoziale Partei (German Social Party), the Deutschsozialistische Partei (German Socialist Party) ....