February 24, 1920. An ominous day in history.

If you read the text on the sidebar describing the purpose of this blog, it provides:

All of this is still true, but the focus of the blog has changed somewhat. It now focuses on the era from 1890 to 1920 in general, rather than on the law and lawyers specifically, although that may be far from obvious. It's also become the location where we comment on anything we feel moved to comment on.

So these "today on" type threads that appear here now are on the edge of the time period we focus on here. . .which isn't to say that we don't post on other things.  What we don't intend for the blog to become is a daily "100 years ago" blog, and observant readers might have noticed that the posts here have in fact slowed down and there are less of that very type.

Having said that, we still catch the centennial of some things, and today we note something that was ominous indeed.  The German Workers Party, the Deutsche Arbeiter Partei, changed its name and its platform.

The DAP was a right wing German party that was a little over one year old.  It was in the extreme right and was already Anti Semitic.  Adolph Hitler had been sent to spy on it as a spy for the German Army, and had ended up joining it.  Hitler proved to be by far the most dynamic person in the small organization.

On this day the infant party announced its platform at a festival at the Hofbrauhaus, the Royal Brewery, in Munich to an audience of 2,000 people.  It's platform wasn't novel but was a collection of ideas that were in current circulation in right wing circles in Germany with a selection of ones that were current in Socialist parties at the time.  Indeed, on the same day, reflecting its initial somewhat blended view of far right and far left, it changed its name to the National Socialist German Workers Party, which in acronym form was NSDAP, which Germans shortened to "Nazi" party, using the world Nationalsozialistische for the contraction.

The twenty five points were read by Adolph Hilter to the crowd, and were:

1. We demand the union of all Germans to form the Greater Germany on the basis of the people's right to self-determination enjoyed by the nations.
2. We demand equality of rights for the German people in its dealings with other nations; and abolition of the peace treaties of Versailles and St. Germain.
3. We demand land and territory for the sustenance of our people and colonization for our superfluous population.
4. None but members of the nation may be citizens of the state. None but those of German blood, whatever their creed may be. No Jew, therefore, may be a member of the nation.
5. Whoever has no citizenship is to be able to live in Germany only as a guest and must be regarded as being subject to foreign laws.
6. The right of voting on the state's government and legislation is to be enjoyed by the citizen of the state alone. We demand therefore that all official appointments, of whatever kind, shall be granted to citizens of the state alone. We oppose the corrupting custom of parliament of filling posts merely with a view to party considerations, and without reference to character or capability.
7. We demand that the state be charged first with providing the opportunity for a livelihood and way of life for the citizens. If it is impossible to nourish the total population of the State, then the members of foreign nations (non-citizens) must be excluded from the Reich.
8. All immigration of non-Germans must be prevented. We demand that all non-Germans, who have immigrated to Germany since 2 August 1914, be required immediately to leave the Reich.
9. All citizens of the state shall be equal as regards rights and obligations.
10. The first obligation of every citizen must be to productively work mentally or physically. The activity of individual may not clash with the interests of the whole, but must proceed within the framework of the whole for the benefit for the general good. We demand therefore:
11. Abolition of unearned incomes. Breaking of debt-slavery.
12. In consideration of the monstrous sacrifice of life and property that each war demands of the people, personal enrichment due to a war must be regarded as a crime against the nation. Therefore, we demand ruthless confiscation of all war profits.
13. We demand nationalization of all businesses which have been up to the present formed into companies (trusts).
14. We demand that the profits from wholesale trade shall be shared out.
15. We demand an expansion on a large scale of old age welfare.
16. We demand the creation of a healthy middle class and its conservation, immediate communalization of the great warehouses and their being leased at low cost to small firms, the utmost consideration of all small firms in contracts with the State, county or municipality.
17. We demand a land reform suitable to our needs, provision of a law for the free expropriation of land for the purposes of public utility, abolition of taxes on land and prevention of all speculation in land.
18. We demand struggle without consideration against those whose activity is injurious to the general interest. Common national criminals, usurers, profiteers and so forth are to be punished with death, without consideration of confession or race.
19. We demand substitution of a German common law in place of the Roman Law serving a materialistic world-order.
20. The state is to be responsible for a fundamental reconstruction of our whole national education program, to enable every capable and industrious German to obtain higher education and subsequently introduction into leading positions. The plans of instruction of all educational institutions are to conform with the experiences of practical life. The comprehension of the concept of the state must be striven for by the school as early as the beginning of understanding. We demand the education at the expense of the state of outstanding intellectually gifted children of poor parents without consideration of position or profession.
21. The state is to care for the elevating national health by protecting the mother and child, by outlawing child-labor, by the encouragement of physical fitness, by means of the legal establishment of a gymnastic and sport obligation, by the utmost support of all organizations concerned with the physical instruction of the young.
22. We demand abolition of the mercenary troops and formation of a national army.
23. We demand legal opposition to known lies and their promulgation through the press. In order to enable the provision of a German press, we demand, that:

    a. All writers and employees of the newspapers appearing in the German language be members of the race;

    b. Non-German newspapers be required to have the express permission of the state to be published. They may not be printed in the German language;

    c. Non-Germans are forbidden by law any financial interest in German publications or any influence on them and as punishment for violations the closing of such a publication as well as the immediate expulsion from the Reich of the non-German concerned. Publications which are counter to the general good are to be forbidden. We demand legal prosecution of artistic and literary forms which exert a destructive influence on our national life and the closure of organizations opposing the above made demands.

24. We demand freedom of religion for all religious denominations within the state so long as they do not endanger its existence or oppose the moral senses of the Germanic race. The Party as such advocates the standpoint of a positive Christianity without binding itself confessionally to any one denomination. It combats the Jewish-materialistic spirit within and around us and is convinced that a lasting recovery of our nation can only succeed from within on the framework: "The good of the community before the good of the individual".
25. For the execution of all of this we demand the formation of a strong central power in the Reich. Unlimited authority of the central parliament over the whole Reich and its organizations in general. The forming of state and profession chambers for the execution of the laws made by the Reich within the various states of the confederation. The leaders of the Party promise, if necessary by sacrificing their own lives, to support by the execution of the points set forth above without consideration.

On the same day the party adopted new symbols.

In later years some Germans would claim that they were unaware of Nazi goals to expand German territories or that the party would be homicidal towards the Jews, but all the basic information was there right from the onset.