German National Socialist Workers' Party

The implementation of Adolf Hitler's ideology of National Socialism was the German National Socialist Workers' Party (German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei) Germans usually called it the NSDAP or, in English, the Nazi Party). It was a political party that controlled Germany under Hitler from 1933 to 1945.

"Nazi" is a short form of “Nationalsozialist,” representing the German pronunciation of the first two syllables of the word “national.” It was formed analogously with “Sozi,” the long-established nickname for the Social Democratic Party (SPD).

Hitler took command of a small new party in 1920, renamed it the NSDAP, and built its strength through grass roots organizing and violence in the 1920s. The party stressed violent German nationalism and vehement antisemitism, and attacked both Communism and the democracy of Germany at the time.