Adolf Hitler led the Nazi Party after becoming its party leader in 1921.
The organization began in 1919 as the German Workers’ Party, or DAP. Hitler joined that year and quickly became one of its most prominent speakers. In 1920, it adopted the name National Socialist German Workers’ Party, commonly abbreviated NSDAP or called the Nazi Party.
Hitler became party leader in July 1921 and built a movement centered on extreme nationalism, antisemitism, racism, dictatorship, and the rejection of parliamentary democracy. The party’s rise accelerated during the economic and political crises of the late Weimar Republic. Hitler became chancellor on 30 January 1933, after which the Nazis dismantled democratic institutions and established a dictatorship.